Aural Sculptures

Musicians often approach composing with music software in an additive way--starting by creating music one layer, voice, or note at a time. We might lay down a bass or drum track, then a melody or another instrument as we build our compositions. Most music software is designed to facilitate this approach. However, what might happen if we took advantage of the design of loop-based software programs like Super Duper Music Looper, Acid Music Studio, or GarageBand by allowing students to compose in a subtractive way, similar to that of sculptors who start with a piece of rock or wood, removing portions to reveal the finished work? What might a piece of music sound like if we borrowed the process that sculptors use and applied it to composing?

To start the project, students viewed four Marshall Fredericks sculptures entitled Pony Express. These sculptures were created by sculpting a block of clay to reveal the images. A mold of the clay carvings was created which was then used to cast the final sculptures in bronze. The process that Marshall Fredericks used was a subtractive process--he removed portions of clay to reveal his final sculpture.

Drawing on the sculpting process, students used Acid Music Studio to create their own “sound mass” similar to a block of clay, wood, or stone. Students were asked to create an Acid file comprised of 10 to 15 layers of different sound loops that lasted for a total of two minutes. The result was a screen painted solid with a variety of different sound loops, creating a cacophonous “sound mass.”

After students had created their sound masses, they traded them with their classmates. The task for the classmates was to use a subtractive process of removing or altering portions of the sound mass (parallel to the sculpting process) to create a music composition. Students could not add anything to the sound masses, however, they could use the erase tool to make changes to the the texture and form of the compositions. Students also transform the musical layers through the use of filter, key change, and tempo tools to create their composition.