While watching a horror movie, the sounds orchestrate the atmosphere. A sudden clash ringing from the speakers can cause gasps, shrieks or screaming. These loud staccato noises do not traditionally flow as music — they are a way to shock the audience.
But in computer music these same sounds can become a network of expression.
“People tend to associate really shrill sounds, metallic sounds with that horror movie feeling which can be a little off-putting if the composer is trying to accomplish one thing, but people are thinking another,” Tony Sprinkle, a graduate student in liberal studies, said. “But there is an almost infinite range of sounds and pieces of computer music that illicit different responses with different emotions.”
Computer music is generated through a series of mathematical equations called an algorithm. Composers base their equations on everything from random number generators to the scientific names of marine animals.
“I wrote a program that took as an input the scientific names of aquatic life in the Outer Banks of North Carolina,” Chad Lineberry, a senior in computer science, said. “Depending on what letters were in the name, it would branch and once it got to the bottom it would choose the note to play, how loud it should play and the sound. It’s called generative grammar.”
How the piece sounds is directly related to the composers agenda. Computers can recreate any sound — from the bangs of horror movies to the strings of an orchestra.
Sprinkle said after taking a class on computer composition, computers’ range of sound is what interested him in continuing to produce computer music.
Composers can also choose if they want their piece to be just for performers, just for computers or a combination of the two. Rodney Waschka, a professor of arts studies, creates all three types of computer music.
“I write for a variety of ensembles and resources. Many of my pieces are for traditional artists and performers but many of those pieces are also computer music,” Waschka said. “But most listers would not be able to tell because they are played by traditional musicians.”
Waschka’s main area of research is in compositional algorithms. He creates pieces on whether or not it is commissioned, which determines if he writes a new program, uses a program already made or makes variations on one he has written previously.
When he works he said the first thing he thinks of is who or what will be performing the piece. A string quartet requires different planning then a woodwind quartet or a solo tuba piece because the instruments create different sounds.
“There is a way to program that employs one of these algorithms that will help me determine what actual pitches and durations the players will play in the piece,” Waschka said. “So I will get the output from that program and then translate it almost only into traditional western music notation so the players can read it as music on their music stands.”
Waschka uses music to convey something that cannot be expressed in words. For example, he composed an opera where the sappho sings, but speaks all words. Wasckka uses speech when he desires to convey something very specific that speech clarifies, but if he is composing for harp and computer there will not be any text involved.
He also composes his music for abstract ideas that cannot be turned into words.
“I am not thinking about what people think composers are thinking about. I am not thinking about love or death or war or taxes or a flashy new car,” Waschka said. “I am only thinking about the music. And I think it would be a mistake in terms of much of my music to try to comprehend it on any other way.”
Computer music allows musicians to explore their medium in a new light.
Thomas Baucom, a senior in history and English, said the more technology involved in music the more perspectives and outlets composers have for their creations. However, he gets turned off when the main point is inputting something into the computer rather then the music itself.
“Then you are compromising the art,” Baucom said. “I don’t like it when people come up with this stuff like ‘I turned crickets into a math problem and then I input it into the computer and its output is the same as Einstein.’ At that point I want to slam my head on the table.”
Waschka identified four reasons that composers create computer music. First, it provides a range of sounds not available to them through traditional instruments. Second, they can control the sound to very small levels of sound in terms of duration, milliseconds and the wave form. A third reason is the possibility to fix a piece permanently, so performers cannot interpret the piece. And fourth, it takes politics and finances out of the equations.
“For the last two I don’t want to leave the impression that it is a good idea for a composer to rely on those reasons alone,” Waschka said. “If they just don’t want to deal with those darned difficult performers I don’t think they are likely to make interesting and good electronic music.”
Waschka also points out that a composer needs to have a feel for the medium because it is very different from other musical media, and if they don’t it will turn out very badly.
Sprinkle said he thinks people are turned off to computer music because it is so alien compared to popular or classical music.
“Some people don’t even consider it music because it lacks the meter or the beat that they associate with music,” Sprinkle said. “People shut down and don’t listen to it anymore, but it gives you an opportunity to open your mind and find a new way to enjoy music.”
Lineberry views computer music similarly to Sprinkle.
“It expands your horizons about what you can consider music,” Lineberry said. “And that is part of the college experience, learning to expand your horizons.”