Phase music is a form of music that uses phasing as a primary compositional technique. Phasing is a compositional technique in which two instruments play the repetitive same melody in different beats. Thus, the two instruments gradually shift out of u...
Phase music is a form of music that uses phasing as a primary compositional technique. Phasing is a compositional technique in which two instruments play the repetitive same melody in different beats. Thus, the two instruments gradually shift out of unison. It was popularized by minimal music composer Steve Reich.
The computer music system made in this study is for phase music and interactive multimedia performance. The system developed in this study consists of controlling sound effects for phasing, the visualized image controlled by instrument’s sound and interaction between the two.
The sound effects are divided for rhythm phasing and for pitch phasing. Delay effector and phase vocoder are used for rhythm phasing, and pitch shifter, granular synthesis and frequency filter are used for pitch phasing.
The video system is designed to shape the musical instruments, and all video images are created in real time. In this study, composer used electric guitar and oboe, and the video images respond to the volume values of these two instruments. Video image of the electric guitar mainly visualizes rhythm phasing, and that of the oboe visualizes pitch phasing. So this images react eidetically to the instruments, thereby assisting the music.
As digitization of analogue sound, phasing can be quantified, and it is now possible to use various methods such as pitch phasing. Not only rhythm and pitch phasing, but also tone change by change harmonics phase is phase music. These can create compelling music without compromising any existing phase music.
Of course, that is not mean acoustic phase music is bad. However, the potential for musical use of phasing using computers are also attractive. And that is not limited in phase music. In the future, it will be an additional research topic to learn how artistic effects can be obtained from the basic elements of computer music, such as phasing. And that is not limited in phase music.