(1980-81) sound synthesis [LP Edipan PAN PRC S20-16] [6’ 54″]
Premiered at Varadero Music Festival, Cuba, April 19th 1981
The macrostructure is made up by seven different curves which correspond to the graphic representation, on a two-dimensional space with frequency as the ordinate and time as the abscissa, of the variations of as many circumference arcs.
This macrostructures determines the formal parameters (repetition series, action time, duration, number of voices, movement in the time-frequency space) of seven kinds of polyphonic rhythmic structures; these are graphically generated on the score mentioned above not with the intention to reach a musical parallel of them, but because previous experiences have shown that the formal perception of both visual shapes and acoustic events are ‘controlled’ by the same laws. Here I have utilized the descriptive principles which have been formulated by the Gestalt School: proximity, similarity, good continuation, etc. The law of Pragnanz, for example, favours the choice of simple, regular, symmetric shapes, and such are the structures here employed. The pure sounds that form them (sine waves with frequency jitter) lose their identity for make up the whole.
These principles being more effective when they are combined with symmetry, I have placed on the left channel the same structures of the right one in specular form.
The composition has been realized with the facilities of the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale, University of Padova.