Microtones for transformation

microtonal electronic

microtonal shit

Polychromatic Music

Microtonal

PolyChromatic Music

Sleep Deprived Cooked Alive

From Rhythm and Xen by Sevish [2015]
https://sevish.bandcamp.com/album/rhythm-and-xen

Droplet

From Rhythm and Xen (2015) by Sevish:
https://sevish.bandcamp.com/album/rhythm-and-xen

Desert Island Rain

An example of a 21st century transition from MONOCHROMATIC music systems (combinations and contrasts of black and white with static, absolute, linear pitch and intervallic relationships) to a POLYCHROMATIC paradigm (encompassing higher-resolution, 'aural color' pitch gradation systems with dynamic, relative, nonlinear and/or linear pitch color interrelationships).

Technological advances in musical hardware and software design have enabled vast development possibilities in the creation of new musical languages that cultivate our high levels of auditory discrimination (high-resolution hearing) and nonlinear characteristics of hearing (pitch/intervallic relativity, interactive harmonics, dynamic 'shape/texture' dimensionality);

...in contrast to current music systems which compromise our highly sensitive auditory perceptual abilities within simple, low-resolution, linear musical languages.

Aural resolution: 106 pitches per octave.

A microtonal 'bridge' composition attempting to convey an overlapping aesthetic intersection between a progressive extreme of conventional concepts/practices and a conservative extreme of radical innovation. A use of conventional melodic/harmonic structures, within an expanded, 'higher resolution', microtonal context.

Presenting an example of the transient outer reaches (and starting point) of the perception/conception of an immense musical universe; just beneath the surface of complacent convention...

An increasingly comprehensive context of understanding 'Art' as an integral process in conscious evolution.

Seeking via the strengths of auditory awareness, to present new experiences, challenges and innovations from which to expand awareness. New dimensions of understanding which have been perceptually inaccessible, except through aural experience.

A process facilitated by the presentation of 'aesthetic perceptual challenges' by which to catalyze our latent capacities to experience, understand, integrate and develop Gestalt awareness.

And an ongoing struggle with presenting intuitive ideas in discursive language; within which, any attempt toward increasing expressive clarity, paradoxically becomes more abstract and difficult to understand (obscured in complexity). An expressive process in such striking distinction to a wholistic intuitive sense of dynamic, complex structure, insights and ideas existing beyond linguistic words/symbols.

... leading us back to understanding Artistic creations as expressive exemplars (hints, intimations) of elements/essences of experience that are linguistically inexpressible.

More information: dolorescatherino.com

Video performance is available on YouTube. Polychromatic musical score and audio files are available for download on website. Open invitation extended to creative editing, remix and modification.

'Toward The Continuum' - 2nd Iteration

This polychromatic composition is an exploration and demonstration of the musical use of interactive harmonics. It is an example of the gestalt principle in the sense that the whole (output harmonics) is greater than the sum of the parts (input notes and harmonics). Aural resolution: 106 pitches per octave.

Heterodyne - an existing concept that is a closest description (not explanation) of this musical phenomena of 'extra' harmonics created in the interaction of two or more notes.

Horizon - in the sense of always evolving boundaries of awareness, exploration and understanding.

Music theory describes harmonics 'vertically', in relation to a fundamental pitch. This composition demonstrates that 'horizontal' cross-interaction occurs, creating new harmonics and unique musical textures.

Note in the middle of the composition, I am playing only 2 notes, one static and the other moving melodically. The thing to notice is that a (higher pitched) harmonic is following the melody line NOT in the same direction (high/low), as traditional harmonics do (because they are a subcomponent of the pitch), but in the OPPOSITE direction.

Next, notice a second (lower pitched) interactive harmonic, which moves in the same direction as the melody (just as traditional 'primary' harmonics do). Try also, to hear additional subtle harmonics and a further harmonic blending as the melody becomes polyphonic.

An intriguing question would be whether these interactive harmonics are measurable with an audio spectrum analyzer. More deeply, are these interactive harmonics created in a quantifiable dimension or are they a purely perceptual phenomenon; Qualia; technologically immeasurable?

Video performance available on YouTube. Polychromatic score and audio files are available for download on my website.

more information: dolorescatherino.com

- Contextual information on known phenomena:

HETERODYNE FREQUENCIES (electronics, communications engineering) and COMBINATION TONES (acoustics, psychophysics) are comprised of sum and difference tones.

SUM TONES (f1+ f2) can create a frequency octave(s) above/greater than the lower frequency (f1):
220 Hz (A3) + 293.66 Hz (D3) = 513.66 Hz (C4)

DIFFERENCE TONES (f2- f1) can create a frequency octave(s) below/less than the lower frequency (f1):
293.66 Hz (D3) - 220 Hz (A3) = 73.66 Hz (D1)

INTERACTIVE HARMONICS (music), as demonstrated here, can create other frequency intervals which are neither sum nor difference tones.

'Heterodyne Horizon'

An intuitive, musical exploration of harmonic 'superspace'.

Continuing musical explorations in a journey toward the outer limits of polychromatic harmonic interactions, while maintaining a quasi-tonal orientation for conventional musical reference, as a point of departure.

This composition attempts to convey a sense that to the 3 spatial dimensions of length, width and depth, can be added a 4th dimension of auditory spacetime. That is, of duration and the evolving expression of multidimensional shapes and other qualia (immeasurable phenomena) accessible only through auditory perception.

Aural resolution: 106 pitches per octave (106ET)

more information: dolorescatherino.com

'Spatial Harmonics' - polychromatic composition by Dolores Catherino

Microtonal drum and bass from MK-SUPERDUPER: sevish.bandcamp.com/album/mk-superduper

MK-SUPERDUPER

recurrence - a sense of déjà vu when experiencing something radically new; a feeling that time is not only linear - past, present, future... but also recurs out of linear sequence, in a kind of temporal superposition.

A polychromatic composition performed on the Microzone u648. 
Auditory resolution: 72 notes per octave

'recurrence'... polychromatic composition by Dolores Catherino

‘Sentience’ - the human capacity to feel, perceive and experience subjectively; in distinction to the ability to think (reason).

In response to the growing extension of Artificial Intelligence into areas like musical creativity, this polychromatic composition uses music technology as an assistant to the human imagination. This approach is in contrast to different varieties of creativity which use technology to generate musical elements for human editing and arrangement.

Rapidly advancing technology is leading to the replacement of more human activities while also modifying human involvement into roles as assistant, support and maintenance in service to technology. In many respects, because of the digitization/quantization of musical elements in MIDI, music is at the forefront of this trend as we see the impacts of technological replacement of musicians and more recently, songwriters.

Music and art express a different kind of knowledge, intelligence and experience from that of scientific, logical, and mathematical areas.

‘Artificial Intelligence’ is, at best, a simile or metaphor for awareness. Understanding of meaning and relevance are beyond its computational framework, which can, with increasing sophistication, display mere imitations of unquantifiable processes of mind.

As AI amasses ever-increasing quantities of information, hierarchically organized and structured through programmed algorithms, the conception of ‘artificial intelligence’ is being extended into similes of ‘consciousness’ and ‘creativity’. This idea seems to presume that increasing quantities of information somehow transform into (or become a surrogate for) awareness and the meaningful understanding and expression of sentient qualities. In contrast to the statistical idea of ‘quality’ of information, ‘qualities’ are based in sentience - subjective awareness, perception, experience, meaning and emotional expression - as well as intelligence.

Recently, IBM’s Watson (AI computer), Google’s Magenta Project, and Sony’s Flow Machines software have been promoted as ‘composing’ music, and as demonstrating musical ‘creativity’. They accomplished this artistic simile by compiling musical data and analyzing the data by given rules (logic, forms and patterns of musical expression), then producing variant combinations under algorithmic control. Maybe a better characterization of this AI process would have been a ‘generative variation’ of musical forms and patterns.

While a remarkable technological advancement, this generative process of AI music is fundamentally different from a human creative process based in empirical understanding, and subjective meanings associated with musical expression. The human creative process in composition uses musical languages to express aspects and qualities of human sentience.

Musical meaning and relevance have always been immersed in a context of time and place, of subjective and collective awareness, aspirations and concerns. In our era, human music and art, while seemingly under threat of replacement and obsolescence to AI, are in a position to clarify the distinction and capacities of human ‘sentience’ and artificial ‘intelligence’. And in this process, hopefully help us gain a deeper awareness of both, balanced in application, as synergetic rather than competing processes.

'Sentience'

By request, a posting of one of my first polychromatic compositions with the Tonal Plexus. 106 notes per octave.

A musical journey toward hearing and expressing an undivided pitch Continuum. An immensity of auditory 'colors', conventionally condensed into 12 coarse pitch gradations of our black and white, chromatic language. 

This is a polychromatic composition utilizing 106 pitches per octave. A 'bridge' composition intended to expand aural perception and awareness of microtonal pitch 'color' and harmony within a quasi-conventional musical context.

A composition presented with the hope of expanding the traditional (absolute) conception of fixed pitch/intervals in music toward awareness of an undivided continuum of (relative) spectral pitch 'colors' and interrelationships.

... as an awareness of the infinite potential varieties of 'red' would be to a visual artist, both in isolation and within the context of the surrounding colors and illumination.

More information, polychromatic score and audio file download available at: www.dolorescatherino.com

'Toward The Continuum'

Duration - expressing the mysterious process which lies between the measured data points used in scientifically describing motion, time, space, mind etc. A temporal gestalt existing beyond the conceptual 'collapsing' of dynamic process into a succession of static measurements in numerical language; where the 'shell' (appearance) becomes increasingly clarified while the core (essence) becomes increasingly obscured.

The idea of 'duration' as a continuous, integrated process hints at aspects and qualities which are closer to the realm of art and musical expression; a perspective fundamentally different from, yet complementary to, modern quantitative and mechanistic perspectives.

On a deeper level, 'duration' demonstrates a characteristic of any language, in which the advances and limitations of understanding are bounded by the unique structure and assumptions of each. Each language represents a partial perspective, illuminating certain aspects while, at the same time, concealing and distorting others.

The subject/predicate structure of language conceptually collapses 'duration' into a sort of temporal ’ether’ within which time points/waves are measured/propagated. 

Aural resolution: 72 edo (equal divisions of the octave)
global reference pitch: Ay=432Hz
more information: dolorescatherino.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dolomuse/

You can find my TEDx talk on Polychromatic Music posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfJbS...

'duration'

The individual process of seeking an enduring Hope and sense of greater meaning, within an experience of constant change and turbulence.

Turbulence - instability, disturbance, unpredictability, randomness, fluctuation, disorder, unrest, agitation.

An unending process of finding meaning and purpose in the joy, tragedy and random instabilities of life. The perpetual seeking of order, and of sustaining value in a rapidly changing world. 

The difficulty of creating a meaningful existence in a journey that frequently feels like that of a passenger in a vehicle with only an accelerator and no brakes or steering. Searching for an understanding of reactive cultural swings, between the extreme endpoints of oppressive, conservatism toward progressive anarchy and back again. Seeking out creative possibilities beyond an institutionalized apathy, ennui and a passive stasis of human potential. 

An enduring hope for a synergetic/collaborative paradigm of sustainable, evolving existence, in a modern world where (ephemeral; transient) value is assigned to short-term success, efficient compliance, disposability/planned obsolescence, and instant gratification. 

Change and flux are inevitable, yet Hope endures.

audio tracks: https://dolorescatherino.bandcamp.com
website: http://www.dolorescatherino.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dolomuse/

You can find my TEDx talk on Polychromatic Music posted at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfJbS5jPiOk

'Hope, In Turbulence'

'convergence' - an intuitive composition process which aims toward increasing clarity and a vague sense of 'directionality' and flow. 

Ideas, intuition, imagination and seemingly infinite possibilities slowly converging into an expressive form. Ideas and impressions converging toward a path which paradoxically opens new expansive possibilities and questions. 

A sense of greater meaning and synchronicity in the joys and tragedies of life. Enduring mystery... 

www.facebook.com/dolomuse/

'convergence'

'stillness, In motion'

Teaser track for large-scale composition, Virtutes Occultae. 

https://taylorbrook.bandcamp.com/releases

Virtutues Occultae is an album in eighteen sections for six physically modeled virtual pianos, each with a unique tuning in an extended 11-limit just intonation.

In writing this music I used a mixture of traditional composition methods of structuring the music with various harmonies and progressions along with more free writing, collage techniques, and algorithmic composition.

The tuning of the virtual pianos extends Harry Partch’s conception of the over-tonality.

www.taylorbrookmusic.com

Virtutes Occultae

Virtutes Occultae - 1) Prelude

Antinomy: incompatible truths/facts; anomalies; irreconcilable differences/perspectives; all pushing the boundaries of language, awareness and understanding toward ever-expanding limits.

Antinomies expose the limitations of binary, either/or, 0/1 logic, as well as the use of discrete, categorical and conceptual boundaries in language.

Examples: logical and rational/irrational paradoxes; catch-22; sociological: an American era of mass incarceration as a ‘solution’ (which generates more expansive problems) to the difficulties of drug addiction, poverty, homelessness, unaddressed psychiatric illness, etc. 

'Antinomy' as an awareness and curiosity of audible anomalies of sound which seem to be incompatible with visually-based conceptions of space: superposition of sound ‘objects’ in space, sound waves constructively/destructively interfering AND passing through, intact without structurally modifying interactions. An intuition emerges, of a multidimensional auditory ‘space’ (field) with more than 3 dimensions, subject to different patterns and characteristics, in addition to those aspects perceived, conceived and measured visually.

'Antinomy'

An expression of the timeless and constantly evolving ‘voice’ (consciousness) of humanity and all sentient beings. An enduring ‘voice’ (expression) of striving, growth and hope, as we live through, and are forever changed by, recurring experiences of harmony and discord, creation and destruction, integration and separation. 

From within a chaotically changing world, emerges an expanding awareness of dissonance, consonance and resonance as fundamental aspects of this experience. Music is an optimal language to express ideas in this realm of experience.

Art has a unique strength to illuminate opaque realms of experience and intuition. Each symbolic language (discursive, mathematical, artistic; literal, abstract) reveals different and seemingly incommensurable perspectives or dimensions of this common, yet uniquely individual experience. Each system of expression and understanding reflects a partial awareness. And our experience may be in some way a reflection of our consciousness and awareness.

Vox Aeterna is an eternal 'voice' existing beyond our limited conceptions of time and space, yet also existing within an experience of increasing transience and instability.

'Vox Aeterna'

Pràxis: I  is a polychromatic composition still-in-process. It is posted now in response to an unprecedented level of 'ownership' claims over foundational elements of our musical language. This is an open invitation to collaborate and explore creative possibilities within a Creative Commons BY-SA environment. 

pràxis: a process of engaging, practicing or applying ideas; through which theory, skill, craft and art are developed and expressed. Pràxis can also create alternatives to widening legal appropriations of musical language; specifically by the targeting of Fair Use and transformative works. 

The YouTube creator community is being negatively impacted by increasing automated takedowns and monetization stripping of transformative (fair use) content. This situation is establishing an environment which erodes the motivation to create and publish transformative and educational works.

The recent approval of the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD; 'Article 13') will inevitably result in unintended consequences, many to the detriment of present/future creative practice, development and expression. 

Creativity in music and the sound arts has historically relied on accessibility to old/new ideas and exemplary works. Traditional methods of learning in the arts begin with practice of the craft: methods and techniques, initially developed through imitation. Imitation leads to proficiency and mastery, and later becomes a basis for innovation.
 
Each creative individual has a unique composite of talents. Some may be big-picture visionaries; some may be expansive innovators; some may refine ideas with great attention to detail and diverse perspectives; some may discover an idea which changes the course of their creative lives.

This situation seems to be another manifestation of late-capitalism in the sense that the escalating legal claims to ‘ownership' of musical ideas are effectively discouraging creative evolution rather than promoting it. Over the long run, this undermines the development of our future creators of radically transformative ideas and art.

Pràxis I

N⩞SCENT - coming into being. The birth of extraordinary potentiality and hope within difficult times. 

Crisis seems to be the catalyst to profound change and progress. A crisis-evolution cycle repeats throughout human experience. In difficult times, greatness emerges - compassion in the midst of hostility; awareness in the midst of deception; striving in the midst of apathy; hope in the midst of despair.

As the rate of change accelerates, some take advantage of the fear caused by this instability. And yet these same actions also create the conditions for the development of inner strength, purpose and greater meaning in response.

Audio track available at: https://dolorescatherino.bandcamp.com/track/n-scent

N⩞SCENT

Inflexion - a movement toward profound transformation. In a postmodern world, where emerging narratives replace the stability of a prior cultural meta-narrative, more voices are striving to be heard. An initial sense of dissonance and chaos slowly moves toward stability -- within a more complex form of harmony.

”The limits of my language are the limits of my world."  - Wittgenstein

When the language of cultural discourse becomes rigidly divisive, and words lose any stable meaning, music can transcend limitations of communication and become a unifying force, rooted in common awareness, experience and emotion. 

Each language presents unique strengths and limitations to the awareness and understanding of our world and ‘reality’. Music can express this tension without divisiveness and demonstrate the potential, and hope, for bringing together diverse voices within new complexities of harmony. A movement beyond ‘either-or’ understanding, toward ‘both-and’ awareness; and in the process, a discovery of wider balance and integration between them.

'Inflexion'

Expanse: Exploring the unknown limits of musical sound. Whenever a symbolic language is expanded (in music, math, science, English, etc.), new ideas and possibilities can be structured in thought and expressed to others. This renewal leads to new questions, new discoveries, and eventually toward wider perspectives.

'Expanse'

Dolores Catherino is an avant-garde  composer, exploring new sonic frontiers with PolyChromatic music. Inspired by creative collaboration, she is also exploring integrated perspectives at the crossroads of music, science, technology, and the humanities.

The music shared here is part of a larger exploration of developing increasing awareness of sound/vibration phenomena.

An invitation is extended to creative remix and modification!