MTC 436/598 Assignment #9:
Final Project
Putting It All Together


Due date: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
No exceptions: Please start work immediately and plan your time!
Objective:

Create a one minute composition utilizing sounds that YOU create in Absynth and structure placement in Digital Performer. You have two options:

Option #1: Harry Parched

Create a work based loosely on the beginning to Harry Partch's Daphne of the Dunes. This work should be a pulsed, driving texture that incorporates:

1. Non conventional tuning of all instruments (sounds).

2. Two "mallet" instruments, one pitched gong/bell instrument, and one plucked string instrument utilized in a "harp/glissando" fashion.

3. You must create a "groove" or "pattern" rhythmic patch in Absynth as part of this assignment. That patch must have at least one channel whose Oscil module is in FM mode. You DON'T have to use a high noise setting in this patch. The FM can be "mallet" like in pitch and timbre but your use of envelopes on the index and ratio should alter timbre with the rhythmic pulses. Similarly changing the pitch (to get different main notes) is optional.

4. You must use panning of sounds in this work.

Listening to Daphne of the Dunes will help give an idea as to format and form. Partch thinks of these instruments as having specific roles: the constant pulsing of mallets to which gong/bell accents are periodically added. Note that the pulse is based on measures which are repeated but vary in length with material added or subtracted (i.e. a 4/4 pattern becoming 5/4 by adding one beat or 3/4 by subtracting one beat). Bell sounds usually appear at the beginning of each measure. Partch doesn't actually place the string instrument into this texture but YOU will. It can be used in any mannner you wish.

Option #2: Light Beams

Create a work based loosely on the metaphor of music as light. This work should be more sustained in nature as you work to create the analog of light beams. You may wish to listen to the Paul Lansky Night Ride. This work should incorporate:

1. Slow moving/appearing beams and masses of light realized by at least 2 different Absynth patches. Light can appear slowly from the distance or suddenly as if piercing a hole in the wall of a dark room you are sitting in.

2. Light shimmers: a 3rd patch should emulate the shimmering of light.

3. Light pulses: create a 4th patch which is a pulsing sound. This must be done by creating a "groove" or "pattern" rhythmic patch in Absynth. That patch must have at least one channel whose Oscil module is in FM mode. You DON'T have to use a high noise setting in this patch. The FM can be "mallet" like in pitch and timbre but your use of envelopes on the index and ratio should alter timbre with the rhythmic pulses. Similarly changing the pitch (to get different main notes) is optional.

4. Form of the work can be a "slow awakening" where light gradually appears from darkness,eventually materializing in full brilliance by the end of the work. Contrtolling the number of "beams," how frequently they enter, and their pitch (high or low to full spectrum) are possible means to achieving this result.

5. You must use panning of sounds in this work.

How to submit this assignment

1. ProTools or AIFF file of the final, realized work on either computer depending on format.

2. A brief (one or two paragraph) description of the elements of your work and the formal means of accomplishing the overall effect/form of the work.
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