Tag Archives: algorithmic composition

Overundertone (2015)

Compositions, Computer Music Practice, , ,

All compositions contain aspects of the creator’s thoughts and life at a particular time.  Overundertone, a 2015 album consisting of eight electroacoustic tracks, is a reflection of me a decade ago.  Listening to the album feels like reading an old diary.  The me in 2015 is unfamiliar to the me in 2025 – he is passionate and curious about the world and people. He had the thoughts and emotions I wish to have now. Below are what I learn about myself when I listened to the tracks.

  • Eyelid Spasm: I liked high frequencies, so I made a piece using them. I played with my (then) 5-year-old and 1-year-old sons, all the time, so the playfulness is in the piece. I even used a picture of me mimicking an animal (I think, I hope) for the kids as a cover photo. I don’t think I can hear many frequencies featured in this piece anymore.
  • Cross Rhythms: I wrote it as a class project example. I asked Oberlin’s TIMARA students to pick a page in Tom Johnson’s Imaginary Music and make an electroacoustic piece about it.  I chose Cross Rhythms and composed a scene where two different rhythms overlap. The teacher-composer identity is in the piece. 
  • Three Corn Punch: It’s a recording of a live performance. It is probably my last piece that does not involve electronic sound. It uses a Disklavier, though.  There are no new techniques here. I learned to accept that I don’t have to develop a new concept for every composition. A good idea from others and myself needs repetition, reinterpretation, and refinement.
  • Cornfields and Cicadas: This is one of the soundscape works using original field recordings and synthesized sounds. I have been creating a series using this instrumentation since my graduate student years. I remember writing it with less struggle and stress, but the quality was about the same. It is a sonic diary of a vacation to a farm in Pennsylvania, where I went with my family and friends. 
  • Beft: I wrote it because I was a dad reading Dr. Seuss to the kids. Beft is a creature in Things You Can Think that only moves to the left. It contains sounds and techniques I loved then – Shepard tone, 8-channel spatialization, overtones, etc. It was also a part of a class project example, like Cross Rhythms. My teacher-composer-dad is all represented in Beft. 
  • Snake and Ox: It is a recording of an improvisation using instruments I used in solo shows. They are a no-input mixer, SuperCollider, and a custom synth. The no-input mixer sound was the most exciting thing to me. I remember dancing along with the no-input mixer noises while practicing. 
  • 10M to Fairmount: It is a sonic diary of a park in Philadelphia, where I lived for six years. Philly feels like a hometown since I started my family there. I must have been interested in visuals in addition to field recordings and synthesizers then. The piece has a video version. Like Cornfields and Cicadas, it is a diary-like piece.  
  • Sky Blue Waves: It’s a piece from 100 Strange Sounds, a project I thought would be my magnum opus. The track has a simple instrumentation (celesta and a field recording of a beach), but has the not-so-happy aspects of my life at that time. As a contrast to Eyelid Spasm, it worked well as a closing piece of the album.

These songs are forgotten, but are still significant to me. Overundertone is an archive of emotions, efforts, and life in audio, the format I love the most. The album reminds me to strive (용써라) like 2015. The jaded, slumped me of 2025 needs that. 

jwp in 2015

Control Click (2016, 2021)

Compositions, Research, ,

(update: 10/8/20221) The post has three videos of Control Click. The first video is an excerpt that demonstrates the aesthetics and how-tos of the piece.  The second video is a documentation of the 12-minute version installed in an outdoor. 

 



Control Click is a piece for a site with multiple computers, such as computer lab or a game room. With a simple installation of a freeware, a typical computer lab will turn into a multichannel audio-visual instrument playing algorithmically generated parts. The piece has two subsections: the first section is an ambient soundscape to be played while the audience gathers in the site. Once enough audience is gathered in the lab, the main section will start. The main section is about 12 minutes long, and it sounds like a dream sequence at an arcade.

 
Technical Needs:
 
 
1. A site with iMac computers. 
      • A computer lab is the easiest place to realize this piece, but any spaces that can host multiple computers would work
      • The current version works best with 8 to17 computers
      • 8 to16 computers are Performers. See instructions in Performer.scd file for hardware/software setup instructions.
      • 1 computer is Conductor. See instructions in Conductor-8Macs.scd or Conductor-16Macs.scd for hardware/software setup instructions.

2. SuperCollider

3. Control Click files for SuperCollider

4. Computer Setup and Maintenance

      • All iMacs should not go to sleep mode or turn on screen saver
      • All iMacs should use their internal speakers
      • All iMacs often play the sound at its maximum volume
      • The technician or the installation manager should have an admin access to adjust the network setup
      • The piece runs in automation mode once the technician setups and runs the Conductor and Performer files at the beginning of the installation

Questions?

    • If you need a version for a different number of computers, please feel free to contact me.
    • If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

The third video is an update of an old sound installation It is now performable with an ensemble of drum machines. EMEWS is following the below instructions cued by a conductor.

[0] Computer part starts. Stay muted at BPM 146 

[1] Enter one by one (2-3 instruments, no BD)

[2] Gradually add delays or effects

[3] Stop Delay

[4] Mute

[5] Enter one by one

[6] Sudden Delay

[7] No Delay. Improvise freely. One person adds BD

[8] Mute 

[9] Tutti

[10] Gradually fade out/disintegrate

[11] Fade in at BPM 73. No BD

[12] End

Form+Code

Influences, , , ,

I’ll be teaching a course in algorithmic composition in Fall 2014. To prepare for this course and other projects, I decided to reread books on the subject during the summer. The first book I am revisiting is Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture by Reas, McWilliams, and LUST.

I learned about the aesthetics of generative and code-based art from this book. I enjoyed applying the ideas and concepts I have learned to my music. The book taught me how to think about composition in numbers and codes.

I am thinking about requiring students to read at least the first chapter of the book. The summary of the chapter includes some great sentences:

“Learning to program and to engage the computer more directly with code opens the possibility of not only creating tools, but also systems, environments, and entirely new modes of expression. It is here that the computer ceases to be a tool and instead becomes a medium.” (p25)

The chapter also mentions that using a computer in art reduces the production time, so the artists can use the extra time and energy to explore the procedure and structure. Coding in art also enables a person to customize and “hack” the tool. These ideas are easily applied to computer music.

I also like the chapter because it gives succinct definitions on algorithm and code. Algorithm is a specific instruction to do a task (p13). Code is an algorithm written in a programming language (p15). Thus, an algorithmic composition is a process of making music with specific instructions written for computer.

Here’s a simple example of such algorithmic compositions. Introvert has algorithmically generated computer accompaniment for live melodica player.  The computer part generates same chord progression, but the timing, volume, and octave position of each notes are chosen by the computer. This makes the computer part somewhat unpredictable, and makes the part unique for each performance.