Electro-ethnomusic
ver. 2. Kimmel Center - Grand Hall, New York, US. 2019
ver. 1. Ulster University - Grand Hall, Derry, Ireland. 2018
Sound Performance. 8ch 2D audio
Algorithmic Pattern Generator, Pyeongyeong Physical Modeling
vid. ver. 1 concert (Click to play)
pic. A Picture of a pyeongyeong
This generative music is composed entirely of sounds from a physically modeled pyeongyeong (a Korean traditional stone chime instrument mainly used for royal ancestral ritual). A physical pyeongyeong consists of sixteen stones, and it is activated by percussion with an implement made of cow horn. Each stone is generally tuned to a different pitch, with thicker ones producing frequencies of greater magnitude. It can be modeled discretely with finite difference method, which is widely used to mathematically model the sound of percussion and other musical instruments.
Liu postulates that in the world of audio synthesis, synthesizers seem to generate culturally 'neutral' sounds as they do not possess ethnological roots, yet they originate from Western European and North American cultural paradigms. Even a sine wave, which is often regarded as the most neutral sound in the world of electronics, should be considered as the sound of Europeans. It was discovered by them and presented to the rest of the world.
While Western sonic aesthetics possess inherent validity and cultural significance, a question remains: What is purely synthesized sound that is non-Western? In this regard, this work is a decolonized approach to audio synthesis, exhibiting characteristics of distinct ethnicity in sound by modeling the sound of the most valuable Korean traditional instrument, pyeongyeong.
Pyeongyeong has been regarded as a sacred instrument that connects the heavenly bodies and earth, and was also used as a reference to tune other instruments in Korean traditional orchestra. It also has a history where all of the instrument makers perished during Japanese colonization, and it was revived based on remaining documentations. Spectromorphological gestures have been achieved by manipulating the shape, size, and density of the virtual pyeongyeongs, which makes glissando-like or spectral techniques possible—something not possible with a physical pyeongyeong.
The digitally coded and crafted instrument was played algorithmically and generates patterns in real-time. After Liu click the play button, the SuperCollider-based and symbolic music generative AI-based collaborators unfolds the entire performance.
pic. Part of the C++ code. This part is for creating a spectromorphological gesture that gradually morphs from a fragmented Pyeong to a complete one.
pic. UI window of the Pyeongyeong physical modeling synthesizer
pic. Part of the score depicts the percussive sounds, resonant low tones, and sustained noisy drones. All of the notes were generated using Supercollider with some custom-made pattern generator UGens, and all sounds were derived from the pyeongyeong physical model.