681
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 15, 2014, 06:10:07 AM »Sandokhan does music.No, what I'm talking about actually makes sense.
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682
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 14, 2014, 02:40:14 PM »http://www.talkclassical.com/30559-urgynes.html
It's a forum full of sophisticated classical music fans.
o no i feel so pretentious now
But yeah, that's the source. I just thought it would be interesting to see if anyone would even be interested in reading it here.
683
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 14, 2014, 09:42:31 AM »
Applications of serial pitch organisation in Urgynes (taken from another forum)
The numbers along the outside detail the Prime and Inverse rows, so when I say "P11" I'm referring to the 0 at the very start of the matrix, when I say "I25" I'm referring to the 7 which is the second interval in P5.
From that matrix, or grid, there are endless possibilities for generating material. What I did, in addition to simply following a row in a straightforward manner, was to apply various patterns and shapes and non-standard (e.g.: diagonal) directions to movements about the grid, sometimes I would even jump from one instance of a number to another somewhere else (e.g.: reaching the 8 at P12 and jumping to the 8 at P39 and continuing in any direction). Deriving material in this way became a game, and I was often devising different rules for getting from one end of the board to the other and seeing what the resulting melodies, harmonies, chords etc. were, and naturally I would alter or discard the results I was not pleased with.
One technique I used throughout the piece was to apply shapes to the matrix, and the portions of the matrix above highlighted in bold red resemble a particular division I used in the very first movement; two large isosceles triangles from P61 to P127 and I61 to I127. Within these triangles I used all my other techniques to generate more limited melodic material while I derived chords from the space in between them. In the final movement I used isosceles triangles again, this time to form eight equal divisions of the matrix which operated independently of each other.
Of course, the whole time I was combining all of this serially derived material with free writing and applying transformative techniques independently of the matrix. So ultimately my work was not serial in the strict sense, the matrix was only one tool of many used to reach the end result. I did not apply any complex mathematical processes to the matrix, certainly nothing like Set Theory, which I must confess I do not understand, so for me at least working with serialism was nothing close to an algorithmic kind of composition.
In response to further questions about construction and uses of rows/matrices in the piece
Each row was constructed differently, sometimes I wanted particular intervals to be emphasised, but some were almost created blindly. This row in particular is the most extreme example of doing it blind, I just asked friends in an IRC chatroom to call out numbers between 0 and 11 and wrote them in the order they came up, ignoring repeat numbers. If it had moved a little too predictably I would have scrapped it, but as it came out it seemed pretty interesting on paper. Initially I was not too happy working with it, however, so for most of the second movement I completely ignored it, but then I had something of an epiphany as I was working it back into the ending, then I went back and reset a lot of the material using the matrix as a guide and it sounded a lot better, more unified. So that one in particular was a case of having to get away from the row to write the music and then coming back to it later on. If I had rewritten the row, the movement would have become far too laborious a working process, and I think the end result would have suffered because of that.
The construction of the matrix itself is quite simple, all you need to do is invert the prime row to create the inverse row, then use each interval in the inverse row as the beginning of a transposed prime row. In that matrix I12 is 4, so P2 is the prime row transposed up two whole steps. The rest falls into place the same way: P3 is P1+9 half steps, P4 is P1+ 5 and so on until the entire thing is filled out. Every 12-tone matrix is crawling with patterns, whether intentional or accidental, just take a look at those two red triangles on the example I posted, notice how they are diagonal inversions of each other. P1-6 to P712 (10, 10, 11, 9, 10, 7, 3) is I61 to I127 (2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 5, 9) inverted, the same is true of all those left-to-right diagonal lines. The right-to-left diagonal lines offer up some interesting prospects as well: I8 to P8 is 2, 10, 7, 6 followed by its own retrograde inversion 6, 5, 2, 10, and the same is true of all diagonals in that direction. Simply put, using the left-to-right line of 0s as a dividing line, the left side is the inverse of the right. There are lots of other recurring figures, in this one the relationship between 7 and 3 is strongly emphasised, in most instances you can find a 3 right next to a 7, whether straight or diagonally. I think it's an exciting feature of the 12-tone matrix, the way patterns inevitably emerge, recur, invert and transpose each other etc.
Awareness of the results one will get from a matrix, that's something Milton Babbitt talked about, I think in the documentary Portrait of a Serial Composer, and he's lamenting composition students trying to use serial techniques without considering the musical outcome of the rows they create, their lack of understanding means they end up scrapping a lot of unsatisfactory pieces. Of course, Babbitt was very strict in his application of serial organisation, to the extent that the piece was determined by the rows before it was composed (if he was answering [the] question about patterns, I have no doubt he would talk about planning them out meticulously when he constructs a row), so when he talks about that awareness it is within the context of strict application, my applications are much looser and do not underpin the entire work so much as supplement it. Each movement begins with an exploration of the row but is soon enough suffused with free writing, so the construction of the row itself is not so important as the application from then on, but even in those initial explorations the vertical spacing and ordering of the notes makes all the difference, some sections will benefit from a more lyrical treatment while others will require large leaps from one register to another and so on.
The numbers along the outside detail the Prime and Inverse rows, so when I say "P11" I'm referring to the 0 at the very start of the matrix, when I say "I25" I'm referring to the 7 which is the second interval in P5.
From that matrix, or grid, there are endless possibilities for generating material. What I did, in addition to simply following a row in a straightforward manner, was to apply various patterns and shapes and non-standard (e.g.: diagonal) directions to movements about the grid, sometimes I would even jump from one instance of a number to another somewhere else (e.g.: reaching the 8 at P12 and jumping to the 8 at P39 and continuing in any direction). Deriving material in this way became a game, and I was often devising different rules for getting from one end of the board to the other and seeing what the resulting melodies, harmonies, chords etc. were, and naturally I would alter or discard the results I was not pleased with.
One technique I used throughout the piece was to apply shapes to the matrix, and the portions of the matrix above highlighted in bold red resemble a particular division I used in the very first movement; two large isosceles triangles from P61 to P127 and I61 to I127. Within these triangles I used all my other techniques to generate more limited melodic material while I derived chords from the space in between them. In the final movement I used isosceles triangles again, this time to form eight equal divisions of the matrix which operated independently of each other.
Of course, the whole time I was combining all of this serially derived material with free writing and applying transformative techniques independently of the matrix. So ultimately my work was not serial in the strict sense, the matrix was only one tool of many used to reach the end result. I did not apply any complex mathematical processes to the matrix, certainly nothing like Set Theory, which I must confess I do not understand, so for me at least working with serialism was nothing close to an algorithmic kind of composition.
In response to further questions about construction and uses of rows/matrices in the piece
Each row was constructed differently, sometimes I wanted particular intervals to be emphasised, but some were almost created blindly. This row in particular is the most extreme example of doing it blind, I just asked friends in an IRC chatroom to call out numbers between 0 and 11 and wrote them in the order they came up, ignoring repeat numbers. If it had moved a little too predictably I would have scrapped it, but as it came out it seemed pretty interesting on paper. Initially I was not too happy working with it, however, so for most of the second movement I completely ignored it, but then I had something of an epiphany as I was working it back into the ending, then I went back and reset a lot of the material using the matrix as a guide and it sounded a lot better, more unified. So that one in particular was a case of having to get away from the row to write the music and then coming back to it later on. If I had rewritten the row, the movement would have become far too laborious a working process, and I think the end result would have suffered because of that.
The construction of the matrix itself is quite simple, all you need to do is invert the prime row to create the inverse row, then use each interval in the inverse row as the beginning of a transposed prime row. In that matrix I12 is 4, so P2 is the prime row transposed up two whole steps. The rest falls into place the same way: P3 is P1+9 half steps, P4 is P1+ 5 and so on until the entire thing is filled out. Every 12-tone matrix is crawling with patterns, whether intentional or accidental, just take a look at those two red triangles on the example I posted, notice how they are diagonal inversions of each other. P1-6 to P712 (10, 10, 11, 9, 10, 7, 3) is I61 to I127 (2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 5, 9) inverted, the same is true of all those left-to-right diagonal lines. The right-to-left diagonal lines offer up some interesting prospects as well: I8 to P8 is 2, 10, 7, 6 followed by its own retrograde inversion 6, 5, 2, 10, and the same is true of all diagonals in that direction. Simply put, using the left-to-right line of 0s as a dividing line, the left side is the inverse of the right. There are lots of other recurring figures, in this one the relationship between 7 and 3 is strongly emphasised, in most instances you can find a 3 right next to a 7, whether straight or diagonally. I think it's an exciting feature of the 12-tone matrix, the way patterns inevitably emerge, recur, invert and transpose each other etc.
Awareness of the results one will get from a matrix, that's something Milton Babbitt talked about, I think in the documentary Portrait of a Serial Composer, and he's lamenting composition students trying to use serial techniques without considering the musical outcome of the rows they create, their lack of understanding means they end up scrapping a lot of unsatisfactory pieces. Of course, Babbitt was very strict in his application of serial organisation, to the extent that the piece was determined by the rows before it was composed (if he was answering [the] question about patterns, I have no doubt he would talk about planning them out meticulously when he constructs a row), so when he talks about that awareness it is within the context of strict application, my applications are much looser and do not underpin the entire work so much as supplement it. Each movement begins with an exploration of the row but is soon enough suffused with free writing, so the construction of the row itself is not so important as the application from then on, but even in those initial explorations the vertical spacing and ordering of the notes makes all the difference, some sections will benefit from a more lyrical treatment while others will require large leaps from one register to another and so on.
684
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 11, 2014, 11:49:57 PM »Cazazza Dan does it again! Urgynes is fantastic, and one hell of a listening experience. Good work Crudblud, I enjoyed this one a lot.Thank you Laura Palmer! Unfortunately your praise falls on deaf ears, only a very small few is bothering to listen so far, but I really appreciate your kind words nonetheless.
Everyone should download this and give it a listen.
685
Suggestions & Concerns / Re: FES Video
« on: February 11, 2014, 04:24:48 AM »
Let's (try to) get the ball rolling again...
Also man-bear-man's idea is a good one. Reference humour, even if it's just aiming for "oh hey, I've heard of that," is a good way to break the ice in something like this.
I would be very happy with that, actually. Having the same person who's speaking it actually put it into their words would help that greatly. What kind of approach are we going for and how do we want to come off, exactly?I think it should be something informative and humorous, balanced so that the humour is a way into the meat of the presentation, rather than a comedy routine based on FET. But we should be aiming high, instead of settling for some cheesy "edutainment" kind of thing, unless of course we do it in a kind of postmodern way where it's part of the comic element. That's just my preference, hopefully others will have suggestions too.
Also man-bear-man's idea is a good one. Reference humour, even if it's just aiming for "oh hey, I've heard of that," is a good way to break the ice in something like this.
686
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Fallout series
« on: February 11, 2014, 04:13:46 AM »So it turns out that I needed that patch to be able to play F2 in the first place. Weird. Anyway, here goes.
Give me a kiss to build a dream on,
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss,
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this:
A kiss to build a dream on.
gl;hf
Also I actually forgot that Harold quest was in F3 until you brought it up. I seem to recall it being morally conflicting on a level beyond most other things in the game, but my concern is that I was conflicted because it was Harold, not because the quest was well done or anything. I can't really say for sure because, again, I had forgotten it was in there.
687
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 10, 2014, 04:53:33 AM »When's Oat?It will not be too long before Oat. Don't worry.
688
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 10, 2014, 03:35:27 AM »
@Foxy: Excellent! Thank you!
@Saddam: Guitar and alto sax are my mains, the latter allows for pretty easy doubling on clarinet, I also play mandolin, recorder and some other stuff. I have some instruments I completely suck at too, like the trumpet, for which my technique is absolutely diabolical.
@Saddam: Guitar and alto sax are my mains, the latter allows for pretty easy doubling on clarinet, I also play mandolin, recorder and some other stuff. I have some instruments I completely suck at too, like the trumpet, for which my technique is absolutely diabolical.
689
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: February 10, 2014, 02:51:47 AM »
Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
Second viewing, now have no qualms calling it an absolute masterpiece, and definitely one of the greatest films of our time. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a masterful performance as the increasingly decrepit playwright Caden Cotard, who takes advantage of his MacArthur Fellowship grant to mount an unprecedented production which becomes a living, breathing simulacrum of his own life.
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
Watched it with commentary this time, the sheer volume of insight the director offers into everything going on in the film is quite staggering. The subtlety of Viggo Mortensen's performance in particular is highlighted in this viewing.
Second viewing, now have no qualms calling it an absolute masterpiece, and definitely one of the greatest films of our time. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a masterful performance as the increasingly decrepit playwright Caden Cotard, who takes advantage of his MacArthur Fellowship grant to mount an unprecedented production which becomes a living, breathing simulacrum of his own life.
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
Watched it with commentary this time, the sheer volume of insight the director offers into everything going on in the film is quite staggering. The subtlety of Viggo Mortensen's performance in particular is highlighted in this viewing.
690
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Cazazza Dan
« on: February 10, 2014, 01:23:01 AM »
Well, what I'm giving you next is...
Just under 35 minutes of music for piano, cello and accordion in five parts. Each part has its own 12-tone matrix (except for the fourth, which has two) but their use is not strict in any way, rather, by applying patterns, shapes, directions and other truncations/filters, I use them to generate material which is then combined with free writing. The extent to which the row underpins the music in a given part varies, but overall there is an even balance, and I employ many techniques which take serially generated material and transform it into something completely different.
You can download the whole thing here
Or stream the first part here
If you listen, I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to ask any questions about the music that might be on your mind.
Just under 35 minutes of music for piano, cello and accordion in five parts. Each part has its own 12-tone matrix (except for the fourth, which has two) but their use is not strict in any way, rather, by applying patterns, shapes, directions and other truncations/filters, I use them to generate material which is then combined with free writing. The extent to which the row underpins the music in a given part varies, but overall there is an even balance, and I employ many techniques which take serially generated material and transform it into something completely different.
You can download the whole thing here
Or stream the first part here
If you listen, I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to ask any questions about the music that might be on your mind.
691
Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Amanda Knox guilty again.
« on: February 02, 2014, 05:36:08 AM »In certain cases of rape, murder, and human trafficking death is an appropriate punishment.
Punishment is a behavioural alteration technique that relies on the target's awareness of the fact they are being punished in order to possibly succeed. Dead people are not aware of much of anything, let alone capable of repenting for a crime, so to execute a criminal as punishment is to defeat the purpose of punishment.
Has this already been brought up? Probably, but I'm lazy.
692
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: January 28, 2014, 08:22:35 PM »
Wild Palms (Various directors overseen by Oliver Stone)
It's 2007, which as we all know was a time of rampant crypto-fascism and televisual brainwashing in which people in inane sitcoms are projected onto your couch and you have sex with them through the magic of drugs. Maybe that didn't happen, maybe it did and we were too busy hallucinating cathedrals to notice, but if we were ever in that alternate future-past we would all be having nightmares about rhinoceroses and getting shouted at by Robert Loggia because of Brad Dourif's sunglasses — or something — and really, who doesn't lay awake at night wishing they could live that life?
It's 2007, which as we all know was a time of rampant crypto-fascism and televisual brainwashing in which people in inane sitcoms are projected onto your couch and you have sex with them through the magic of drugs. Maybe that didn't happen, maybe it did and we were too busy hallucinating cathedrals to notice, but if we were ever in that alternate future-past we would all be having nightmares about rhinoceroses and getting shouted at by Robert Loggia because of Brad Dourif's sunglasses — or something — and really, who doesn't lay awake at night wishing they could live that life?
693
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: January 27, 2014, 08:03:40 AM »
Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
Good but not quite great film noir with Robert Mitchum as a seemingly well to do man on the run from his shady past. Some really fine performances, particularly from Kirk Douglas, and a pretty complex plot make for entertaining viewing, but ultimately I was left feeling that it didn't quite come together.
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
Unlike Mitchum, Viggo Mortensen's seemingly well to do man has managed to suppress all memories of his shady past and now leads a quiet life in a small town, complete with wife and kids and a job running a local diner. A lot of people think Cronenberg left horror behind entirely in the 2000s, but this is just as much a horror story as The Fly or Videodrome, and like those films is a meditation on the psychology of personal transformation, the animalistic side of man and man's potential for extreme violence. The plot is very straightforward, alarmingly so by Dave's usual standards, but this is a very internal film where the inner workings of the characters are the focus above all else.
Good but not quite great film noir with Robert Mitchum as a seemingly well to do man on the run from his shady past. Some really fine performances, particularly from Kirk Douglas, and a pretty complex plot make for entertaining viewing, but ultimately I was left feeling that it didn't quite come together.
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
Unlike Mitchum, Viggo Mortensen's seemingly well to do man has managed to suppress all memories of his shady past and now leads a quiet life in a small town, complete with wife and kids and a job running a local diner. A lot of people think Cronenberg left horror behind entirely in the 2000s, but this is just as much a horror story as The Fly or Videodrome, and like those films is a meditation on the psychology of personal transformation, the animalistic side of man and man's potential for extreme violence. The plot is very straightforward, alarmingly so by Dave's usual standards, but this is a very internal film where the inner workings of the characters are the focus above all else.
694
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« on: January 27, 2014, 01:39:12 AM »
Oh come on, I'm not that bad.
695
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« on: January 26, 2014, 11:57:52 PM »
Having high standards for John Cleese any time in the past 25 years is just asking to be disappointed, really.
696
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Gramey hopes
« on: January 26, 2014, 06:18:23 PM »I released lots of good things in the past 12 months, and since I am a genius composer of incomparably exquisite masterpieces it balances out all the shit every other musician on the planet released this year.
It doesn't matter because you will be washed up by the end of the decade.
I'm too sexy to be washed up by the end of the decade. Ha ha ha.
697
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Gramey hopes
« on: January 26, 2014, 06:12:46 PM »
I released lots of good things in the past 12 months, and since I am a genius composer of incomparably exquisite masterpieces it balances out all the shit every other musician on the planet released this year. 
698
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Gramey hopes
« on: January 25, 2014, 12:41:50 PM »
Doesn't really matter who wins what, most of the artists in competition for these awards will be washed up by the end of the decade anyway.
699
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Survivor2299
« on: January 25, 2014, 12:11:31 PM »I don't really have an issue with the mechanics. It's actually the time limit that's driving me nuts. I don't know how long it "translates" into in real time, nor how long it's going to take me at a minimum to find the water chip, and I don't know if I'm supposed to be hustling the whole time because every minute counts, or if there's no rush and I have enough time to take it slowly and explore the world. In any case, the uncertainty won't let me relax and enjoy the game. Are there mods to get rid of it?
I was hoping for a response. What can I do?
Play faster. But seriously: don't worry about the time limit, it's there to make you feel tense but you actually have ample time to get the water chip unless you are literally walking in circles for hours on end in the fast travel screen.
700
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Elder Scrolls Online
« on: January 24, 2014, 09:02:10 AM »
>2014
>not having a patch on your head
>not having a patch on your head