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A Simulation of The Tuning Meditation

Listen to the simulator's output here:


See output information from the simulator here:
3min28voc.txt

Download the simulator's source code here:
tuningsim.cpp

Pauline Oliveros created The Tuning Meditation in 1971 for orchestras, but it can be used by any ensemble of tonal voices. It consists simply of a brief set of instructions for each player: play/sing a note from your imagination. Sustain the note for a comfortable length of time. Then listen to the ensemble, and play/sing another note, either contributing a new pitch as before, or tuning your voice to another player's note. Continue playing/singing notes for as long as desired.

My simulation models each member in the ensemble as a singer having an average lung capacity, maximum variation of that capacity across breaths, average time spent listening between notes, and tendency to contribute new notes or tune to other singers. These traits are distributed probabilistically before the simulation starts. The timing of each singer and their tuning decisions are also probabilistic, as weighted by their traits. The simulation, as the meditation, can proceed for as long as desired.

I implemented the simulation by writing a computer program in C++. The program authors a standard midi file, which I rendered into sound using the commercial program Reason. I found the results pretty interesting, and hope you do as well. The source code is offered here, as well as some example simulation results in audio and text form.