Cube 5: Synthétique (Synthetic)
Notes on "Cube 5: Synthétique (Synthetic)"
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore 4, Studio One 6.5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 6.5 Professional
Number of tracks: 64
Sound source: MuseScore 4, Presence XT, Impact XT, Sample One, Maitai (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and recording period: 1st half: Mar 6 2024 - Mar 20 2024, Apr 20 - Mar 26, Total Mix 26 Jun
Opus Number: 111
Main tonality: Quickly moving amongst E-flat major, E major and F major
Main scale: Major scale from E-flat, E and F, and harmonic major scale from F
Main time signature: 10-8
Main tempo: 120 - 121 beats per minute
Concept: Synthetic Cubism
(TM writes:)
This piece, "Cube 5: Synthétique (Synthetic)", is the fifth work of the project called "Le Cube Dans Mon Rêve (The Cube In My Dream)."
So far, I've written some "figurative" phrases first, typically exposed in Cube 1, and then transformed them Cubistically. But this time, I directly wrote Cubistic phrases made of dyads which I regarded as essential geometrics. I describe such methods, which I call Music Cubism, in the notes on Cube 2 in more details.
Moreover, without planning the structure of this whole piece, I just made the next progression or development from the present notes. Even for myself, it's very hard to predict and understand any of it. What I strongly thought just after composition is "How come this alien music has been made?"
The time is basically 10-8; it should be very hard for anyone to recognise where Beat 1 is and patterns in here. Neither can I. At times the beat sounds reversely between on and off the beat, but in others hears as it's written. It's similarly bothersome to memorise the phrases and to grasp the flow.
None of the notes doesn't have tonalities or scales, but isn't dodecaphony either; that's what I found this piece very interesting. I don't know if it affected me, but all the way through the production, my postcard of Robert Delaunay's "La Ville de Paris" (The City of Paris) in my view.
So, this is what I think is musical Synthetic Cubism. (Cubism consists of several phases, one of which is called Synthetic and occurred late in its period.) I would name Cubes 2, 3 and 4 musical Analytical Cubism (-- again, the early one of the Cubism phases).
Hey, AI (Artificial Intelligence), can you tell us about Delaunay in short, please?
"Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) was a pioneering French artist who co-founded Orphism, a movement emphasizing vibrant color and geometric shapes. Delaunay is renowned for his abstract works, notably featuring circular forms and the dynamic interplay of colors, which diverge from traditional Cubism. His exploration of color theory and visual perception significantly influenced the development of abstract art in the 20th century."
Late in the production, CT's singing and recitation were supplemented. Those are wonderful and I just helped TI adjust the timings. CT and TI will write more details below; so will I.
Composition: "Fake mash"
(TM writes:)
As I wrote above, the process of composition just repeats "what's next?", but even to me how it's made is surprisingly interesting after all. For instance, the first electric piano plays in a sort of E-flat major-like tonality or scale for the first 11 beats (despite the time of 10-8), and it's as if transposed to E major for the next 11, next transposed again to F major, and went back to E major. It sounds so bewildering but beautiful to me. There are sometimes 11-8s to make inconsistency or make "the time relative," as a development from Cube 4: Le Temps (Time).
Then, even more bewilderingly and beautifully, cellos follow the piano from F major, using F's minor 6th of C-sharp, implying double scales with a slight difference, and cello's seeming four-bars pattern (again, actually not four, precisely) are delayed by two bars. It's like a canon but based upon two different scales, both of which transform within the phrase.
Later, they appear mashed like in Cube 2, but actually, it's not mashed; only the lengths of the notes are altered and that's it. This fake mash are enabled because the previous Cubes exposed mashed phrases, while this is a sort of development of those.
When the bass and drums join, where the notation image shows the first two bars, the fakely-mashed phrase turns to be the continuous eighth dyads on the guitar, which I think decreases the bewilderness. The bass and drums take place thereafter. While the bass pursues the first E-flat major scale, about a half of the pattern, whatever it may be named, it takes apart from the dyads. But, at the same time, it moves an octave or two seemingly at random. It's like a running bass but not jazzy at all. Thus, it attracts listeners' interests out of the bewildering combination of piano dyads and strings ones, which is my intention.
At this time, the guitar is played with partial accents, thanks to staccato in the MIDI data I added, as shown with small points just below the top part in the notation.
The drums, where Drs-S stands for Drums Strong and Drs-W Drums Weak in the notation, shows the approximate strong beats on Beats 1, 3 and 9 in the 10-8 time. This is likely the first time in this track that the listeners come to know what the rhythm is. Yet, the claps at the bottom of the image make it complex on Beats 5 and 8 for the first bar, and Beats 2 and 7, earlier by one beat, for the second.
The long interlude follows the section after the rhythm is slowed, where the sound suddenly becomes minimal and chordal. If I explained it in detail, it could make this even more complicated, but, in short, this is based on the music Impressionistic approach, which is symbolically reflected in the downward phrase of the cellos -- from the major 7th, via the minor 7th to the major 6th. I mean, tension notes play the central role. It exhibits how different the Cubistic approaches developed here are from the music Impressionism and implies that the latter will be focused and developed in Cube 6.
Back to the section of the dyads and rhythm, the acoustic piano is added as a sort of melody-like motif. To me it seems to make this alien music more human, in other words, to make the continuously transposing phrase into the more united, more consistent one.
After virtual completion CT sang a irrelevant song and read a poem and TI tried to integrate them into this work. That's absolutely fabulous. I just made some little point in order to make them match the music better.
Tone Creation & Mixing
(TI writes:)
The process of creating this track was largely the same as the other Cube series tracks, with the first step being to assemble the sound based on the score written by TM and the tones set by TM, once completed.
This take is kept as an instrumental version (with no plans for release).
In this sense, the Cube series is not very time-consuming in terms of tone creation and mixing (there is not much room for it), nor does it take a lot of production time.
However, since this is the fifth in the series and basically consists only of the sounds played on MuseScore, I thought that although it has a uniformity as a collection of works, it was starting to give a somewhat flat impression. And since this would continue for another four months or so, I wanted to change the focus somewhat, both as a creator and as a listener.
So, in the past, I would have invited a guest (musician), but this time I called on CT, the creator of the visuals for these Cube series.
CT is not supposed to have any experience in music performance or singing, but we wanted to include someone who did not have any experience in music performance or singing. However, CT's interest in and knowledge of music itself is deep, and the fact that she is fluent in English and is used to French (as the series is also related to French-based artists) suited us.
So I offered CT, "I don't particularly care about (melodic) singing, just give me any kind of 'voice' and as long as it has 'sound' I'll handle it.
I offered to record it using the recording function on your smartphone, and You wouldn't mind if there were noises from your daily life.
To my delight, a 'song' with a melody was included.
As CT herself describes in detail, it was a song that she had just hummed casually, but it was perfect for the middle part of the song.
The monologue, too, took some fine-tuning in consultation with the TM, but I think we got it just about right, and it adds a nice accent to the track.
I also asked her to record the sound of an upright piano in her house, which I used as the sound source for the piano sound.
The experience of singing and reading in "Cube 5"
(CT writes:)
As TI was working on this piece "Cube 5: Synthétique'', he suggested that I talk about something and he wanted to use that sound in “Cube 5”. I was wondering what would be interesting and fun to talk about. Then a poem came to my mind. Thirty years ago when I was living in Paris, a friend told me about a poem called "Pont Mirabeau" by Guillaume Apollinaire. Sad and melancholic but beautiful poem. Then I found out he was a lover of Marie Laurencin who is a cubist painter and Apollinaire was involved in the movement of Cubism. I thought it was perfect to read his poem for the "Cube 5".
I was even thinking about that poem, "Pont Mirabeau", I thought it would be difficult to read the poem in French smoothly. So I decided to read it slowly and carefully as I was comfortable reading to. Then one day I encountered a song, "Pont Mirabeau" with music by a French singer Léo Ferré. He was singing very slow and easy. I loved that relaxed atmosphere. I listened to it over and over.
One middle of the night I was alone with my cat having some wine and relaxing. Then I wanted to listen to the song, "Pont Mirabeau".
It was soothing and I wanted to sing it along with Léo Ferré. I was feeling so pleasant and amusing myself. Dancing and singing slowly. I didn't plan to sing that song, but it just all came up to me. I had a really comfortable and relaxed time myself. Then, just for my pleasure, I recorded myself as I sang and read " Pont Mirabeau".
I shared that record with TI the next morning. He really liked how I enjoyed singing and talking spontaneously. Then he created this amazing and loveable music "Cube 5" with my singing and talking voices right away. It was a big surprise that the songs and the voices became totally another piece of music, the sound art of FMT.
"Cube 5" became one of my favorite music.
It's my honor to be able to participate in creating "Cube 5". I am thankful to FMT that I could have this opportunity to experience the joy of singing and reading and discovering the possibilities to create in music. Most of all creating with the music of FMT.
Notes on Key Visual
(CT continues:)
Cube 5: Synthétique (Synthetic)
I feel from this music:
Endless joy of primitive play
Hope
Illusion
Femininity
Shower of lights
Memories are falling like rain
Journey of Nostalgia
Reminiscence
Fragility and Strength
Gentleness
Eternity
Lost in time but keep walking
No end
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