E/A Major 2
The objective for my task was to transform and manipulate a recorded sound.
A well known composer I listened to is Gyorgy Ligeti and was particularly interested in Lux Aeterna. I loved the way he used one instrument, the voices, and changed them smoothly over time for timbre change rather than melody, harmony or rhythm. I decided to choose one recording, the wind chimes (I thought they sounded beautiful in tone and appreciated how the wind could articulate the velocity) and chose certain effects such as delay, chorus, ringshift, spectral gate and ensemble, being careful not to over do each one so there was a more subtle although definite change throughout parts of the recording. I decided not to go any heavier on dynamics or panning because when I closed my eyes to listen, it was nice to ‘see’ it change staying at one point in my mind.
An audio technique I applied was to not go overboard in effects to look for contrast and stay more subtle and delicate to reflect the audio – delicate wind chimes.
A music technique I learned was that subtle differences can still be just as interesting as one’s that are prominent.
This is practice as research because I have learned from Ligeti a new focus on sound manipulation and took his idea to see what I could develop through it using my own sample and ways of structuring and thinking about effects to use and how strongly.
To evaluate myself, I think this piece achieved what I wanted from the start, one recording manipulated quite subtly and I chose something that I thought sounded wonderful on it’s own to play with, getting a dreamy smooth transition throughout.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1988) Lux Aeterna, Germany: WERGO. WER 60162-50. CD, 9:21.
