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Interactive Application for Visualisation of the Form of Written Postmodern Music

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Abstract

The contemporary visual epoch with fast software development not only requires scientific data visualization applications, but also offers possibilities of creation of these applications. Music theory data, especially the structure of music works, acquires a special attention in such a context. The significant application implementation of electronic music structure visualization was done by the GRM group in the 'Acousmographe' application which presents different kind of texture as graphical figures of different configurations. Martin Wattenberg attempts to analyze the structure of the written music in his 'The Shape of Song' application, where repeated, identical passages of a composition are connected by translucent arches. Such a method works with simple one-line melody data, however, complex structures with polyphonic features need other approaches. The problem that appears in the structure visualization of music works of professional composers consists in the difficulty of application of some general approach to reach the appropriate form of visualization of the given structure. In this context, the software application for interactive visualization of the organ piece 'Mein Weg' of Arvo Pärt was built using the Python programming language. The main idea of this application consists of two general rules. The first rule assumes the simultaneity of visual and audio parts, so the structure could be seen as processing during the music performance. The second rule is based on interactivity of the whole process, so the recipient could manage the process of execution and what appears at the screen. The graphical approach used for the given application is a result of the musicological analysis of the organ piece 'Mein Weg' of Arvo Pärt published by the author in 2012. Full paper is available under the following adress: http://ewic.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_ev13_s19paper3.pdf
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... In the context of music knowledge the implementation of the first level might comprehend a music modelling, algorithmic and generative music systems development as well as effective interfaces creation for human-computer interaction through music [5,6], including brain-computer music interfaces [7]. The practical implementation of the second level includes the creation of the visualization software explaining the elements of music language [8,9] or the enhancement of traditional scores for faster and more effective understanding of music structure. ...
Presentation
The creative process by Arvo Pärt is based on strict mathematical regulations of the melodic-voice creation, the addition of tintinnabuli voices and form construction. The ‘regulations’ of Pärt’s music might be revealed with the use of new methods of computational musicology and this allow us to reproduce the creative process in a form of an individual flowchart for any given composition or a generalized flowchart representing the possible steps taken by composer in order to create a piece of music. The fidelity of following the primarily set algorithm of musical development allows the discovery of editorial mistakes and eliminates accidental notes, which, being mapped as numbers shows its relationship to the chosen algorithm of development. Previous research in this domain has allowed me to elaborate a new computer-driven method of music analysis, which showed the success of its application for representation of the processes of musical development, as well as the possibility of visualization and modelling Pärt’s compositions. This paper presents a summary of the research done so far and analyses the composer’s stylistic evolution in musical development with examples drawn from six instrumental pieces.
... In the context of music knowledge the implementation of the first level might comprehend a music modelling, algorithmic and generative music systems development as well as effective interfaces creation for human-computer interaction through music [5,6], including brain-computer music interfaces [7]. The practical implementation of the second level includes the creation of the visualization software explaining the elements of music language [8,9] or the enhancement of traditional scores for faster and more effective understanding of music structure. ...
Presentation
The information technologies deeply influence the modes of perception and cognitive predispositions of members of the contemporary society. The numerous research of the human brain for the purposes of the artificial intelligence revealed certain algorithms of human thinking, which were implemented in a creation of modern operation systems and search algorithms over the network. The functionality of these systems is written in computer languages which all share a kind of “mental structures” for the artificial intelligence which are the “for loop”, “while loop” and “nested for loop” statements, “if/then” logic and assignments of objects to the numerical values. These “mental structures” penetrate into the logic of the postmodern compositions creation, especially in the works based on mathematical regularities. The discovery of these mathematical regularities resulted in a new method elaboration, allowing representation of music processes as logical statements with the use of semantics coming from modern computer languages, such as Java, JavaScript, C++, Python or Processing. The definition of the algorithm of creation gives the possibility to search for the strictness of its realization in music matter, especially if the same algorithm is used for different layers creation within the same composition, which is the case for music written by Estonian postmodern composer Arvo Pärt. Previous research showed the success of a new method application for representation of the processes of music matter development, as well as the possibility of visualization and modelling of his compositions. This paper presents the individual flowcharts showing the process of the composition creation on the base of chosen algorithm of the melodic range extension, as well as the generalized flowcharts representing the process of the melodic voices (M-voices) creation and the algorithms for the tintinnabuli voices (T-voices) addition.
... In Fratres the percussion's "separator" has an expression of two measures with repeated rhythmic formula. The organ version of Mein Weg has quasi percussion "dots" -eights for the main highest M-voice and quarters for the middle M-voice (Shvets, 2013), separated by pauses of the same rhythmic value from two sides. ...
Article
Full-text available
The creative method of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is based on a rigorous and strict calculation at all levels of composition. Such a calculative approach of creation is a reflection of the informational society and more specifically – of the logic used in modern programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, Processing etc. The existing approaches of computational musicology or basically mathematical approaches partly allow to discover and to represent the algorithms under which the compositions were created. However in particular cases it is not sufficient to correctly display these algorithms. Thus, a new method of music representation formalization will be presented. This method is based on the use of statements originating from programming languages to logically represent the occurring processes, including form building, in Pärt’s compositions. The described methodological approaches will be applied to the instrumental compositions such as Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten, Arbos, Tabula Rasa, Mein Weg, Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel.
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