dc.contributor.advisor | Rudy, Paul, 1962- | |
dc.contributor.author | Landon, David Paul | |
dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
dc.date.submitted | 2018 Spring | |
dc.description | Title from PDF of title page viewed May 18, 2018 | |
dc.description | Thesis advisor: Paul Rudy | |
dc.description | Vita | |
dc.description | Thesis (M.M.)--Conservatory of Music and Dance. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2018 | |
dc.description.abstract | Material evidence is a twelve-and-a-half minute long work for twenty-two musicians
and electronics. The main inspiration for the work came as a combination of scientific
research in the field of music cognition and Iannis Xenakis’s ideas on stochastic music.
I believe that it is a challenge to describe the human listening experience. Much of our
psychological and physiological response to sound and music, while substantially tangible,
occurs at a cognitive level below thought and reason. It is possible to know what happens
beneath the surface because its effects are seen from above, but the how and why is a mystery
that I find immensely compelling. Present day research provides a wealth of knowledge, and
much speculation, as to what happens between the moment pressure waves pass over the
eardrum and neurological transmission occurs throughout the brain, and I see this as an
opportunity to find new ways to write and dialog about music.
Material Evidence experiments with incorporating ideas gathered from the study of
music cognition, semiotics, and psychoacoustics with the intent of tapping into the cognitive
mechanisms of the human mind and better understanding how to communicate through
music. Work began by slowing recorded performances to approximately one-tenth normal
playback speed and analyzing how each instrument behaved, at the micro level, as they were
played using a variety of techniques. This behavior acted as a model for composition, and
each instrument was assigned behavioral characteristics, both as individuals and as those
interacting with other instruments. Energy and intensity, as they relate to gesture, is
especially audible, and often provides structural landmarks within the overall formal
structure. The piece is highly textural, and the electronic part embodies all of the behavioral
characteristics of the ensemble. The line between what is coming from the ensemble and
speakers is often blurred. | eng |
dc.description.tableofcontents | Abstract -- Instrumentation -- Performance notes -- Acknowledgements -- Material evidence -- Vita | |
dc.format.extent | x, 28 pages | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10355/63285 | |
dc.publisher | University of Missouri--Kansas City | eng |
dc.subject.lcsh | Orchestral music | |
dc.subject.other | Thesis -- University of Missouri--Kansas City -- Music | |
dc.title | Material Evidence | eng |
dc.type | Thesis | eng |
thesis.degree.discipline | Music Composition (UMKC) | |
thesis.degree.grantor | University of Missouri--Kansas City | |
thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
thesis.degree.name | M.M. | |