Composition Study 5 - Pencil and Paper

Introduction

We were given the task of creating a composition using only a pencil and a piece of paper as the source of all of our sound material. The sounds that were created could be manipulated in any way as long as the sounds create were only from the interaction of the paper and pencil.

"Create a “noise” piece.

1.     Create a small library of recordings using only the supplied pencil and paper as sound sources.

2.     Compose a piece of music using only this library.

Microphone(s) and recording technique(s) are subject to individual preference.

Source sounds may be manipulated in any way."

Research

Music Concrete

Music Concrete is a form of electroacoustic music, which uses sounds from a wide variety of instruments, voices and objects, partly made from acousmatic sound, meaning sound created without knowing what instrument or object is making that sound. It was an experimental technique of composition developed by Pierre Schaeffer. Pierre started Studio d'Essai which was a studio in which he took part in experimentation into this new way of composing. An example of a piece of music concrete is Pierre Schaeffer's piece - Apostrophe.

Pierre Schaeffer - Apostrophe

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Stockhausen was a german composer who studied at Schaeffer's studio d'Essai. One of his most well known pieces a piece of music concrete,  Etude. It is Stockhausen's earliest work of electroacoustic music. Here is an example of Stockhausen's piece "Studie II".

Composition

The song was composed by a combination of twelve sounds. The composition has a running sounds throughout of the pencil being written on the piece of paper. Other sounds that were produced included:

• Wrapping the paper around the microphone and hitting the paper with the pencil.
• Running the microphone over the paper.
• Stabbing the paper with the pencil.

The "narrative" of this piece as if someone is sitting in an exam in silence, trying to complete a test but end up day-dreaming. The sounds heard through the piece are meant to be all the different intrusive thoughts that the person is having. The piece then ends with the sound of the person scribbling on the page and scrunching up the paper, to symbolize them not being happy with what they had just written.

All of the sounds within the piece were then manipulated by a number of techniques using time stretching, pitch shifting and reverb.

Final Mix 

 

Conclusion 

I enjoy the idea of the pieces, but if the process was repeated again I would have spent more time on developing the sounds. Aside from that this was an enjoyable assignment.
 

References

1. Norock Androll. (2010). Pierre Schaeffer - Apostrophe . Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2o9VyuJSD4. Last accessed Sep 2014.

2. NewMusicXX. (2009). Stockhausen "Studie II" (Elektronische Musik). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXqvBvOXV3U. Last accessed Sep 2014.