EMERGENCE GROUP EXPERIMENT #1 - Jeremy Coubrough

A technologically mediated algorithmic flute ritual for players of mixed experience

For some time now I've been interested in composing music that is ungoverned by a single overarching metric pulse but instead consists of multiple unique pulses woven together in novel forms that create compelling accumulations of periodic energy.

Having previously worked with computers, [hyperlink to: https://worldmemoryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/natural-devices] I've become increasingly interested in applying these ideas to ensembles of musicians. The following is documentation of a first experiment in composing using animated graphic scores and musicians of mixed experience.

The musicians gather around a screen, which displays an animated graphic score not unlike guitar hero or similar music video games. This instantly intuitive method of music notation allows for experienced and inexperienced musicians to perform rhythms that would otherwise require immensely complex notation, conducting and performance. The use of an mixed ensemble also makes these works accessible for myself as a composer.

The use of bottles as an instrument is as intuitive as the score but also introduces the idea of breath-work and some of the trance like states often associated with traditional and ritualistic uses of wind instruments. These effects were reported unprompted by some of the performers I worked with, along with a sense of communal focus and collective achievement. The works are participatory; while an audience presence is not precluded the focus is on the experience of the ensemble.

The individual parts for each player are very simple, but the use of a precisely mediated score allows for a temporal complexity. They are essentially primitive algorithms. As the French mathematician Jean-Luc Chabert says “algorithms have been around since the beginning of time and existed well before a special word had been coined to describe them. Algorithms are simply a set of step by step instructions, to be carried out quite mechanically, so as to achieve some desired result.”[1]

So I decided to design a basic symbolic typeface, one that would make composing simple and flexible. After a few experiments I designed settled on one where short and long blocks represent the duration of notes and silences. I would then animate the individual parts at different speeds.

Lowercase letters are black and represent notes to be played. Capital letters create a negative space equal to the duration of its corresponding lowercase letters.
The durations get progressively longer for each letter of the keyboard following the QWERTY layout. In other words, the letters from the top-left to the bottom-right of the keyboard create blocks and spaces from short to long.

From there it's easy to make some simple structures by typing lower and upper case letters. In the following diagram, each of the four lines represents a part for a different player. The corresponding letters used to achieve them are only visible for illustrative purposes.

This is a finished version of the example above ready to be animated. The two different colours represent alternating the bottles with the right and left hand.

The resulting score is then animated over a background. The vertical white line is the 'play line'. The player blows for the duration of the block passing over the play line.

I gathered four friends on one Friday evening to test a few scores. Two of them had never played a musical instrument before, or had any experience making music with people except for school choirs. We sat around the screen and tuned bottles of varying sizes with the help of a jug of water. Tuning was based simply on the creation of interesting resonances and beating frequencies.

The participants understood the system almost immediately and were completely engrossed for the hour or so we played. I made quite a few spontaneous edits to the scores in order to try some variations. For example, at one point I included expanding and contracting circles that represented dynamics getting louder and quieter. This worked quite well but seemed to slightly detract from the timing of the parts. I'll pursue that idea again, but only if there is some rehearsal or practice beforehand so the players can split their attention between the different visual components more smoothly. I also tried some improvised sections where players could choose what bottle to play, and I also suggested a mechanism where players could switch parts with each other. But the players (myself included) found that it sounded better and was more enjoyable and engaging to try and adhere to the score as strictly as possible without having to make any creative decisions. They said they preferred the sense of achievement of trying to reach each goal, like a game.

Afterwards, a feeling of concentrated peace and focus was reported by all the participants, as well as a feeling of pleasant light-headedness and euphoria. One participant described it as "gently consciousness expanding" and one said they felt like they were in the early stages of a holotropic breathwork session. I didn't expect that this effect would be present, but I was certainly pleased that it was.

The next step is to explore this system some more, particularly with regards to group size and tuning.

Here you can listen to two excerpts of the session

You can also download the font here if you would like to experiment with it yourself.
[LINK TO FONT AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD]

Thanks to Aisha, Hubert and Nathan for so kindly partaking in the experiment.
Thanks to Cashmere Radio for facilitating with the recording equipment.

Influences and further reading:

[1] Three Thousand Years of Algorithmic Rituals: The Emergence of AI from the Computation of Space -
Matteo Pasquinelli
[link https://www.e-flux.com/journal/101/273221/three-thousand-years-of-algorithmic-rituals-the-emergence-
of-ai-from-the-computation-of-space/]

Herbert Brun on Floating Hierarchies
[link https://youtu.be/TxDQf6CpKcU ]

Burst of Breath: Indigenous Ritual Wind Instruments in Lowland South America - Edited by Jonathan D.
Hill and Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
[link https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803220928/]

Masahiro Miwa - Reverse Simulation Music Pt1 and Pt2
[link https://youtu.be/UX6vXiqpyJQ] and [link https://youtu.be/27cLGuSYmxQ]

Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea: Madang / Windim Mabu
[Link https://ideologicorgan.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-flute-music-from-new-guinea-madang-windim-mabu]

Xenakis Persephassa requires the six percussionists to wear headphones connected to a metronome, while Duel, one of his "game matrix" pieces, uses different coloured lights to cue two conductors and two orchestras.