ï~~Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2009), Montreal, Canada
August 16-21, 2009
SYNAESTHETIC ANALYSIS, EXPLORING MUSIC STRUCTURES BY
MULTIMEDIA REPRESENTATION. PROMETHEUSZ12, A NOVEL 3D
VISUALIZATION TOOL.
Paolo Tagliolato
University degli Studi di Milano
Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione - Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale, Milan, Italy
paolo. tagliolato@gmail. com
ABSTRACT
Visual representations have always been fundamental tools
to communicate about music. While common music notation was for centuries the standard way to encode western
music information, different visual representations were developed and exploited by music analysis. The importance
of such representations lies in their great explanatory power.
The real-time exhibition of visual models of music features
joins together aesthetic and analytical perspectives, favoring the comprehension of analytic systems. In this article
I present PrometheusZ12, a novel 3D visual representation
tool for music, based on the concept of product GIS introduced by D. Lewin. As suggested by its name, a tribute to
the synesthaetic explorations of A. Scriabin, the software involves Z12, the well known mathematical model of the pitch
class space, providing the real-time geometrical rendering of
the product extensions of Z12 with some rhythmic models.
1. INTRODUCTION. MULTIMEDIA REAL-TIME
SYNAESTHETIC SYSTEMS: ART AND ANALYSIS
Multimedia real-time association of visual aspects and sounds
can be exploited from an aesthetic and artistic point of view.
An early attempt in this direction is Scriabin's Prometheus
(Symphony No.5, Op.60), in which colors and sounds are
associated. More than a simple sort of choreography, the research of Prometheus originated from Scriabin's hypothesis
about the existence of a synaesthetic correspondence among
sounds, colors and emotions. Figure 1 b. presents this association on the circle of fifths. It is interesting to observe
how this map makes use of enharmonic equivalence. [15]
presents a picture (fig. 1 a.) of a light instrument used by
Scriabin, which is precisely a 12 tone wheel whose pitch
classes are colored light bulbs.
On the other hand, the real-time exhibition of visual
models of music features can be linked not only to aesthetic
but it can also be regarded in an analytical perspective. E.
Isaacson, in [6], outlined the importance of visual representations of music founded on analytical models, for their
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Figure 1. a. Light instrument used by Scriabin (from [15])
b. Scriabin's map of sounds to colors and emotions, on the
circle of fifths (from [16])
great explanatory power. It could be said that it is a case
in which analysis and aesthetic are joined together. Tools
which let this type of visualization can favor the comprehension of analytic systems. Moreover, they could help their
learning.
To learn the association between sound aggregates and
forms is one of the basic aspects in instrumental apprenticeship, forms being in that case mental images which musicians must develop, like the positions (or configurations) of
hands on their instrument. The automation of the movements to translate those mental images into instrumental
gestures are the basis for learning an instrumental technique.
Also music notation, in alternative to the CMN abstraction, historically made use of the configuration of hands
on musical instruments: "intavolature per liuto" of Renaissance, guitar tablatures, organ tablatures used by the German Baroque organ school (see e.g.[17]) are some examples. The resorting to the description of physical configuration of the control interface of an instrument was also the
practice adopted for notation by many electroacoustic composers.
Coming back to analysis, music analysts like Allen Forte
or David Lewin start from their listening experience, educated by theory and trained on geometric analogies. It is
my opinion that real-time models could favor this analogical and synaesthetic training.
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