Point to line to plane

#teamclassical is both the vetus modus & the novous modus; I realized we could map 12-tones onto I-V-I via geometry! twitter.com/TeamClassical/…

— Team Classical (@TeamClassical) June 28, 2012

Recently, I mapped the 12 tones against traditional harmonic intervals to create a circle map. Chords can be created by drawing polygons between the points. Then I changed the circle to a spiral to create octaves.

What can we learn from this representation? The chords create planes with a certain area. What can we abstract from the overlapping planes?

Can we learn something of the essential nature of harmonic construction from this type of visual representation?
Imagine scores animated through this type of spiral. The planes would dance and stretch and disappear and re-emerge in patterns of delight.

Netflix for Opera

The Met released an iPad app for their popular on-demand streaming service. Read the review from NPR.


Caltrain classical

Every time I ride the train, I think about how music is living code. My daily commute from Palo Alto to SF contains a special talent pool: front-end engineers who roll .js, back-end engineers who push the stack, graphic designers who tweak CSS, app devs who crunch iPhone vs. Android and every other type of web, eng, dev and designer in the valley. Side-by-side we sit together and work for the morning's first hour.

Today I did something different; I plugged my headphones into my iPad and plunged into the river Rhine, climbed up the magic rainbow, and got my perspective reset by James Morris as Wotan and Christa Ludwig as Fricka.

Details:
104 videos and 262 audio-only performances
Dates range from 1936 to today
Limited social engagement: send a Tweet from the app
English subtitles on most operas

Requires a subscription to Met Opera on Demand.
Get a free 7-day trial on the Met's site.

10 things you need to know about the new @metopera iPad app: n.pr/zNgavv #opera

— NPR Classical (@nprclassical) March 15, 2012

It's like Netflix for opera... n.pr/yNkQzX

— Jay Batzner (@jaybatzner) March 15, 2012

The social integration reduces to simple Tweets sent from the app. Can we imagine a social consumption experience for Opera that transcends one-way tweeting or comments? How could we all watch and tweet together?

Other apps that do classical music well: NPR

Hashtag Armada

@Hashtag_Armada my fav part here: making it happen! twitter.com/buckhouse/stat…

— James Buckhouse (@buckhouse) December 14, 2011

The embeddable Tweet above is a follow up on Hashtag Armada's Twitter-based composition project.

Each game starts with a set of parameters, such as “solo piano, 4/4, 140 bpm.” A composer writes one measure, then tags someone to write the next one. He or she can describe the measure they have written to whomever they have tagged, but their description is limited to a single tweet. The first round has just been completed. Parameters for the next round will be posted here shortly.

Their project is pretty cool! More than 25 composers from all over the world participated. To view the score, click here.

Night recording

You find a cassette. It is the music of your dreams. What does it play?

Polymorphism: theme and variations

In object-oriented programming, polymorphism is the ability to create a variable, a function, or an object that has more than one form.

This, along with encapsulation and inheritance, gives object-oriented languages their power.

In music, polymorphism happens across the centuries: in theme and variation pieces, tone rows and even the abstracted instantiations of contrapuntal rules across modes.

A few favs:

Beethoven:
33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120




Messiaen:
Theme and Variations. David Oistrakh (violin), Frida Bauer (piano)




Tchaikovsky:
Tema con Variazioni from his Suite No. 3 for Orchestra.


From the Met Opera:

Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck uses a Passacaglia, an old Baroque form of Theme and Variations where a bass ostinato (repeated figure, sometimes known as a “ground bass”) is played again and again with variations, sometimes so complex that the original “ground bass” figure can no longer be obviously discerned.

Berg wrote 21 variations on this passacaglia theme (Ex. #1a). (Note, that each of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale is used once before any other tone returns again. This “tone row” consists of the notes E flat, B, G, C sharp, C, F sharp, E, B flat, A, F, A flat and D. This is the basic concept of “12 tone” music, which Berg used exclusively in his only other opera Lulu.)



The only time this theme can be obviously heard is the very first time, played by a solo cello, first repetitively and toward the end of its first statement in a dotted rhythm (Ex. #1b).



Want to learn more? Check out The Met Opera’s teaching materials on Wozzeck.