Scott A. Yost

Music

I've been experimenting with some ways of making music, with various instruments - computer, trombone, dulcimer, didgeridoo, keyboard, mbira, .... The trombone is the only one I've studied - I played in bands through college, but don't (can't) play it much any more. I play the dulcimer most these days... here is a piece for computer-processed dulcimer I recorded in 2008:

Computers provide a good way to make music without having to play an instrument well, and compose music without a lot of studying.

Calculated Music, below, was created using SoftStep, a product of Algorithmic Arts. The most basic free version (2.0.7) was used. Only the most primitive modules were needed, since I was interested in creating structures from very simple rules, much as nature creates its structure from the few elementary laws of fundamental physics. Thus, I was not interested in the more literal musical representations of complex natural systems supported by the more advanced versions of SoftStep. I like the way SoftStep can be used to create structures from purely local considerations, with any global structure emerging organically, as it might in nature, rather than being imposed through intent.

Calculated Music
Pendulum I (Solo) 2:01 mp3 midi softstep
Ocarina Flow 4:23 mp3 midi softstep1
Lotus Cells 3:50 mp3 midi softstep
Loopy Locks 5:01 mp3 midi2 softstep3,4
Stringy Interactions 4:54 mp3 midi softstep1
TurboRaga 4:28 mp3 midi5 softstep
Pendulum II (Trio) 3:55 mp3 midi softstep
King Ying 3:04 mp3 midi softstep
Marimba Loops 3:39 mp3 midi softstep4
Waco Wallpaper 1:57 mp3 midi softstep
Trinity 3:01 mp3 midi softstep
Texas Plains 3:06 mp3 midi softstep
Space Walk 4:00 mp3 midi softstep
Astro Vibes 3:07 mp3 midi softstep1
Pendulum III
(Subcontinent Swing)		 2:58 mp3 midi6 softstep
Cellular Stomp 4:48 mp3 midi softstep
Fireworks Music 3:30 mp3 midi softstep
Loopy Locks (Reprise) 1:57 mp3 midi2 softstep3,4
1The Random Walk program is used for several tracks. Select the correct "snapshot" from a pull-down menu at the top of the SoftStep window.
2The MIDI files for Loopy Locks and Loopy Locks (reprise) do not match the MP3 file, because no MIDI file was saved for the main take.
3The Loops program is used for several tracks. Select the correct "snapshot" from a pull-down menu at the top of the SoftStep window.
4 Two snapshots of the Loops program were combined using a MIDI editor (Cakewalk) for the main take of Loopy Locks: They are labeled Loopy Locks 1 and Loopy Locks 2.
5TurboRaga uses a sound-font file to replace the General MIDI piano (instrument 0) with Indian instruments. Without this, you will hear a piano in its place. A MIDI version using General MIDI percussion instead is available here.
6A sound-font file is needed to create the intended Indian/techno sounds. Without it, you will hear a piano in its place, creating a sound more similar to Pendulum II, but with modified bass and drums.
  • Pendulum I, II, and III are based on a pair of sets of modules that step up and down as a pendulum would swing back and forth. The pair of "pendulums" is combined in various ways so that their values generate the parameters used in the music. No random modules are used, but it is easy to create very different sequences by varying the settings. Pendulum I is for solo piano, Pendulum II is for a piano trio, and Pendulum III uses an Indian techno patch, and includes some randomization in the sound parameters for the bass and percussion (not the notes or rhythm).

  • Ocarina Flow, Stringy Interactions, and Astro Vibes are all based on a two-voice random walk algorithm with different parameters and instrument choices. Space Walk uses a similar algorithm with a third part based on the difference of the other two. TurboRaga uses the two-voice algorithm with the addition of an Indian percussion part and tambura drone, but has no Indian aspects apart from the instrumentation. The tempo in this case is not fixed, but varies from very slow to the fastest possible.

  • Lotus Cells is scored for koto, shakuhachi, and shamisan, with a pentatonic scale. The cells are randomly generated sequences of four notes which are repeated four times by each instrument. The cells begin with the koto, and then are passed to the shakuhachi, and finally to the shamisan. Each time, the koto gets a new set of notes. During each beat, each intrument may play only its note, but can start it at any time and choose the length it is held, or substitute a rest.

  • Loopy Locks and Marimba Loops are based on a set of modules that remember short sequences of randomly generated notes and repeat them several times before replacing them by a new set. The notes, and combinations of them, are used in different ways, at different tempos, by three instruments. In the main take of Loopy Locks, two different sequences are superimposed, so there are actually six instruments.

  • King Ying is based on arpeggiated chords, and separates the randomly generated note streams into randomly divided phrases.

  • Waco Wallpaper is a simple 12-bar blues progression with a random melody, played on a music box.

  • Trinity is based on three cycles of different length. Differences between the position in each pair of cycles determine the notes played in three parts. The first part is a piano chord consisting of the base note transposed by each of the three cycle lengths. The second part is a pulse in the lowest octave of the piano. The third part is a drone (sawtooth wave) of increasing amplitude, which becomes audible only when it passes a predefined threshold.