Of course, it would take some time to learn how to interface with the software, but the goal is to make it possible for anyone to control a musical composition.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Musical Movements
Here is the link to a brief article about an interesting program that captures 3D movements of the body for conversion into musical sound:
Music, Technology, and the Body: House (etc.) Music
When I think about music and technology, the first subject that pops into my mind is house/dance/trance/techno music. (Forgive me for mashing together those terms, but I never really know what particular characteristics, if any, separate those genres. They seem generally similar enough to me that I'd like to refer to them as a whole.) Why? Well, quite simply: this overarching genre exemplifies the fact that we can now create music solely via technology; i.e. our only "instruments" necessary are the computer and other such devices.
The fact that we can produce music solely by using technology is not actually that important, and indeed, many electronically produced songs mix in samples of human-sung vocals or human-played instruments. I want to focus more on the nature of this kind of music. Here's an example:
Characteristics I note in songs like this one include:
Consider singer-songwriter, acoustic, Jack Johnson type of music. From my experience, I listen to these kinds of songs and the lyrics are likely the most prominent feature. If I'm paying any attention to the song, the lyrics might get into my head and start evoking personal connections and memories. They tap into the emotional part of you. Sometimes I listen to one of these kinds of songs and just sit still and lapse into nostalgia -- my body is not really engaged.
Now back to the house music. The ongoing pulsating beat makes me want to get up and move my body in sync with its rhythm. The entering layers of phrases one by one add to the energy of the piece, rousing adrenaline and excitement. The vocals are embedded, and the lyrics are simple enough that I don't have to mentally process a whole story, but just let the words sink in as a repetitive sound. This music tends to engage my body in what feels like a "primal" way: it bypasses personal histories and thoughts and begs me to "lose myself" in it. All drug/alcohol-related possibilities aside, I find that this music alone can induce some level of euphoria; the body becomes so engaged with the music that higher-level consciousness temporarily becomes unimportant and diminished.
This video is bad quality and a little ridiculous, but it's kind of what I'm talking about:
The fact that we can produce music solely by using technology is not actually that important, and indeed, many electronically produced songs mix in samples of human-sung vocals or human-played instruments. I want to focus more on the nature of this kind of music. Here's an example:
Characteristics I note in songs like this one include:
- a beat that is repetitive and ongoing almost throughout the song
- a "melodic line" that consists of a short phrase, also repeated almost continuously with some slight modulations
- gradual entering/fading in of more layers of repeated phrases/sounds
- vocals are often (though not always, but especially in remixes like this one) reduced to one or two lines that are layered in like all the other effects, and are also usually technologically modified
Consider singer-songwriter, acoustic, Jack Johnson type of music. From my experience, I listen to these kinds of songs and the lyrics are likely the most prominent feature. If I'm paying any attention to the song, the lyrics might get into my head and start evoking personal connections and memories. They tap into the emotional part of you. Sometimes I listen to one of these kinds of songs and just sit still and lapse into nostalgia -- my body is not really engaged.
Now back to the house music. The ongoing pulsating beat makes me want to get up and move my body in sync with its rhythm. The entering layers of phrases one by one add to the energy of the piece, rousing adrenaline and excitement. The vocals are embedded, and the lyrics are simple enough that I don't have to mentally process a whole story, but just let the words sink in as a repetitive sound. This music tends to engage my body in what feels like a "primal" way: it bypasses personal histories and thoughts and begs me to "lose myself" in it. All drug/alcohol-related possibilities aside, I find that this music alone can induce some level of euphoria; the body becomes so engaged with the music that higher-level consciousness temporarily becomes unimportant and diminished.
This video is bad quality and a little ridiculous, but it's kind of what I'm talking about:
Music and the Body and Technology
When I think about the interface of music, technology and the body, the easiest go-to is the development of new methods of listening to music; in my lifetime, from cassette tapes to CDs to the iPod and other MP3 players. One of the common themes over times time also seems to be an individualization of the musical experience, something that I know Myles is discussing in his paper.
When I think of popular music in the 1980s, I get the image of someone walking down the street with the giant boombox, blasting music to the whole world. Music in the case was not really meant to be an individual experience, but something broadcasted to anyone within earshot. Later, music became walkmen, and finally iPods.
But this individualism is also present in the music we have access to. Gone are the days where (most people) go and buy whole albums – especially ones that they don’t know anything about, just on a whim. Music (can be) free, and even if it’s not – we all preview a song before we think it’s actually worth downloading.
I think the iPod ads that were so prevalent in the past few years speak to this idea. Music has become very much individual, and at the same time, its relation to the body has changed. Music used to be an external phenomenon – something that was listened to at a concert, or perhaps broadcasted to everyone near by. But over time, it has become more and more internal; earphones, and more recently, earbuds move the stimulus both literally into the body (moving further and further down the auditory canal), and emotionally within the body (you’re the only one really experiencing the music). At least, that’s how I’ve always interpreted the silhouettes in the iPod commercials. They may be individuals, but they are in essence becoming part of the music themselves – thus, we only really see responses to music, and minimal or stereotyped bodily features
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Summary for Holsinger
In his article The Musical Somatics of Hildegard of Bingen, Holsinger proposes that the music of Hildegard and female sexual desire and pleasure, and devotional experience are in many ways inseparable, because he believes that the imagery and vocabulary of female sexual pleasure were an integral part of her musical creativity. He shows that Hildegard’s music constitutes a mode of sexual pleasure, anxiety, and fascination, exploring the techniques and implications of embodiment in Hildegard’s musico-poetic production.
The anxiety can be best described as being generated by bodily obedience. In her utter submission to God, she experienced three major visions during the time she was with the Benedictine order. She described herself as the vessel or the instrument of God, saying, “for I am a cithara sounding praises and piercing the hardness of heart with good will.” Her visions are full of the imagery of sexual anxiety and violence. Within those visions, she perceived the musical tortures of the Apocalypse, as well as the curious appearance of the lira “lying with its strings” across the body of the son of man. As to maintain the tempering of the instrumental body, accounted by Holsinger, strict musical discipline of the body on Earth can ensure a concordant harmonia in heaven.
The fascination refers to her repeated emphasis on the Virgin’s anatomy in her lyrics. The interpretive key to the musicality of desire and embodiment in her Symphonia requires both formal analysis and study of her voluminous writings. The text of Symphonia celebrates the miraculous birth of Christ, presenting a very sensual image of the Virgin’s organs. The notes that fall upon the words that relate to sexual pleasure tend to be treated with greater dramatic effects. When compared to the norms of the contemporary repertory, her melodic line is considered excessively physical and emotive.
The various forms of desire registered in the Symphonia, as written by Holsinger, pervaded Hildegard’s entire musical world. A group of nuns live in this world in intimate proximity, raising their voices together in song and allowing music, with the actual cantus resonating between the nun’s bodies as well as the Symphonia, binding the bodies of the nun together to grasp part of the pleasure of the Virgin Mary. Often she sexualized the entire body, not simply the genitals. She characterizes the pleasure in a woman as comparable to the sun, which “gently, calmly, and continuously spreads the earth with its heat, so that it may bring forth fruit.” Hildegard’s lyrics transfers the pleasure from masculine stem to feminine womb, which is related to fertility, and she implies that the female desire and sexuality paradoxically does not depend on male penetration, as the title of the article calls, a woman can be “moved to pleasure without the touch of a man” (sine tactu viri). Therefore the female-male-female constructions of triangulated desire often yield to female-female eroticized performance.
If Beyonce Were a Boy...
"If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man
I'd listen to her
'Cuz I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted
'Cuz he's taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed
If I were a boy..."
Comparison to Telugu and Tamil Padams
While reading Holsinger's article, I first noticed that every passage used to show the sexuality present in Hildegard's works personified female sexuality. The Antichrist appears from the vagina of a woman, while the male genitalia is hidden by a harp. The next few pages talk about Hildegard's vivid imagery of the female giving birth, the Virgin Mary's conception, etc.
This juxtaposition of sexuality and spiritual devotion reminded me of Telugu and Tamil padams: devotional poetry-songs. These songs often contained images of God as a customer of courtesans. Ksetrayya (one of the most celebrated authors of padams) and other writers generally composed these from the point of view of the courtesan. That is, it would be written in the voice of a courtesan searching for her lover, as the lord, to join her. While there are many cases of directly explicit sexual tones, in many cases, the expression was not directly sexual. The main theme in all of these was spiritual devotion. I was interested to see how spiritual devotion can have many sexual overtones in both forms; it seems as though the body is described sexually as a means of reconciling the mind with the "higher" pleasure of religious ecstasy. For instance, take this passage from When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others:
The whole town fast asleep,
the whole world pitch dark,
and the seas utterly still,
when it's one long extended night,
if He who sleeps on the snake,
who once devoured the earth, and kept it in his belly,
will not come to the rescue,
who will save my life? (5.2.1)
Deep ocean, earth and sky
hidden away,
it's one long monstrous night:
if my Kannan too,
dark as the blue lily,
will not come,
now who will save my life,
sinner that I am?
O heart, you too are not on my side. (5.2.2)
O heart, you too are not on my side.
The long night with no end
has lengthened into an eon.
My Lord Rama will not come,
with his protecting bow.
I do not know how it will end—
I with all my potent sins,
born as a woman. (5.2.3)
"Those born as women, see much grief,
but I'll not look at it," says the Sun
and he hides himself;
our Dark Lord, with red lips and great eyes,
who once measured this earth,
he too will not come.
Who will quell the unthinkable ills
of my heart? (5.2.4)
This lovesickness stands behind me
and torments my heart.
This eon of a night
faces me and buries my sight.
My lord, the wheel forever firm in his hands,
will not come.
So who will save this long life of mine
that finds no end at all? (5.2.6)
Ramanujan, A.K. When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Pages 9–10.
In this song, the speaker is a young woman, obviously separated from her lover. This lover is identified as the various forms of Vishnu—Kannan, or Krishna; Rama; he who sleeps on the snake; and the Dark Lord are all various forms of Vishnu. The lover refuses to come, and the woman is alone at night. She is tortured with longing, and spends time wrestling with gender issues. She blames herself, her "sins," her womanhood, and possibly the lover as well.
I thought this compares interestingly with Hildegard's use of sexual language to reconcile the body with spiritual devotion.
This juxtaposition of sexuality and spiritual devotion reminded me of Telugu and Tamil padams: devotional poetry-songs. These songs often contained images of God as a customer of courtesans. Ksetrayya (one of the most celebrated authors of padams) and other writers generally composed these from the point of view of the courtesan. That is, it would be written in the voice of a courtesan searching for her lover, as the lord, to join her. While there are many cases of directly explicit sexual tones, in many cases, the expression was not directly sexual. The main theme in all of these was spiritual devotion. I was interested to see how spiritual devotion can have many sexual overtones in both forms; it seems as though the body is described sexually as a means of reconciling the mind with the "higher" pleasure of religious ecstasy. For instance, take this passage from When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others:
The whole town fast asleep,
the whole world pitch dark,
and the seas utterly still,
when it's one long extended night,
if He who sleeps on the snake,
who once devoured the earth, and kept it in his belly,
will not come to the rescue,
who will save my life? (5.2.1)
Deep ocean, earth and sky
hidden away,
it's one long monstrous night:
if my Kannan too,
dark as the blue lily,
will not come,
now who will save my life,
sinner that I am?
O heart, you too are not on my side. (5.2.2)
O heart, you too are not on my side.
The long night with no end
has lengthened into an eon.
My Lord Rama will not come,
with his protecting bow.
I do not know how it will end—
I with all my potent sins,
born as a woman. (5.2.3)
"Those born as women, see much grief,
but I'll not look at it," says the Sun
and he hides himself;
our Dark Lord, with red lips and great eyes,
who once measured this earth,
he too will not come.
Who will quell the unthinkable ills
of my heart? (5.2.4)
This lovesickness stands behind me
and torments my heart.
This eon of a night
faces me and buries my sight.
My lord, the wheel forever firm in his hands,
will not come.
So who will save this long life of mine
that finds no end at all? (5.2.6)
Ramanujan, A.K. When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Pages 9–10.
In this song, the speaker is a young woman, obviously separated from her lover. This lover is identified as the various forms of Vishnu—Kannan, or Krishna; Rama; he who sleeps on the snake; and the Dark Lord are all various forms of Vishnu. The lover refuses to come, and the woman is alone at night. She is tortured with longing, and spends time wrestling with gender issues. She blames herself, her "sins," her womanhood, and possibly the lover as well.
I thought this compares interestingly with Hildegard's use of sexual language to reconcile the body with spiritual devotion.
Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Aeroplane"
Because it's the official music video, I can't embed it, so here's the link to it on YouTube.
I learned of this song thanks to participation on Blip (basically a Twitter-for-music social network) and fell in love with it. In search of shirtless males in music videos, for the sake of my comments on the Mika song, I looked up the Red Hot Chili Peppers on YouTube and found their official page. So I checked out the video for Aeroplane. It wasn't the best example of what I wanted, but as I let the song play, I suddenly realized the lyrics seem to relate a LOT to what the chapter on Hildegard's work was talking about.
Now, as is the case with many music videos, I admit I don't have much idea what this one is supposed to mean. But some of the lyrics in particular hit me. I'll copy/paste the full lyrics at the end (from Sing365) and pull out a few lines in particular to relate back to the reading. [Note: pardon the profanity; I've starred-out a few words in the original lyrics.]
I like pleasure spiked with pain - This reminds me of the bodily/erotic pleasure, on one hand, and the pain and strain of pushing the vocal capacity to its limits, found together in singing Hildegard's compositions.
and music is my aeroplane - Music is the vehicle (okay, terrible accidental pun) via which the pleasure and pain merge.
songbird sweet and sour Jane - another pleasure/pain dichotomy.
Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose - Clear references to the body and description as if it is literally deteriorating.
My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me - This is a reference to some female, her singing ability, and penetration (which has a decidedly sexual flavoring). Unlike Hildegard, though, whom the author interprets as talking about female-only sexuality (and sexual space, in the sense of the womb and flowing of winds in and out), this singer is a male referring to a female's voice interacting with him bodily.
Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay - This imbues the music itself - produced by a female (this time composed, not just sung) - with apparently a complete sexual power over him (the singer). This is interesting actually because it removes entirely the female's body from the scene; the sexuality is transferred to the music she produced.
Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die. - Now we've lost the sexual meaning of the music and instead it has a power to bring on pain ("choke", "cut my throat") and death. In the vein of Hildegard, this almost seems like a warning: if you don't do with the music as you should, it will cause the end of you - and in a negative way. I'm recalling her visions that threatened her to share the messages she was given, or else she would undergo further torture, I assume.
-----
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain.
Looking in my own eyes (hey lord),
I can't find the love I want,
Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
I can make it disappear,
I can make it disappear (have no fear),
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and,
music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain,
Sitting in my kitchen (hey girl),
I'm turning into dust again,
My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me,
I'm overcoming gravity,
I'm overcoming gravity,
(It's easy when you're sad to be,)
It's easy when you're sad, sad like me
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain...,
Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay,
Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die.
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
That's spiked with pain.
(my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane)
...it's my aeroplane..(x8)..
I learned of this song thanks to participation on Blip (basically a Twitter-for-music social network) and fell in love with it. In search of shirtless males in music videos, for the sake of my comments on the Mika song, I looked up the Red Hot Chili Peppers on YouTube and found their official page. So I checked out the video for Aeroplane. It wasn't the best example of what I wanted, but as I let the song play, I suddenly realized the lyrics seem to relate a LOT to what the chapter on Hildegard's work was talking about.
Now, as is the case with many music videos, I admit I don't have much idea what this one is supposed to mean. But some of the lyrics in particular hit me. I'll copy/paste the full lyrics at the end (from Sing365) and pull out a few lines in particular to relate back to the reading. [Note: pardon the profanity; I've starred-out a few words in the original lyrics.]
I like pleasure spiked with pain - This reminds me of the bodily/erotic pleasure, on one hand, and the pain and strain of pushing the vocal capacity to its limits, found together in singing Hildegard's compositions.
and music is my aeroplane - Music is the vehicle (okay, terrible accidental pun) via which the pleasure and pain merge.
songbird sweet and sour Jane - another pleasure/pain dichotomy.
Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose - Clear references to the body and description as if it is literally deteriorating.
My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me - This is a reference to some female, her singing ability, and penetration (which has a decidedly sexual flavoring). Unlike Hildegard, though, whom the author interprets as talking about female-only sexuality (and sexual space, in the sense of the womb and flowing of winds in and out), this singer is a male referring to a female's voice interacting with him bodily.
Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay - This imbues the music itself - produced by a female (this time composed, not just sung) - with apparently a complete sexual power over him (the singer). This is interesting actually because it removes entirely the female's body from the scene; the sexuality is transferred to the music she produced.
Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die. - Now we've lost the sexual meaning of the music and instead it has a power to bring on pain ("choke", "cut my throat") and death. In the vein of Hildegard, this almost seems like a warning: if you don't do with the music as you should, it will cause the end of you - and in a negative way. I'm recalling her visions that threatened her to share the messages she was given, or else she would undergo further torture, I assume.
-----
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain.
Looking in my own eyes (hey lord),
I can't find the love I want,
Someone better slap me,
Before I start to rust,
Before I start to decompose,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
Looking in my rear view mirror,
I can make it disappear,
I can make it disappear (have no fear),
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane and,
music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain,
that motherf***ers always spiked with pain,
Sitting in my kitchen (hey girl),
I'm turning into dust again,
My melancholy baby,
The star of mazzy must,
Push her voice inside of me,
I'm overcoming gravity,
I'm overcoming gravity,
(It's easy when you're sad to be,)
It's easy when you're sad, sad like me
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
pleasure spiked with pain...,
Just one note could make me float,
Could make me float away,
One note from,
The song she wrote,
Could f*** me where I lay,
Just one note,
Could make me choke,
One note that's,
Not a lie,
Just one note,
Could cut my throat,
One note could make
me die.
I like pleasure spiked with pain and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
Songbird sweet and sour Jane,
and music is my aeroplane,
It's my aeroplane,
That's spiked with pain.
(my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane, my aeroplane)
...it's my aeroplane..(x8)..
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