Characterizing and Controlling Musical Material Intuitively with Graphical Models

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Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-03), Montreal, CanadaNIME03-54CharacterizingandControllingMusicalMaterialIntuitivelywithGeometricModels

Ali MomeniCenterforNewMusicandAudioTechnologiesDepartmentofMusic(CNMAT)University of California Berkeley1-510-643-9990ali@cnmat.berkeley.eduDavidWesselCenterforNewMusicandAudioTechnologiesDepartmentofMusic(CNMAT)University of California Berkeley1-510-643-9990wessel@cnmat.berkeley.edu

ABSTRACTInthispaper,weexaminetheuseofspatiallayoutsofmusicalmaterialforliveperformancecontrol.Emphasisisgiventosoftwaretoolsthatprovideforthesimpleandintuitivegeometricorganizationofsoundmaterial,soundprocessingparameters,andhigher-levelmusicalstructures.

KeywordsPerceptualSpaces,GraphicalModels,Real-timeInstruments,DimensionalityReduction,MultidimensionalScaling,LivePerformance,GesturalControllers,LiveInteraction,High-levelControl.

1.INTRODUCTIONSpatialarrangementisanaturalwaytoorganizethings.Similarobjectsorobjectsthatbelongtogetherareplacedproximatetoeachotheranddissimilarordisassociatedobjectsarekeptatadistance.Mapsareusefulforexplorationandwithoutthemwearequitelikelytomissthemostinterestingpathsfromheretothere.Inthispaperwedescribethedevelopmentofsomegeneraltoolsthatbringsuchcognitivelycompellingspatialmetaphorstotheproblemofcharacterizingandcontrollingmusicalmaterialinanintuitiveway.

Abstractgeometricdescriptionsofmusicalmaterialhavebeenaroundforsometime.Shepard[14],Krumhansl[5],andLerdahl[7]providenumerousexamplesoforganizingpitchinaspatialmanner.Cognitivepsychologistshavemadeextensiveuseoftechniqueslikemultidimensionalscalingtomapperceptualandcognitivestructures.Thestudyofmusicperceptionandcognitionhasbenefitedgreatlyfromsuchtechniques.Timbre,rhythm,harmony,andtexturespaceshaveenrichedourunderstandingofthebehaviorofmusicalmaterial[19].

Ourgoalgoesbeyondthesearchforinsightintotheperceptualandcognitivestructureofmusicalmaterial.Weareinterestedinmusicallyexpressivecontrolinareal-timelive-performancecontextaswell.Geometricmodelsoflowdimensionality,sayone,two,orthreedimensions,providenaturalhooksforalargeclassofcontrollerssuchasjoysticks,tablets,gloves,etc.Theproblemisthatmostinterestingmusicalobjectssuchastimbres,rhythms,andprocessingalgorithmshaveconsiderablyhigherdimensionality.Asaresult,musicallysensibledimensionalityreductionisacentralfocusofourresearch.

Inthispaperwepresentanumberofdifferentmusicalmaterialspaces.Wedescribetoolsthatmaketheirdesigneasyandtheiruseinperformancepotentiallymusicallyexpressive.Whatisnewaboutthisworkisthatitbringsspatialmetaphor

modelinganddimensionalreductiontechniquestotheactualpracticeofcomposingandperformingmusic.

2.HISTORYTheapplicationofmultidimensionalscalingandrelatedgeometricmodelstoaudiohasalongandrichhistoryandwecantouchonbutafewofthehighlightshere.Mostoftheearlystudiesinthe1960's[9,10]werecarriedoutbyexperimentalpsychologistsinterestedinunderstandingthemechanismsofauditoryperception.Manyofthetheseearlystudieswerepurelypsychoacousticincharacterinvolvingsteadystatetonesandhadlittledirectapplicationtomusicoreventhestudyofmusicperception.Otherstudies,likethatofWedinandGoode[17]usedtonesfromtraditionalacousticinstrumentsbutwerenotreallycarriedoutwithanapplicationtocompositioninmind.ThefirstpublishedreferenceweareawareoftothecompositionalapplicationofmultidimensionalscalingwasmadebyMiltonBabbitt[1].

Intheearly1970'soneoftheauthors[20]proposedthatthespatiallayoutsoftimbresfrommultidimensionalscalingcouldfunctionasapaletteofmusicalmaterialwhoseorganizationcouldprovideintuitivenavigationaladvicetothecomposer.JohnGreyfollowedsuitwithhislandmarkPhDthesisandsubsequentexperiments[3].Afteranumberofexperimentalreplicationsconfirmedthebasicstructureofatimbrespaceforharmonicacousticinstrumentsoundsplayingthesamepitchandloudness[21]thechallengewastoshowthatthespatiallayoutcouldactuallymakepredictionsaboutperceptionofmusicallyviablesequences.Wesseldemonstratedthatauditorystreamformationandrhythmicorganizationofklangfarbensequencescouldbepredictedfromatimbrespace.Itwasalsodemonstratedthatatimbrespacecouldbeusedtospecifyperceivabletimbraltranspositions[8,21].

In1978,Jean-ClaudeRissetcreatedatimbrespaceusingmultidimensionalscalingandusedittocomposepassagesofhisworkMiragesfortheEnsembleIntercontemporain.Thiswebelievetobethefirstapplicationofthetechniquetoalarge-scalecomposition.ThispiecewasperformedintheconcertscelebratingtheofficialopeningofIRCAMthatfall.Othercompositionalapplicationsfollowedbutadmittedlythepracticeofusingperceptualspacesforcompositionhasnotfallenintogeneraluse.Thetechnique,asitwas,isfartootedious.