Visual Music H79. 2760
Friday, 12:30 - 3:00pm
ITP
Instructor: Zach Layton
contact: zachlayton@gmail.com
course website: www.zachlaytonindustries.com/visualmusic.html
course blog: http://itpvisualmusic.wordpress.com
week 1::
Intro, Syllabus, Synaesthesia
Discussion of early Colour Sound Instruments, Kandinsky, Schoenberg, Early Music Notation
read Heidegger: "Origin of the work of Art"
read Kandinsky: "Concerning the Spiritual in Art"
read William Moritz "The Dream of Color Music and the Machines that Made it Possible"
read "Serial Composition and Atonality" George Perle - Chapter 1
suggested: Tom DeWitt, “Visual Music: Searching for an aesthetic” Leonardo, 20(115-122)
suggested: Oliver sachs synaesthesia chapter in Musicophilia
week 2::
Klangfarbenmelodie (sound-color-melody), intro to serial composition (Anton Webern)
discuss 12 tone theory, total serialism (boulez)
listen and analysis: Messaien, Webern
read: Messiaen "Technique of My Musical Language"
read: Boulez "Technology and the Composer"
read: Tymoczko "Geometry of Music"
read: Sol Lewitt "Sentences on Conceptual Art"
read: Sol Lewitt "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art"
read: Morton Feldman and the Shape of Time
read: Straus: Intro to Post Tonal Theory
assignment: write short 12 tone piece for piano or electronics
check out this 12 tone row calculator
week 3::
Spectral Music & Sonification (Tristan Murail, Gerard Grisey, Kaija Saariaho)
listen and analysis
discussion of FFT, SPEAR, Spectrograms, FFT in Max/MSP
assignment: take 12 tone piece & stretch it out with FFT, do spectral analysis, make it a new piece
read: Curtis Roads, "Computer Music Tutorial" - Chapter 13 "Spectrum Analysis"
read: John Pierce: "Sine Waves and Sound Waves"
Download:
Take a look at MAX/MSP tutorials 25 and 26 (particularly the phase vocoder patch in tutorial 26)
suggested reading: Helmholtz, Hermann; On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music
week 4::
Spectrums continued...
Harmonic ratios + drones
discussion of pythagoras & Just Intonation
Listen - La Monte Young (dream syndicate, well tuned piano), Tony Conrad (early minimalism)
write drone music piece using just intervals
read: "Tuning and Temperment: Closing the Spiral"
read: James Tenney "Cage & Harmony"
suggested: Helmholtz, Hermann; On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music
suggested: Partch, Harry: "Genesis of A Music"
suggested: Pythagorean theory of music and color
week 5::
Graphic Notation (Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman, John Cage)
Listen and analysis (Ligeti, Penderecki, Stockhausen)
John Cage: Variations ii
Morton Feldman: Projections and Intersections
check out this nice online exhibit of graphic scores
assignment: take spectral piece and try to express it using original approach to graphic notation
OR make an original graphic score
study: John Cage: Fontana Mix
read: "The Music of John Cage" - James Pritchett - Chapter 3 & 4
read: "Sound, Code and Image" - Walters
read: "Morton Feldman" Paul Griffiths
check out: "Young Persons' Guide to Treatise"
week 6:: Presentations of Graphic Scores
assignment: take graphic notation and begin using the score as a basis for visual piece, animation, etc.
Read John Tilbury - Cornelius Cardew - A Life Unfinished- (re: Treatise)
Read NOISE - introduction - Jacques Attali
SECTION 2
week 7::
Optical Poetry (Fischinger, Moritz, Len Lye, Harry Smith)
SPECIAL GUEST - BRADLEY EROS
Read VISUAL MUSIC CULTURE - Kerry Brougher
read Gene Youngblood, Expanded cinema, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970 (fwd, pt 1&2)
Short Introduction to Jitter (qt movies, timing control)
WATCH:
Oskar Fischinger
Len Lye
Harry Smith
Norman McLaren
Mary Ellen Bute
James Whitney
Jordan Belson
Stan Brakhage
Robert Breer
+ Bradley Eros
(Aerodynamics of the Black Sun)
GO TO GREENE NAFTALI GALLERY TO SEE THE PAUL SHARITS SHOW
week 8::
Experimental Film & Expanded Cinema (McCall, Brackage, Belson) (guest TBA)
Anthony Mc Call - Line Describing a Cone
read Gene Youngblood, Expanded cinema, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970 - (3&4)
Geometry and vibration (James & John Whitney)
watch - James Whitney: Yantra(57), Lapis(66), John Whitney - Arabesque(75), Matrix III
Jitter workshop pt 2 (applying filters, color levels, keying)
John Stehura - Cybernetik 5.3
read: cybernetic cinema
http://cyberanimation.tripod.com/
check out: Whitney Music Box
week 9::
Color & Form (guest TBA)
read: Summer of Love "Joshua White and the Joshua Light Show", Pouncey, 2005
Newton & Goethe on Color:
read: John Gage: Color and Meaning: "The Fool's Paradise" chapter 8
read: John Gage: Color and Meaning: "Newton and Painting" chapter 9
read: wikipedia summary of Goethe's "Theory of Colors"
read Gene Youngblood, Expanded cinema, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970 - (5,6 & 7)
suggested:
Article: Thomas Wilfred, Light and the artist, The Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, 1947
The Dichromaccord: Reinventing the Elusive Color Organ - Daniel Conrad
assignment:
Make a projected image display without computer...only light and other
means to diffract it
Jitter workshop pt 3 (Intro to Open GL, Geometry, Basis Function Generators)
week 10::
Movement, Flicker & Time (guest TBA)
paul sharits, warhol, bruce mcclure, conrad...
Read: Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973-1990 (paul sharits, tony conrad)
pg. 542, 553, 591 (retrospect I, II, non-linear time)
week 11::
Oscilloscopes, Video & Analog Techniques (guest TBA)
Paik, Experimental TV center
Read: Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973-1990 (Vasulkas)
Read: Nam June Paik - Theories and Documents pg. 434
week 12::
Digital Techniques (advanced jitter workshop) (guest TBA)
watch: PaperRad P-Unit Mixtape 2005
watch: Christian Marclay - Video Quartet
week 13::
Ambient Topologies and Digital Architecture
Topography + physical harmony (cymatics)
week 14::
Critiques & Discussion
Final Performances @ ISSUE Project Room
resources / links
http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org
http://visualmusic.blogspot.com/
http://www.vasulka.org/archive/
Grading:
Attendance / Participation 10%
Midterm Assignment 25%
weekly short assignments 20%
final performance 25%
class presentation 20%