24 Hour Sibelius Project

I had the initial idea about making 24 Hour Sibelius while I was working on the sound for The Future Past Tense. There I had chosen and isolated passages of music and manipulated them in various ways, layered them and in a way created a composition by structuring them. The music I had chosen then were favourite moments from composers such as Purcell and Schubert. They are mostly moments of transition or a harmonic modulation, when a phrase moves from one key into another, or when a harmonic resolution takes place from dissonance into consonance. Even though in the past I studied some musical theory, I am still baffled and intrigued by some musical devices. It's like knowing how a magic trick is done but still finding it amazing.

I worked on maintaining the emotional impact of those moments in the music, seeing how far I could stretch or invert them, slow them or misplace them, and still retain the magical effect of those modulations. Other things happen too in mixing and shaping layers of music - new sounds and enharmonics are created - these are like sound echoes. Musicians and naturally musical people are more aware of these - perhaps it's akin to artists having a heightened awareness of negative space - it's there all the time, as are enharmonics, but you can become more attuned or sensitised to it. Whether or not you are aware, these aspects are effective and add to the range of power.

I thought I would like to work with more music, with a symphony, you can see the rest of my thinking...

9th May 2013

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In the next unit I will pick up these thoughts further, but all the while this year I have been thinking through various aspects of making 24 Hour Sibelius, what visual material I will use, how it will all work and fit together, how the sound could be. There are so many possibilities, and for such a big project there are a lot of things to think through.

Now that I have thought of it, I love the challenge of attempting such an ambitious project, with so many technical puzzles and truly testing aspects. Making every frame count. I already know Bank Street Arts, so have an idea of the choice of room and installation I can set up. I have been working through at the back of my mind two projectors that play different layers of moving image, merging together on different walls. There are still issues of storing so much digital information to resolve, and much of it I must commit to early on if I am to get it all together in time.

I certainly love the idea of fully immersing myself in this for a year or so. Even then, time is pressing. However, it is forming, forming. Issues of copyright still have to be definitively resolved, but already I see the piece and hear it, as if from afar. There is the sound - the decisions about how to stretch out the Sibelius Symphonies - do I fill in the gaps, manipulate and layer it, keep it recognisable, etc - still experimenting and deciding. Perhaps other sounds will be a part of this...

One layer of moving image will grow from the technical aspects of the music - abstracted, but about the manuscript, the notes, the musical theory and science. The other is the expansive side, the more feeling aspects of music, perhaps an endless landscape. They merge together in an intended random way, creating the new layer. There are other elements to incorporate - especially the imagery I have been collecting - the found paintings...more later.

I don't know how that all fits together yet, and only know that it will.

I'm looking forward to getting going with this.

16th August 2013