Adversa
June 19, 2015 7:04 AM
This song illustrates a quote from the Tao Te Ching -- “Existence and non-existence create each other”.
Top Two Voices
Rhythm
Using Google Translate, I Romanized the original Chinese text.
gu you wu xiangsheng
I then used this script to find the ASCII representation of each Roman letter. This gave me a “binary translation” of each word.
gu = 1100111 + 1110101 = 11001111110101
white space = 100000
you = 1111001 + 1101111 + 1110101 = 111100111011111110101
etc.
Next, I concatenated each of the four words together. This yields a binary translation of the entire Tao Te Ching quote.
11001111110101100000...
Finally, I “chunked” the large and unwieldy binary string above into parsable segments of 4 bits and 2 bits.
1100 + 11 + 1111 + 01 + 0110 + 00 + ...
This is the rhythmic structure of the top two voices (1 = note and 0 = rest). The “4 bit rhythm” is played by the middle staff. The “2 bit rhythm” is given to the top voice.
Melody
I used this script to create the melody. I listed the first 55 composite numbers and translated them into music with the simple key 0 = a, 1 = bb, 2 = b, etc. Since 4 is the first composite number, I gave this “composite melody” to the “4 bit rhythm”. Likewise, since 2 is the first prime number, I listed out the first 27 primes, translated them into music, and gave this “prime melody” to the “2 bit rhythm”.
Bottom Voice
The melody of the low voice is taken from the Kyrie of the Missa Orbis Factor. The rhythm is freely composed.
Words
All of the printed words are autoantonyms. The one-syllable word is given to the voice in 1/1, the two-syllable to the 2/2, and the four-syllable to the 4/4.
The score, as well as all the python and lilypond code I used, can be found here.
posted by mxcollins (1 comment total)
Top Two Voices
Rhythm
Using Google Translate, I Romanized the original Chinese text.
gu you wu xiangsheng
I then used this script to find the ASCII representation of each Roman letter. This gave me a “binary translation” of each word.
gu = 1100111 + 1110101 = 11001111110101
white space = 100000
you = 1111001 + 1101111 + 1110101 = 111100111011111110101
etc.
Next, I concatenated each of the four words together. This yields a binary translation of the entire Tao Te Ching quote.
11001111110101100000...
Finally, I “chunked” the large and unwieldy binary string above into parsable segments of 4 bits and 2 bits.
1100 + 11 + 1111 + 01 + 0110 + 00 + ...
This is the rhythmic structure of the top two voices (1 = note and 0 = rest). The “4 bit rhythm” is played by the middle staff. The “2 bit rhythm” is given to the top voice.
Melody
I used this script to create the melody. I listed the first 55 composite numbers and translated them into music with the simple key 0 = a, 1 = bb, 2 = b, etc. Since 4 is the first composite number, I gave this “composite melody” to the “4 bit rhythm”. Likewise, since 2 is the first prime number, I listed out the first 27 primes, translated them into music, and gave this “prime melody” to the “2 bit rhythm”.
Bottom Voice
The melody of the low voice is taken from the Kyrie of the Missa Orbis Factor. The rhythm is freely composed.
Words
All of the printed words are autoantonyms. The one-syllable word is given to the voice in 1/1, the two-syllable to the 2/2, and the four-syllable to the 4/4.
The score, as well as all the python and lilypond code I used, can be found here.
This post was deleted for the following reason: poster's request -- LobsterMitten
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Most composers take the meaning of the text and try to reflect that in the use of musical cliches (or cues, if one is being generous) which while conventionally musical does not reflect a very personal and deep exploration of the subject matter.
You've taken us on a much deeper journey revealing relationships and ideas that would normally not be visible or would even occur to us.
But one thing that is puzzling, why the Kyrie? The English translation is "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy". It's not clear to me what the connection this has to the other quote.
posted by bfootdav at 8:19 AM on June 19, 2015