The Singing, Ringing Tree
I love the eerie sound this instrument makes but what I find makes it really unsettling is that it produces sound without anyone present, if someone was to just to stumble across it they would hear this creep music before even encountering the sculpture. It also gives the surroundings a voice which I think is interesting! In a way it's like the wind just needed some sort of vessel to give it a voice which we could understand!
Vegetable Instruments
Even though this video is somewhat humorous he really has made a instrument that makes good music! It sounds just as good as a recorder but has a interesting twist to it which I'd love to incorporate into my design!
Aeolian Harp,which is very similar to the Singing Tree also makes a eerie sound as the wind passes through it but is less visually interesting, making me think that when designing my instrument I need to think about the look of it just as much as the sound the comes out of it!
Researching sounds at college:
Experimenting with sounds: Really liked this sound but was far to quiet to be picked up on a microphone on a phone so I need to develop something with a a much larger noise.
I wanted a similar rain like sound as the previous instrument but on a much louder scale so I created this and used pen to highlight the dents I made as each one would effect the sound so you could manipulate each tin to create a different sound.
To get the optimal loud effect placed five tins, each dented in their own separate way so each creating their own unique sounds on two sticks joined together by a glue gun. Even though the instrument might not have the most interesting appearance it made the loudest and most interesting noise in our group and really help effect our song.
Digital Dance 1982
I really like the use of the human body to convey the beat and the pitch of the music but I also find the electronic style of the visuals and the lagged movement of the models to really suit the music, giving me a insight to find a way to produce a graphic score that suits the form of the music you use, if the imagery of the graphic score and the music don't fit, no matter how good they work individually, they it dose not work as a project.
John Cage
Fantasia
When thinking about ways to express music aside from sheet music my mind drifted to film, especially film form childhood in which Disney would often have long animation sequences along with music. Fantasia is the prime example of this as they use a variety of devises such as flowers blooming in time with music to droplets of water mirroring the beat of the music. I find it as hypnotising and beautiful as I did when I was young.
An optical Poem
The optical poem gave me a insight the the minimalist way to express sound compared to say the dramatic, romanticised way Fantasia does it. Even though it's simple I think it conveys the beat and the tone of the music better than any other example and I might consider using animation it my graphic score.
Final Outcome:
My final piece is an image that demonstrates how the different instruments join and leave at different times within the music and at different level of intensity, I choose the raindrop design as our music piece sounded like a rainstorm throughout but I also like how it looks like a abstract version of sheet music.
Rainsticks
When thinking about analogue digital instruments the first thing to pop into my head was rainsticks. I remember making them in music class when I was younger and not only am I interested in remaking this instrument now because of the beautiful sound it recreates but it's also a achievable aspiration as I obviously won't have time to make a large steal sculpture or use sonic wire. So I think I'll concentrate my idea towards percussion instruments when designing my own.
Text box
Sonic Wire Sculpture
Even though I wouldn't be able to make a instrument as complex as this in the short amount of time we have I find the visuals of this so interesting, it's a really dynamic way to present a graphic score, it's almost hypnotising as you watch the beats be created and then continue to spin around on a pallet of black and white, would love to recreate this in some way!
This is one of the first analogue instrument I've found that can play such a range of notes and so beautifully whilst also being made out of a unconventional material. It's actually given me higher aspirations for what to aim for when creating my instrument as someone has made such a complex sounding one out of glass and water!
Screenshots from failed first attempt:
Tried to film ink in time with music but was unsuccessful.