Amazing, Possibly Fraudlent-B.S., Discovery!
I was perusing music theory on the Google labyrinth, and came across a software that uses algorithms to depict music visually. It’s called “The Shape of a Song” — a title I quite like, but not for a visual rendering. Sound has a shape! It does! Shape and texture are obviously not just tactile or visual. Sound engineers work with what they call a “sound picture,” but what is in fact a hermeneutics of sound (this is the reason you hear some parts of a song in your left while others in your right through headphones). Essentially, it’s an audial mapping. Still, some of the visual representations are really interesting, and the captions equally so.
Above: Chopin, Mazurka in F# Minor
The image illustrates the complex, nested structure of the piece.
Above: Philip Glass, Candyman
[This image reflects] the underlying elegance and simplicity of the music.
And my personal favorite, for the ambiguous comment about pop music:
Above: Madonna, Like A Prayer
Pop music has its own style of repetition.
There are more on the site, including the obligatory Bach, etc. Phenomenology of sound! To be continued. In our next episode, I bring Merleau-Ponty into the ring. I have a bone to pick.
3 years ago