- WHAT IS CYBERSYMPHONY
- WHAT IS CYBERSYMPHONY NOT
- CYBERSYMPHONY AND GENERAL MIDI; what's the difference?
- THE CYBERSYMPHONIC LAW
- MORE ON THE SUBJECT
WHAT IS CYBERSYMPHONY
The concept of cybersymphony was created in 1993 by Mats Wendt to build a foundation for symphonic music created by computers and synthesizers.
The aim of cybersymphony is to transfer the symphony orchestra to synthesizers and computer to create one fixed instrument for one person to play.
The instrument consist of two things, the cybersymphonic LAW that defines what the instrument is, and any synthesizer that meets the requirements.
This may seem strange but is quite obvious. A traditional instrument is perhaps manufactured out of wood and metal parts. The composition of these parts is the instrument.
Now, if one is about to transfer the whole symphony orchestra to computers, one does not have the wood and metal any more. One needs to substitute this with a definition. This definition is the cybersymphonic LAW.
The Law is designed so that synthesizers may develop in the future, yet the cybersymphony orchestra remains the same.
Mats Wendt
CYBERSYMPHONY AND GENERAL MIDI; what is the difference?
General midi is a standard that make it possible for different synthesizers to play a music file with the same instrument patch as the original. For instance, piano is always the first instrument in the general midi patch list. So if a piece of music was created on one synthesizer with the piano sound, any other general midi compatible synthesizer will play the notes with the piano sound.
Cybersymphony have a totally different aim. The goal here is not to make a compatible patch list but to create a fixed instrument.
General midi says nothing about how the music is created. You can play a contrabass sound like a piccolo flute but this immediately breaks the paragraph 1.1 in the cybersymphonic law, that states; an instrument must be played like the real counter part. You can then have an opinion on if this is a badly played contrabass. You can have a second go at recording the contrabass and perhaps make a result that was more like a real contrabass, and the Law works. You can now say that the new recording is better than the last. This judgment can be made with help of the cybersymphonic law.
This is how the Law works. It bounds and transfers the symphony orchestra to the world of synthesizers and computers creating one super instrument for one person to play.
And most important; it creates the platform for refinement and elevation of the art form. Without the Law no refinement or judgment is possible for symphonic music made with computers.
Mats Wendt
MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Arguments for the LAW
In 1993 when this matter came to my attention, it was a great need for separating the symphonic computer music from the vast electro acoustic field.
There was a great need for a fixed base. A universal definition of
what a symphony orchestra is and how it is played when transferred to
computers. The idea I got was: In a world with no boundaries the
definition is the substance like a program. So, the Cybersymphony
orchestra must be a Law
Cybersymphony is in a way the middle way between the instrumental music and the Electro acoustic music.
The physical shape of the instruments binds a symphony orchestra. A flute must look like a flute does, and be very carefully manufactured to achieve the flute tone, when played at. The law substitutes these physical boundaries.
The law was created to preserve the symphonic sounds whose construction are beyond genius and carefully tested over centuries to form a perfect palette. By combining them, a composer can achieve everything.
The boundaries of the symphony orchestra are greater than total sound freedom, like silicon could be sand or a computer depending on how the material is organized.
The LAW was created to define the symphony orchestra as one super instrument, something that takes years to be good at like learning to play the violin. No "push a button" mentality.
The LAW was further more created, to form a common platform, so it is possible to have an opinion of the quality of the music. This is necessary for the music to refine and rise as an art form.
Why does
this have implications for music history? Well, the concrete music in
the post war era ushered by Pierre Schaeffer, experimentalist and
composer developed this avantgarde genre. They wanted to free the
music from the confines of traditional instruments and used tape
recorders and anything could be music. A train arriving at a station
and so on. Cybersymphony take this genre and go full circle or
effectively concludes its possible developments to its end. It uses
sounds recorded from the world that is specifically all the different
sections of the symphony orchestra and recreate the symphony orchestra
in this infinite environment of electronic sounds and binds it with
the law. So cybersymphony is the full circle and ultimate conclusion
of Musique Concrète.
Mats Wendt
THE
CYBERSYMPHONIC LAW
Created in 1993
Mats
Wendt All rights reserved
1. IN GENERAL
1.0 All sounds must have a
real counterpart.
(Violin, oboe and so on, with
the correct register span.)
1.1 All instruments must be played
like the real counterpart.
This is the tricky one. It implies that you have to learn how to
play each instrument in a realistic manner. This can never fully
be achieved but stand as beacon to direct the effort. It also
implies that all register spans and technical limitations of
the real instrument must be considered.
1.2 All instruments or instrument sections must be located on
separate midi channels
1.3 No sampling of mixed sounds may occur.
(For example, a violin and a flute in the
same sound are forbidden they must be separated on different midi
channels.)
2. THE SECTION SOUNDS
2.0 Section sound may be
used
(For example, 8 violins playing a single tone forms a sound,
6 alto violins, 4 cello, 2 contrabass forms other section sounds.)
2.1 It is illegal to mix section
sounds
(For instance, alto violin
section and cello section sounds must lay on separate midi channel and
have individual dynamic shape. The Instruments may be organized like
in a music score. Vl1, Vl2, Vla, Vc, Cb.)
3. DYNAMICS
3.0 The Orchestral
dynamic is created by the parts individual dynamics.
(Separate midi channels. no sort of mastervolyme is allowed to shape
dynamics)
(crescendo and diminuendo must be executed by the composer. The instrument samples must in their basic form, be free from dynamic events. )
3.2 Dynamic is formed by
continuos volume and the keystroke
(Velocity. This is the
instrument!!! a clavier on witch you can pick up mididata by the tones
you press, how hard you press it and by regulating the continuous
volume, form the dynamic shape of the tone. It is so easy and so hard
due to paragraph 1.1)
4. THE ORCHESTRAL TIMBRE
(the color of the orchestral sound)
4.0 The
Orchestral timbre is created through the sum of the sounding
separate midi channels
Created in 1993 by Mats
Wendt All rights reserved.
The LAW may be freely distributed but nothing in the text may be
altered. The text can be translated if the content remains intact.
Homepage: http://www.matswendt.com
Example of cybersymphonic
music www.eddan.net
What cybersymphony is not!
Downloading a mid file from internet's classical libraries and "cut n' paste" this file in a sequencer program and fiddle with the tempo parameters, is not cybersymphony. In fact, cybersymphony was created to resist the effects of devaluing the individual efforts, in computer-based creation.
A
l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d
CYBERSYMPHONIC INSTITUTE © 1993-2005
