NIME

The performance of the piece for NIME was developed through combining the initial features of our constructed instrument in a meeting afterschool. Before we met, I informed all group members to work on creating their interface for music construction as well as experimenting with how they make sound. Having tested with a lot of metal, in particular my necklaces, I found that this method of experimentation led to interesting results with the control of sound in my music. I could play diminishing or crescendo effects with one necklace and for the other one I could create firecracker sounds. This difference of sounds allowed me to be the melody or harmony of the group composition so that it could be more balanced throughout the piece. When we met, we wanted interaction within our piece through interacting with other member’s instruments, however, the stability of this method was lackluster in the sense that it was too dependent on the movement of the other member. This led us to stick with independent instruments that revolved around our own personal interface. 

 

For the piece, we wanted a gradual development of the piece’s sound from soft and slow to fast and loud back to soft and slow. We started off with Jiani’s sliding instrument where she switched to the harmonic beat in the background with Daniel also being a part of the harmony. Bruce and I were more in charge of interconnecting to form the melody which was more regarding the feeling we had at the moment. I was controlled by impulse for my piece as well as listening to the rest of the members during the piece to create the sound. Bruce’s form of music was controlled by the electric circuit and when electricity wanted to interact to create the circuit. At the end, we wanted to make it gradual, but fulfilling ending so we made it an interaction between two declining instruments that were slower and quieter.

 

After hearing Kuma no Mori/Night by Merzbow, the imagery I imagined while hearing the piece was that of the transition between nightfall and sunrise. In the beginning, I felt like I was alone staring out the window at nighttime when the moon was up high. The vibrations felt like they mimicked the sound of the moon, feeling like an inanimate animate pulse. In the middle of the piece, as night begins to transition to dusk, the music felt like it began transitioning to include both day and night aspects. The music seems to evolve closer and closer to sunrise. When it finally reaches sunrise, the music from 4 minutes something all of a sudden moves to 18:05 which I interpret to be sound of day, unnecessary noise without soul. I think that this sort of expression of one’s soul with noise sound shows Russolo’s futurist ideology of using new noise to create sound rather than imitation of sound to create new repetitive composition. When I was immersed in the music, I found that I was able to identify new sounds that I don’t think I’ve heard before in natural compositions such as the sliding of the vibration with the inconsistent pitched noise. All in all, I think that I could feel futurism’s spirits within the piece without the aggression of the artist.