Rhizomes and Musical Form

The focus of this project will be to create a musical environment/structure/architecture that demonstrates through its basic elements and the overall form what happens when sound is modelled on rhizomatic forms.  This abandonment of traditional linear structures will require the creation of a (not completely new) system of graphic notation. Initial sketches of musical ideas will be worked out with and performed on guitar and electronics. (flow chart to be added)  Ideas presented at midterm will then later be incorporated into a final computer piece to be assembled in the software synthesizer CsoundAV.  This piece will extend on the melodic and structural ideas developed in the instrumental work by incorporating rhizomatic structures into other elements and will be demonstrated as shifting spectra, contrasting harmonic/inharmonic relationships and any other elements that are found to develop in a musical fashion in this structure of constantly shifting relationships.  Possible models for organization will be the pack and mass stuctures which will be realized as additive or FOF instruments with the inclusion of sample processing instruments to add contrast and continuity. *Note:  this will not be a completely literal represetation of the rhizomatic stuctures found in the readings as musical considerations will tend to outweigh theoretical concerns in the composition process. Structural ideas will be presented as a graphic score that will provide a loose framework for performance.  The piece will be organized around groups of pitch 'cells' or blocks that are all connected at various points to provide several possible paths and multiple points of entry.  As a path is followed, the stucture will expand as new layers are added one by one.  These pitch blocks will dissolve into progressively smaller and smaller units, bringing about the formation of a similar structure with increasingly complex relationships among the pitch elements.  Other elements such as pitch modulation, timbre, and delay times will vary in degree with the size of the pitch blocks.  The performer will choose a point of entry with each grouping of pitch blocks and proceed in any direction through the structure.