Polansky

1/07/07

There's been a lot of work done in this area by me, my students, friends, colleagues, etc. This page doesn't try to summarize all of it (or keep up with what people are doing). Just a few references to get started.

email me with questions if you like...

my home page

• 1996 "Morphological Metrics," Journal of New Music Research, 25(4):289?368, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, The Netherlands. [the long article] (email me for copies)
  
• 1992 "Possible and Impossible Melody: Some Formal Aspects of Contour," with Richard Bassein, Journal of Music Theory, 36(2): 259 - 284. [focused theoretical description of contour, foundational to the contour metrics]
• 1987 "Morphological Metrics: An Introduction to a Theory of Formal Distances," Proceedings of the ICMC, Urbana, pp. 197-205. [a shorter presentation]

• "Spectral Mutation in Soundhack," with Tom Erbe. 20th Anniversary Issue of the Computer Music Journal. 20:1, pp. 92-101. Earlier version published in Proceedings of the 5th Biennial Conference on Arts and Technology, Connecticut College, pp. 122-138. Short version published in the Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Banff, pp. 107-110.
•  "More on Morphological Mutations: Recent Techniques and Developments," Proceedings of the ICMC, San Jose, pp. 57-60.
• 1991 "Morphological Mutation Functions: Applications to Motivic Transformation and a New Class of Cross-Synthesis Techniques," with Martin McKinney, Proceedings of the ICMC, Montreal, pp. 234-241.
  

published descriptions of pieces using these ideas

• 1996, Bedhaya Sadra/Bedhaya Guthrie, computer-composed score for voices, gamelan, and instruments, Perspectives of New Music, 34(1):28-55.
• 1996, No Replacement (85 Verses for Kenneth Gaburo), computer-written poem and accompanying theoretical notes, Perspectives of New Music, Volume 33.
• 1994 "Live Interactive Computer Music in HMSL, 1984-1992," with Nick Didkovsky, Computer Music Journal, 18(2): 59-77.
• 1991"Live Interactive Intelligent Computer Music in HMSL: Notes on Pieces 1984-91," with Nick Didkovsky, Proceedings of the ICMC, Montreal, pp. 37-44.
• Distance Musics I-VI, works for performer/programmers and live interactive computer music systems in Perspectives of New Music, 25(1&2): 537-544.
  

a good description of HMSL

• 1990 "HMSL (Hierarchical Music Specification Language): A Theoretical Overview," with Phil Burk and David Rosenboom, Perspectives of New Music, 28(2): 136-178.[most of the original mutation and metric stuff was done in HMSL]

what kind of software exists for this stuff?

• the spectral mutation functions have been implemented (by tom erbe and I) in tom's  soundhack. This has been available for some time, and the software has been very widely used.
  
• a huge amount of software, with very general and robust libraries, etc., implementing the stuff in the articles on mutations and metrics, existed in HMSL (mainly what I've used to compose with). HMSL is written by Phil Burk, me and David Rosenboom.
• other people (Martin McKinney's M.A thesis at Dartmouth, Chris Langmead in his PAST, a number of others) have written software using these ideas in the spectral domain. check the dartmouth m.a program website for links.
• Akira Rabelais ' Argeïphontes Lyre program is a great piece of work that implements the mutation functions in the time domain
• Peter Castine has implemented the mutation functions, with some nifty additions and new ideas, in MSP, in a package called litter. The MSP object [lp.tim~] does time interval mutations and [lp.frim~] does spectral mutations. There's also [lp.vim] that works at the Max level.
  
• probably the best platform to work in for this kind of stuff now is Nick Didkovsky and Phil Burk's JMSL, which is a wonderful implementation of HMSL's philosophies in a very hip JAVA environment.
• speaking of nick, check out his combinatorial contour applet, lots of fun
• one of my ex- dartmouth students, kimo johnson, did some very interesting new theoretical and software work with contour theory, and morphing in contour space.

• a number of these pieces (51 Melodies, Bedhaya..., Casten Variation, 3rd Anna study, etc.) are on my CD called Change from Artifact CDs, which is available from Frog Peak Music.

A short list of some of the pieces that use the mutations and metrics very directly is:

Instrumental
[most of my scores are available through frog peak music (a composers' collective), but many scores and recordings are on this website as well]

•  V'Leem'Shol (...and to rule...) (Cantillation Study #2). Five flutes (with optional alto flute doubling "trope"). Second set of 17 verses of Torah, part of set of Cantillation Studies. For Ann LaBerge and David Rosenboom, composed using FORTH/HMSL compositional algorithms. Premiered by Ann LaBerge, Center for 21st Century Music Concert, Mills College, March, 1985; revised version, 1987, in complex just intonation. Recorded by Anne La Berge on Centaur CDCM CD, The Virtuoso in the Computer Age: II.
• The Casten Variation. 1993-4 Piano, or piano and ensemble, HMSL-composed score. Premiered Mills College, April, 1994 (piano version). Will appear, performed by Sarah Cahill, on my next Artifact CD, Change.
• Bedhaya Sadra/Bedhaya Guthrie. 1989; 1990. Voices, melody instruments, kemanak and gamelan accompaniment; computer-composed work based on tunes by Woody Guthrie and I Wayan Sadra. Uses HMSL mutation software. Commissioned and premiered by ASTRA Choir (John McCaughey, conducting), Melbourne, August, 1989. Revised version premiered NYC, Gamelan Son of Lion, May, 1990. Revised score, 1992. Solo clarinet version, premiered by Daniel Goode, August, 1992, Knitting Factory, NYC. Score published in Perspectives of New Music, 1995. Will appear (Dan Goode version, with me on gender),  on my next Artifact CD, Change.
• Roads to Chimacum. Mandolin quartet or string quartet. Computer-composed work. 17 variations on my arrangement of a fiddle tune by Patricia Spaeth. Uses HMSL mutation software. Premiered May, 1993, Modern Mandolin Quartet; and string quartet version, March, 1994, Zurich.
• Two Children’s Songs. Tuba and trombone, two tubas, two bassoons, or any two bass wind instruments. Computer-composed work. Uses HMSL mutation software. Premiered May, 1992, Dartmouth.
• 51 Melodies (Pride holds the multitudes in a continual, habitual process of readornment). Computer-composed work for two electric guitars and optional rhythm section, or any two melody instruments. Uses HMSL mutation software. Premiered, December, 1991, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, NYC. Will appear, performed by Nick Didkovsky and I on guitars, Leo Ciesa on drums, and Greg Anderson on bass, on my Artifact CD, Change.

• Distance Music. Set of pieces for any number of performer/programmers using live microcomputer systems. Several have been performed, including Distance Music I ("The Metric System") (for Charles Ames), Distance Music IV ("Drawing Unnecessary Conclusions"),"Distance Music V ("The Roots of Learning") (for John Bischoff, Tim Perkis and Jim Horton), and Distance Music VI ("The World's Longest Melody") (for David Feldman). Published in Perspectives of New Music.
• 17 Simple Melodies of the Same Length (for Dan Goode). 1987-8. Clarinet (or any melody instrument) and live interactive intelligent computer. Written in HMSL (portable live computer music piece). Premiered in NYC by Dan Goode, in Seattle by William Smith, in San Francisco by George Brooks, in Toronto by John Oswald, in Europe by Ann LaBerge; on cassette from Frog Peak Music. This piece is described in the CMJ article on my live HMSL pieces.
• Three Studies (for performers and live computer): 1. Rhythm, 2. Melody, 3. Harmony. Premiered by the Downtown Ensemble, NYC., May, 1990. Also performed at Telluride Composer-to-Composer and Darmstadt Festival (July,1990). Software distributed by Frog Peak Music. This piece is described in the CMJ article on my live HMSL pieces.

• Frog Peak Collaboration Pieces. 14 1 minute tape works based on a text/reading by Chris Mann. Most of these on Frog Peak Colalborations CD. The ones that use the mutation functions are:
• Chris Morphs #1-5
• Study: baa baa birthday have you any star. August. Tape. Computer-synthesized work using Soundhack spectral mutations. On Computer Music Journal 20th Anniversary Issue CD. One of the Three Anna Studies.