Task 06 - Musical interpretation of a set painting
For this task we were assigned to write music that we feel best interprets a set painting. I chose a painting by Robert Delaunay. It is a spiral with lots of fragmented colours which become rather hypnotic the nearer the centre you get in the spiral. Many of Delaunay’s paintings are very abstract and I felt that to best represent this, the music needed to be as abstract as the painting. However the overall structure of the of the painting lead me to creating a ‘hypnotic’ feel which constantly moves as if one were being sucked into the spiral like a black hole. The musical gestures are very simple and sustained throughout the composition, but one can feel as if they are inside the painting through listening. The sounds are treated with tremolo effects to give the impression that the spiral is turning, and the closer you get to the centre, the more effects speed up and the shorter the gestures become. Layers of rhythmic motion synths create the feeling of movement and use of automation on various dsp parameters further creates a sense of movement. Different colours are represented by using different effects, tones and timbres. As one follows the painting further the music moves towards the fragmented inner of the spiral where the sounds begin to almost fragment themselves, until the sounds disappear into the centre of the spiral. I created this by starting with long sustained notes and then gradually shortening them in the matrix editor in Logic, as the music progressed. Once near the middle, the sounds become very frantic and disjointed representing that of the painting. In short the music has been created as if one were following the spiral round and round until it reaches the centre. Using abstract sounds and hypnotic undertones throughout the piece, I hoped this would mimic the overall structure of the painting creating a strong relationship between what is seen and what is heard.
