I did this a while ago and just remembered this morning. I was doing a little presentation on using Patterns in SuperCollider and thought I might be able to make a little mock Studie II with one pattern. It’s definitely nothing as wonderful as Stockhausen’s piece, but I think it’s humorously close.

Here’s the real deal: Stockhausen’s Studie II

Here’s my code:


(
SynthDef(\notQuiteStudieII,
{
arg freq = 440, amp = 0.5, mults = #[1, 1, 1, 1, 1], sustain = 1;
var sound, filt, mix, env, attack, decay;
sound = Formlet.ar(WhiteNoise.ar(0.1), freq*mults, 0.01, 0.05);
mix = Mix(sound);
attack = Rand(0.01, 0.99) * sustain; //attack.poll;
decay = sustain - attack;
env = EnvGen.ar(Env([0, amp, 0], [attack, decay], \lin), levelScale: 0.5, doneAction: 2);
Out.ar(0, FreeVerb.ar(mix, 0.9, 0.9, 0.1) * env ! 2 )
}
).memStore;
)


(
Pbind(
\instrument, \notQuiteStudieII,
\freq, Pwrand([Pwhite(100.0, 1000.0, 1), \rest], [4, 1].normalizeSum, inf),
\mults, Pif( Pkey(\freq) < 500.0,
Pfunc( { [ {rrand(0.5, 0.6) } ! 5 ] } ),
Pfunc( { [ {rrand(0.5, 7.6) } ! 4 ++ 1 ] } ),
Pfunc( { [ {rrand(0.5, 8.0) } ! 4 ++ 1 ] } )
),
\dur, Pif( Pkey(\freq) < 650.0, Pwhite(0.1, 0.8), Pwhite(0.5, 1.9), 1),
\legato, Pif( Pkey(\freq) < 375.0, Pwhite(0.5, 1.2), Pwhite(0.9, 1.9), 1),
\amp, Pwhite(0.1, 0.5)
).play;
)


I drive from Hillcrest in San Diego to Mission Viejo on Fridays to teach some bass lessons. Today’s drive was approximately 12 seconds shy of John Eliot Gardiner’s recordings of Beethoven’s 3rd and 4th Symphonies combined.

There’s something very satisfying about that.

I’m about 400 videos behind the times, but this is an amazing youtube channel.

The Lucerne Festival Academy put up some really nice photos of performances from the festival here.

NYTimes: How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect

Very fun and short article. The last sentence:

Still, the new research supports what many experimental artists, habitual travelers and other novel seekers have always insisted: at least some of the time, disorientation begets creative thinking.

Along with begets, I would add “can be the result of.”

today I played with a sinusoid and counted beats. it was very lovely.

These mostly apply to “tape” or fixed media pieces with performer(s), although the principles definitely carry over to interactive works.

• Provide a way in which to practice along with the media. E.g. separate sound files for different sections, or (not as good but far better than nothing) time stamps in the score.
• If you mean two extra beats of rests, please notate it: do not use a fermata.
• If your tape starts with two beats of rest, let us know!
• As much as people “hate click tracks” and/or find them “unmusical,” people love click tracks.

…

While we’re at it – please notate string harmonics in a way that makes sense. String indications, sounding pitches… Throw us a bone! Just the diamond doesn’t help!


if( thisWorksAsExpected,
     { "happiness abound".postln; },
     { "AHHHHH!!!!".postln; }
);


First things first, the Jack Quartet’s recording of the Xenakis quartets is phenomenal. I only had one of the scores to follow, but holy smokes, the accuracy and musicality is quite astounding. I have no idea what the DVD is like, but I’d be interested in seeing it at some point for sure. I haven’t heard or seen much noise about these recordings online which is a bummer.

I head off to LFA soon and another pictures link should appear to the right. May or may not do the daily-ish update again.

And just for the record……….. medicade and medicare are run by the government. This seems to not resonate with people since I’ve read so many stories about quotes like “Keep the government out of my Medicare,” etc. Lets just do the right thing.

President Obama: “Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private—if private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.”