WISAY

Creating Musical Variations: combining music and engineering through chaotic mapping

Wednesday, October 28th, 4pm in Bass Center 305 (266 Whitney Ave. on science hill).

This event is generously sponsored by WISAY, the Biophysics Training Grant, Graduate and Professional Student Senate, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Music.

Click to read about our speaker, Professor Diana Dabby

During the 18 th and 19 th centuries, composers often dressed a melody in new attire by weaving additional notes around its thematic tones in order to create a variation. Such ornamentation could enliven and elaborate one or more musical entities. Yet myriad variation techniques existed besides ornamentation, including permutation and combination, as advocated by a number of 18 th -century treatises. More recently, fields such as chaos theory have allowed composers to create new kinds of variations, some of which are reminiscent of earlier combinatorial techniques. One such technique uses a chaotic mapping to make musical variations of an entire work. This technique harnesses a natural mechanism for variability found in the science of chaos—that is, the sensitivity of chaotic trajectories to initial conditions. Two chaotic trajectories map the pitch sequence of a musical score into a variation where the same set (or subset) of pitches appear, but in modified order.

The chaotic mapping can create variations on pieces which employ multiple instruments, as well as infuse a piece with musical attributes, e.g., pitches, outside its own musical event space. Virtually infinite in number, the variations can be close to the original, diverge from it substantially, or achieve degrees of variability between these two extremes. Schenkerian analysis can offer a kind of ‘musical proof' as to why some of these variations continue to engage listeners. In sum, the technique offers a post-compositional process in which a composer can go on a journey to someplace new or unimagined with an already completed piece.

Other Events of Interest

CT Chapter of AWIS

October 21, 2009 AWIS will host a Resume and Interview Workshop at Connecticut College in New London. Ray Amato, HR recruiter from Pfizer, will discuss how to format your resume when applying for industrial positions as well as give tips for preparing for the interviewing process. Connecticut College 1941 Room, College Center at Crozier-Williams from 6pm to 7:30pm. Free pizza and soda will be provided. Please RSVP for this event so we'll be sure to have enough food. RSVP at www.awisct.ning.com/events