The Academia Project
The Academia Project is an ongoing series of compositions inspired by important topics in liberal arts learning. The project was inspired by my time at Lawrence University. These pieces attempt to take extra-musical subjects and convey them in a musical language. For instance, Academia I: π uses the digits of pi (up to 16 places after the decimal) to determine attack sets. The piece also has a circular nature, cycling through the digits, using the seventeenth digit behind the decimal place as a hinge to restart the cycle (3.141...32[3]/3.14...).
Academia II: Plato's Allegory of the Cave adapts this famous philosophical parable to the subject of religion, asking if religion frees a mind from the metaphorical cave, or if it is itself the cave.
Academia III: Phi (The Divine Proportion) uses this proportion (also known as the Golden Ratio or Section) for both its form and pitch material. Since phi equals 1 plus the square root of 5 (which equals 3.236...) over 2, the first section of the piece is 3'24" long and the second section is 2' long. The pitch material is governed by the solution of phi, 1.6180339887... where 1 is represented by A4, which serves as a drone throughout the piece. In the first section, the digits behind the decimal determine the number of semitones away from A the next note will be. Each pitch is held until they are all cancelled out by a 0 in the irrational constant. This scheme continues in the last two minutes, however, instead of semitones, the digits behind the decimal determine the degree in the A major scale which the next pitch will be.
At least two more pieces are planned: Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and a multi-movement orchestral work covering the Fibonacci Sequence, Newton's Laws of Motion, and the Color Wheel (and Oliver Messiaen's synesthesia).
Academia II: Plato's Allegory of the Cave adapts this famous philosophical parable to the subject of religion, asking if religion frees a mind from the metaphorical cave, or if it is itself the cave.
Academia III: Phi (The Divine Proportion) uses this proportion (also known as the Golden Ratio or Section) for both its form and pitch material. Since phi equals 1 plus the square root of 5 (which equals 3.236...) over 2, the first section of the piece is 3'24" long and the second section is 2' long. The pitch material is governed by the solution of phi, 1.6180339887... where 1 is represented by A4, which serves as a drone throughout the piece. In the first section, the digits behind the decimal determine the number of semitones away from A the next note will be. Each pitch is held until they are all cancelled out by a 0 in the irrational constant. This scheme continues in the last two minutes, however, instead of semitones, the digits behind the decimal determine the degree in the A major scale which the next pitch will be.
At least two more pieces are planned: Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and a multi-movement orchestral work covering the Fibonacci Sequence, Newton's Laws of Motion, and the Color Wheel (and Oliver Messiaen's synesthesia).