This morning the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) released its first video of the year for on-demand streaming through the SFSymphony+ Web site. The title of the program was LIGETI: PARADIGMS and the performance, conducted by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, required both SFS and the SFS Chorus. The program consisted of three compositions by György Ligeti: “Lux Aeterna,” “Ramifications,” and “Clocks and Clouds.” The first two of these were actually more artifact that performance.
The sounds of the performance of “Lux Aeterna” were processed in such a way as to create a binaural mix, whose sounds had spatial qualities best appreciated by listening with standard stereo headphones. This performance was prefaced with a rather generous exposition of background material. Media artist Refik Anadol set out to create a “virtual data sculpture,” which he called a “data crystal.” This crystal was “seeded” by 32 separate vocal tracks provided by the individual voices of sixteen members of the Chorus singing Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” score. The collected data were then processed by Carol Reiley, who deployed what she called “artificial intelligence” (AI) software. (I use scare quotes because I doubt that any of the dozen or so “founding fathers” of AI that met at the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop, from which the term “artificial intelligence” first emerged, would have recognized Reiley’s efforts as having much to do with intelligence.)
However, quibbling over terminology is the least of the problems that arose from what amounted to a real-time artifact, which happened to have “Lux Aeterna” as part of the mix. More serious was the sensory overload that was more likely to distract from the music than to enhance it. Those that read the background information, which appeared on this site at the beginning of this month, know that the intentions of both Anadol and Reiley had been to enhance listener awareness of the thick textures in Ligeti’s score. For this listener, however, Salonen’s conducting was more than sufficient in itself. Close observation of both Salonen and the individual vocalists was all one needed to appreciate (and hopefully enjoy) Ligeti’s imaginative and stimulating techniques.
Technology was more useful in contributing to the performance of “Ramifications.” The music is composed for twelve individual string parts divided into two sextets. The reference frequency for one of those sextets was 453 Hz, a quarter tone higher than the 440 Hz standard taken by the other. As might be imagined, it is no easy matter for two different tuning references to be on the same stage at the same time, particularly when the number of instruments involved is the same for both of them. As a result, the “detuning” of the quarter-tone separation was actually realized through digital processing, allowing all of the performers to play their parts under a common tuning pitch. This performance was then enhanced with a “background” of images taken from the Hubble Space Telescope; and, once again, the visual element tended to distract from Ligeti’s music, rather than providing new ways of listening to it.
Natural or synthesized? Only the programmer knows for sure. (screen shot from the video being discussed)
The presentation of the final composition, “Clocks and Clouds,” only extended the disadvantages of distraction. Ligeti was interested in opposing predictable and mechanical (clock-like) music with thematic lines that were unpredictable (cloud-like). This was the one case in which Anadol paid more attention to the music than to his technology. He provided visuals that interleaved cloud images with synthesized ones (once again described as products of AI). These were definitely the least intrusive extensions to the musical performances. Nevertheless, they, too, distracted from the many subtleties in Ligeti’s score that make listening to his music such a rich experience.
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