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Turing Piano (Julio Herrlein)


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Dear Friends,

 

I'd like to share a composition all made in Opusmodus.

The composition is part of the Portfolio of my Doctoral Dissertation.

I'd like to thank you so much, Opusmodus and the support of you

 here in this forum was amazing !!

Love you all !!

 

TURING PIANO (Julio Herrlein)

 

 

Here is the commented code for the First Section:

 


;;;PART A
;PITCHES – The pitch structure are based on "chevron-like" patterns. This can be related to some

 Xenakis ideas: the arborescences, the music as a plot idea.

 

(setf patpit (integer-to-pitch (gen-integer-step 0 68 '(1 -2 3 -4 5 -6 7 -8 9 -10 11))))
(setf patpit2 (integer-to-pitch (gen-integer-step 0 68 '(11 -10 9 -8 7 -6 5 -4 3 -2 1))))

 

;;; This interval pattern leads to an infinite ascending movement, like the picture below:

 

image.png.a006f5040085d35d3ae72cfdac9bd798.png

;;; After that, I decided to restrict the ambitus of the pattern, otherwise it goes ascending forever. I did the restriction

 thinking  in the hands of the pianist, in a way to not collide or crossing the hands.

 

image.png.40ebffd494d3cf8f9396b841fc44f289.png

;;;After the ambitus restriction, the next step was find some partitions to make some chords for the piece, so

each hand have a diferent partition of the chevron-like pattern, like below


 

(setf pitpartition (ambitus '(g3 c6)(chordize-list (gen-divide '(1 1 1 3 1 1 1 2) patpit))))
(setf pitpartition2 (ambitus '(g1 g3)(chordize-list (gen-divide '(2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1) patpit2))))


;;; Next, i decided on the Rhythms to use. The rhythms are complementary, i.e., each hand plays on the

silence of the other, using the following pattern:

 

image.png.6967440f44c45d85fda4179c0dc5481e.png

 

DIGRESSION: The FORTE NUMBERS are part of my dissertation that makes the conversion of the entire

 Forte sets onto Rhythms modulo 12.

The dissertation (in portuguese) can be downloaded HERE:

Das alturas ao ritmo : teoria dos conjuntos rítmicos como ferramenta composicional

From pitches to rhythm: rhythmic set theory as a compositional tool.

http://hdl.handle.net/10183/179457

Abstract
This doctoral dissertation is divided into two parts: the first deals a rhythmic set theory, and the second contains the portfolio of compositions developed during this period of studies. This dissertation presents a system of rhythmic organization parallel to the musical set theory pitch class organization FORTE (1973), as well as an adaptation of the time-point-system (BABBITT, 1962). From the standpoint of the traditional set theory, and also from the diatonic set theory, this unified approach allows to estabilish a connecting tissue of basic aspects: from the harmony and chords symbols to the rhythmic organization. At one time, in a complete catalog, the families of pitch class sets and chord symbols are related to their respective rhythmic counterparts. The musical motivation for this research came from my interest in the swinging and groovy repetitive rhythms called timelines (TOUSSAINT, 2013), commonly used in popular music. These dancing timelines have properties similar to those of the diatonic sets, and for this reason, this dissertation presents some properties of the diatonic pitch class sets, drawing a parallel with their rhythmic counterparts. These relationships also appear in the portfolio of compositions, characterizing some procedures used. The portfolio of compositions, which includes a composition for symphony orchestra, is presented form the standpoint of a duality between transparency and opacity. This duality address the essential differences in the audibility of the results from various composition techniques. This study of Rhythmic Set Theory will serve as an analytical approach of my compositional output in popular music, with a systematic way to understant and to extrapolate some aspects already used in my practice as composer and improviser.

 

Here is the rhythm used in Turing Piano (with Forte numbers and rotations)

 

 

 

(setf ritmo1 (gen-repeat 10 '(s s -s s s -s -s -s s -s -s s -s s -s -s s -s s -s -s -s s -s)))
(setf ritmo1b (length-invert ritmo1 :omn t))


; DINAMICS: Following the parametric stuff, I decided to set the dynamics, according to the harmonic density, i.e.

the more notes, the more louder.

 

image.png.0bd6c136b1ea38b5bc2ec2a5506d8556.png

 

(setf din1 (span pitpartition '(p p p ff p mf pp ff)))
(setf din2 (span pitpartition2 '(f p p p p ff p p ff pp pp f mf mf)))


;ASSEMBLING of the materials


 

(setf lhmat1
      (make-omn
       :length ritmo1
       :pitch (pitch-transpose 4 pitpartition)
       :velocity din1))
(setf rhmat1
      (make-omn
       :length ritmo1b
       :pitch (pitch-transpose 4 pitpartition2)
       :velocity din2))

;MONTAGE of music blocks (assemblage)

 

(setf pianoassemblerh (assemble-seq lhmat1))
(setf pianoassemblelh (assemble-seq rhmat1))


;;;SCORE- Layout


 

(def-score Miniatura-pno1
           (:key-signature 'atonal
            :time-signature '(3 4)
            :tempo 85
            :octave-shift '(c2 c6)
            :layout (grand-layout 'pno :all-accidentals 'all))
  (pno :omn (merge-voices lhmat1 rhmat1)
       :channel 1
       :sound 'gm
       :program 0)
  )

 

COMPLETE VIDEO

 

 

 

 

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Fantastic,very insightful....thanks for sharing! Visual patterns as compositional approach are one of my interests, as is the idea of organizing rhythm into 'scales' ;-)

 

Please inform if an English translation of main dissertation becomes available (though the excellent illustrations and footnotes in English in current version provide plenty of food for thought as it is, especially as many of your references are on already on my bookshelf ;-))

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