Welcome
This is the home of award-winning composer and designer Jamie Klenetsky. Here, you will find Jamie's compositions and performances, web/graphic design portfolio, and biography. Jamie's blog, detailing her music, web, and personal lives, is below.
Monday, March 8, 2010
13-Note Scale
It's called Bohlen-Pierce.
It's seriously fascinating. This article is definitely worth a read (and a listen). Basically, using different ratios between notes, a 13-note scale was developed. It's really jarring to listen to, "alien" as people seem to call it. It's really quite beautiful I think, but we are so used to our 12-note scale that the slight change in frequencies can be mind-blowing! Check it out.
It's seriously fascinating. This article is definitely worth a read (and a listen). Basically, using different ratios between notes, a 13-note scale was developed. It's really jarring to listen to, "alien" as people seem to call it. It's really quite beautiful I think, but we are so used to our 12-note scale that the slight change in frequencies can be mind-blowing! Check it out.
Labels: music
posted by Jamie at
10:15 AM
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
C4 Success! And other updates
I have to say, C4's latest concert, "Sound and Fury," was probably the best I've been in. Saturday's performance was very good - technically and emotionally. I haven't felt that into music in quite a long time.
My piece, An Ever-Fixed Mark, is based on Sonnet 116. I don't usually know how a piece will turn out until I hear it performed by actual people (as opposed to the MIDI I'm used to). This piece came out to be almost a lecture from the pulpit, broad and with pauses and with the lyrics in order (the only piece in the concert to have that), kind of an explanation of love. The sonnet means a great deal to me - in my personal anxieties, the sonnet reminds me about what's important.
Thanks to all who came and gave me support in writing and being in C4. It's really a wonderful experience.
In other news, I'll be participating in the Vermont Composition Workshop in June. I think it'll be really helpful for me, to help me learn to focus on what I really want to do, which is to write pieces that are listenable but not boring (to me, so it'll have to be pretty interesting!), more singable and more moving.
Finally, there have been a couple of interesting articles lately: Weaponizing Mozart and Triumph of the Cyborg Composer. Both can change the way we think about music: the first, how Britain is "punishing" students by making them listen to classical music, turning them off to it forever; the second, how David Cope's music-making algorithm "Emily Howell" creates music with "soul", and what this means for our conceptions of making music. Definitely worth a read!
Labels: music
posted by Jamie at
12:00 PM
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Virtual Composer
An article on Ars Technica piqued my interest. It's about a composer/programmer who basically programmed a composition AI to produce pieces, and it's got me thinking, what should we consider to be "composition"?
I'm thinking about Steve Reich and his Phase Music concept. He would write some basic fragments, loop them at different times/tempi, and just let them run until he could pick out pieces that he liked. In Different Trains he used looped vocal samples in his composition. People praise Reich for his ideas. I'm wondering just how different this is. Reich essentially "programmed" notes, let an automated process do the rest, and then tweaked/choose what he wanted to use.
And if you think about it, we aren't creating new notes when we compose, the notes already exist, and we "program" them into pieces. After thinking about it, I believe that if a person does the programming himself, like this composer did, then it IS his creation, and should be considered to be a composition. However, if music is created using a program like Adobe Soundbooth, which can be used to pick a mood, theme, and it generates music for you, it shouldn't be considered a composition - the "writer" had no say in it whatsoever.
I'm no programmer, so I'll continue writing the old fashioned way - though on a computer - and although I get a sour taste in my mouth from the idea of an AI, it does make sense, and I admire the work this composer/programmer has done.
I'm thinking about Steve Reich and his Phase Music concept. He would write some basic fragments, loop them at different times/tempi, and just let them run until he could pick out pieces that he liked. In Different Trains he used looped vocal samples in his composition. People praise Reich for his ideas. I'm wondering just how different this is. Reich essentially "programmed" notes, let an automated process do the rest, and then tweaked/choose what he wanted to use.
And if you think about it, we aren't creating new notes when we compose, the notes already exist, and we "program" them into pieces. After thinking about it, I believe that if a person does the programming himself, like this composer did, then it IS his creation, and should be considered to be a composition. However, if music is created using a program like Adobe Soundbooth, which can be used to pick a mood, theme, and it generates music for you, it shouldn't be considered a composition - the "writer" had no say in it whatsoever.
I'm no programmer, so I'll continue writing the old fashioned way - though on a computer - and although I get a sour taste in my mouth from the idea of an AI, it does make sense, and I admire the work this composer/programmer has done.
Labels: music
posted by Jamie at
11:29 AM
0 Comments
Monday, August 3, 2009
Writing in 60 Minutes
Yesterday I took part in the 60/60 Competition for New Music Hartford. This involved writing a piece in one hour for a specific ensemble, which wouldn't be specified until an hour before it was due. The options were flute/cello, a chamber group, or a fixed electronic piece - I tried doing a flute/cello duet but it just wasn't working, so I opened Live and ran with it.
What I love about writing electronic music is that it fits into that "writing from pieces" idea. I have a bunch of free VST (instruments) that I found online, which each have a number of different sounds built in. Just hearing an instrument gives me an idea. The randomness of the instruments is inspirational as well. (Some of them have interesting effects the longer you hold down the note on your keyboard!) Then there are cool effects, reverb and delay and the whatnot, to make the sounds even more unique.
The first instrument I picked immediately made me think of "Space Music", so I ran with that idea. The piece is kind of ambient, which was new for me. It's trying to evoke an object roaming through space and passing by, leaving it as it was. I think there are some interesting sounds in there.
Writing in an hour was pretty liberating. Often I'll work for a half hour, then notice the time and give up. Here, at the half hour mark, I HAD to keep going, which freed me of my imposed limitations. The piece was sent with 15 seconds to spare - I didn't get a confirmation e-mail so I hope it still counts! In any event, go to the Compositions page to check out "Space Music".
What I love about writing electronic music is that it fits into that "writing from pieces" idea. I have a bunch of free VST (instruments) that I found online, which each have a number of different sounds built in. Just hearing an instrument gives me an idea. The randomness of the instruments is inspirational as well. (Some of them have interesting effects the longer you hold down the note on your keyboard!) Then there are cool effects, reverb and delay and the whatnot, to make the sounds even more unique.
The first instrument I picked immediately made me think of "Space Music", so I ran with that idea. The piece is kind of ambient, which was new for me. It's trying to evoke an object roaming through space and passing by, leaving it as it was. I think there are some interesting sounds in there.
Writing in an hour was pretty liberating. Often I'll work for a half hour, then notice the time and give up. Here, at the half hour mark, I HAD to keep going, which freed me of my imposed limitations. The piece was sent with 15 seconds to spare - I didn't get a confirmation e-mail so I hope it still counts! In any event, go to the Compositions page to check out "Space Music".
Labels: music
posted by Jamie at
6:16 AM
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