UC San Diego

220 Pages·2015·40.65 MB·English

by  Paul Hembree

UC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Ouroboros and Apocryphal Chrysopoeia: Aesthetics and Techniques
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jf0v775
Author
Hembree, Paul James
Publication Date
2015
Supplemental Material
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jf0v775#supplemental

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Ouroboros and Apocryphal Chrysopoeia: Aesthetics and Techniques
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in
Music
by
Paul James Hembree
Committee in charge:
Professor Roger Reynolds, chair
Professor Amy Alexander
Professor Samuel Buss
Professor Mark Dresser
Professor Miller Puckette
2015
Copyright ©
Paul James Hembree, 2015
All rights reserved.
The Dissertation of Paul James Hembree is approved, and it is acceptable
in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Chair
University of California, San Diego
2015
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Signature Page ........................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents ................................................................................................... iv
List of Supplemental Files ......................................................................................v
List of Figures .........................................................................................................vi
Acknowledgements ….............................................................................................xiv
Vita ..........................................................................................................................xv
Abstract of the Dissertation ....................................................................................xvi
1 Ouroboros and Apocryphal Chrysopoeia: Aesthetics and Techniques ..............1
1.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................2
1.1.1 Landscape Paintings of the Information Age ........................3
1.1.2 Atemporal Panoramas Unravelled in Time ...........................8
1.2 Apocryphal Chrysopoeia: A Synesthetic Virtual Instrument ..............18
1.2.1 Cellular Automata and Music: Background ..........................19
1.2.2 Spatial Metaphors of Pitch and Harmony Perception ...........24
1.2.3 Articulating the Pitch Space ..................................................33
1.2.4 Randomized Onsets and Smoothed Edges ............................38
1.2.5 Visual Music: Background ....................................................41
1.2.6 Cross-modal Mapping in Apocryphal Chrysopoeia ..............45
1.3 Extended Trumpet Techniques ….........................................................49
1.4 The Construction of a Text ..................................................................57
1.4.1 Libretto with References .......................................................61
1.4.2 Libretto Formatted for Program Notes ..................................66
1.5 Conclusion ...........................................................................................73
1.6 References ............................................................................................75
2 Audio-visual score to Ouroboros .......................................................................80
3 Instrumental score to Ouroboros ........................................................................96
Appendix: Representative MAX patches for Apocryphal Chrysopoeia..................165

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LIST OF SUPPLEMENTAL FILES
Documentation of Performance, Movement 1 ....................ouroboros-01-mvt1.mov
Documentation of Performance, Movement 2 ....................ouroboros-02-mvt2.mov
Documentation of Performance, Interlude ..........................ouroboros-03-interlude.mov
Documentation of Performance, Movement 3 ....................ouroboros-04-mvt3.mov
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. De Wilde's NRS# The World As Seen Through My Eyes In Which
I Set Myself On Fire (2011). .......................................................................7
Figure 2. Four successive stages in the evolution of river meanders towards an
oxbow lake. ................................................................................................ 9
Figure 3. Braided, canonic melodic lines in Ouroboros, m. 158 – 161................ 10
Figure 4. Analysis of the saxophone line in Ouroboros, m. 158 – 161................. 11
Figure 5. Geologic map of Mississippi River meander belt, near Helena, AR.
Note the meander in the center of the map that has nearly begun to be
cut off from the main course of the river. ...................................................12
Figure 6. Satellite imagery of the Mississippi meander belt near Helena, AR.
Note the dark blue oxbow lake that has now been formed where once
was a meander in the earlier image. ............................................................13
Figure 7. Three layers of quantized tempo variations over the course of eight
2/4 bars. .......................................................................................................14
Figure 8. A musical realization of the quantized tempo variation graph in
figure 7. .......................................................................................................15
Figure 9. Filtration process of the tempo “surface,” used to create canonic
rhythmic organization. ….............................................................................16
Figure 10. Resulting rhythms after the filtration process. …..................................17
Figure 11. Pigments in a mollusc shell, real and artificial. ....................................20
Figure 12. A graphic depiction of the evolution of the cellular automata in
bar 10 of Horos. ..........................................................................................21
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Figure 13. Bar 10 of Horos. ...................................................................................22
Figure 14. A two-dimensional map of a toroidal pitch space modeled after
Roger Shepard's double-helix (Shepard 1982, 316), used in an early
version of Apocryphal Chrysopoeia. ..........................................................26
Figure 15. The vertically-compressed double-helix used as the default pitch
structure and hexagonal cellular automaton neighborhood in
Apocryphal Chrysopoeia and Ouroboros. ..................................................27
Figure 16. A demonstration still from Apocryphal Chrysopoeia, showing
the vertically-compressed double-helix. .....................................................27
Figure 17. A demonstration still from Apocryphal Chrysopoeia, with pitch
labels. In my current model, volume is slightly more sensitive to
distance than visual rendering, and therefore we can see more cells
than we can hear. ....................................................................................... 29
Figure 18. A list of the pitches present in figure 16, shaded according to
volume based on proximity to the observer. ...............................................30
Figure 19. A demonstration still generated by Apocryphal Chrysopoeia,
similar to figure 16, but with two pitch-class swaps: Bb has been
swapped for E, and C has been swapped with F#. ......................................30
Figure 20. The harmonic field resulting from the allocation of pitches
shown in figure 18. Note the inclusion of many more possible
dissonances due to the presence of Bb and C. ............................................31
Figure 21. A highly scattered arrangement of cells due to a very active
wander function. Detuning is suggested by plus and minus signs. ............32
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Figure 22. A harmonic field created by arrangement of cells in figure 20.
Detuning here is notated with standard quarter-tone accidentals. ..............33
Figure 23. Eight steps in a toroidal, double-helical, hexagonal cellular
automaton with the ruleset “23/34.” ….......................................................34
Figure 24. The same cellular automaton steps as figure 22, but with the
same labelling as figure 14, showing some information about pitch. .........35
Figure 25. The progression generated by the eight steps in the cellular
automaton and pitch mapping in figure 23. ................................................36
Figure 26. The progression generated by the eight steps in the cellular
automaton in figure 23, but with the pitch mapping that swaps C
instead of F# and Bb instead of E. Some pitches are respelled for
easier notation of harmonies. ......................................................................37
Figure 27. “Piano-roll” style notation for four different onset and
amplitude envelope regimes. ...................................................................... 40
Figure 28. Apocryphal Chrysopoeia without any cross-modal effects.
Cubes are the default geometric primitive because they readily
betray their rotation. ................................................................................... 41
Figure 29. Paul Klee, Abstraction with Reference to a Flowering Tree
(1925). .........................................................................................................42
Figure 30. Scramble in a low setting causes rippling in the surface of the
primitives, along with subtle chorusing in the audio domain. ....................46
Figure 31. Scramble taken to an extreme creates audio-visual noise.. ..................46
Figure 32. Crushed primitives with only two polygons remaining. These
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would be coupled by extremely decimated audio, with only a few
frequencies accurately represented. ............................................................47
Figure 33. Skittered primitives rotate randomly around their respective
center points in three dimensions, coupled with randomly “rotating”
ring modulation. .........................................................................................47
Figure 34. Spectre desaturates the primitives, and applies a bounded
resonant band-pass filter to the spectra of the sounds. ................................48
Figure 35. Wetness in reverberation is coupled with visual feedback. ...................49
Figure 36. Dempster producing a split-tone multiphonic; buzz-points marked.....51
Figure 37. Written-pitch split-tones on C and Bb trumpets. Square note heads
are used to indicate the harsh beating sound associated with these
multiphonics, in a similar fashion to Bartolozzi's notation for
multiphonics with beating sounds in woodwinds. ......................................54
Figure 38. Split-tone texture in the trumpet, Ouroboros, m. 33 – 47.....................56
Figure 39. hex-cells: Top-level patch in presentation mode for performance,
with rendering window below. ....................................................................165
Figure 40. hex-cells: Top-level patch in editing mode. .........................................166
Figure 41. window-controls (sub-patch of hex-cells): Various OpenGL blend
mode options, OpenGL rendering environment object, and floating
window object. ...........................................................................................167
Figure 42. camera-controls (sub-patch of hex-cells): Four different variables
control how the camera position changes over time. ..................................168
Figure 43. find-mic-pos (sub-patch of window-controls): Calculates position of
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