Frequency and Variation

Change appears.

Perceived, it is given consideration.  Compared, contrasted, it is measured against experience.

In the context of creative sound design, change emerges and evolves, undergoing transformation in innumerable ways.  In the course of a work, the elements of sound and their juxtapositions suggest experimentation with additional elements and exploration of their various aspects.

It is in this manner that the composer follows, rather than dictates, the progress and direction of the composition.

Gesture, Word, Tone II

Archetypal sounds are imbued with meanings recognized across all cultures and understood according to their universal associations.

All languages speak to the poetic essence of aural meaning.  These are the sounds of ceremony and ritual, triumph and whimsy, the awe-inspiring, the bittersweet, the fearful and the serene.

Drum, flute, gong, voice, stringed instrument, bell, shaker; through variation and combination these come to represent the essential elements of ideas and emotions in symbolic ways, as do verbal expressions.

And like love, honor, justice, sadness, threat, peace and all other symbolic meanings communicated via language, whether in casual, formal, popular, esoteric, spiritual or secular terms, a profound degree of meaning is conveyed in the form of tone-- immediately recognized, instantly and intensely understood.

Approach, Action

In the context of a tone poem or related piece, the composer may, in varying degrees, impose a vision upon a setting as well as absorb and reflect the atmosphere of that time and place in musical ways.

The finished work and its total effect will illustrate the extent to which the the composer speaks and the setting or event portrayed in the work is fully brought into being.

Sound and Imagination

Combinations and variations expand to effectively infinite degree.  Limits, if any exist, are not apparent.

Thus it is essential to recognize completeness.

Experience and Movement

Paints, sounds, words, clay and stone, gestures, tools and technologies.

Let the simple become difficult, the sophisticated grow childlike, the unadorned be lit and brightened, the complex coalesce into one form and meaning, and the subjective be overcome by the vastness of time and space.  In the creative act, let all these events come into being.

But, says one, I cannot envision and know the outcome of such an experience.

What is important is to know is that it is good, that the action has virtue, and when it is finished it is clearly so.

Arrangement of Elements

Compositions in sound involve control and disorder, flexibility and restraint, choice and chance.

Regarding listening and hearing as separate functions in terms of varying degrees of attention, one active and the other passive, and designing sound to accommodate the flux of these perceptions, musical elements may be organized according to principles of design.

Rather than focusing predominately upon manipulation of rhythm, melody, harmony, and percussion, qualities of balance, emphasis, subordination, movement, proportion, pattern, unity, dominance, variety, contrast, and spatial placement-- to cite notable aspects of artistic composition-- play a role in the choice and arrangement of elements in the production of transformation ambient music.

The composer, by direct and indirect influence, attends to the transformation of sound that is realized in the finished work.

Passages

Transformation ambient pieces of extended length offer the listener a perception of the movement of time that is harmonious with the slow unfolding of the sound design.

To observe this passage is to be aware of the pace of contemplative thought as opposed to that of the frenetic workplace or similar continuum of applied effort, social engagement and responsibility.

By design, these works direct the attention of the listener toward an internal state of mind as well as external atmosphere, and consciousness of naturally emerging temporal events in such a context contributes to the interest and aesthetic pleasure as well, making for an objectively different musical experience.