mapping spectra

A recent thread reads:

" Each chemical element is uniquely identifiable in the
electromagnetic spectrum by its special set of unique frequencies.
These frequency sets interact to produce more complexly unique
cycle frequencies, which are unheard by human ear but which
resonate just as do humanly hearable musical chords or dissonances."

to which Gary M. replied...

Interesting... It would be curious to hear the chords produced by
the absorption patterns of various chemical elements and
compounds, after transposing them down some enormous number of
octaves. Were I to guess though, it would be little more than a
curiosity. I personally doubt if they would have any particularly
significant meaning to our ears. The two physical/physiological
mechanisms are far too unrelated for there to be much correlation.

A few years ago, Tom Staley and I wrote an article called "Sounds of
Crystals" in Experimental Musical Instruments (EMI) that did
something very similar (ref. below). We looked at x-ray diffraction
patterns (spectra) and mapped them into the audio spectra. Many of
the resulting sounds were exceedingly complex (*very* many
nonharmonic partials), but there were some real standouts. One of
our favorites was the sound of the morphine crystal, which we used
for a piece titled "Duet for Morphine and Crystal" that appeared in
the EMI compilation cassette that year.

Though it can be an interesting way of generating "new" sounds, I
would agree with Gary's assessment that there is nothing inherently
significant about the sounds - for instance - the effects of listening to
the morphine derived sounds in no way have the same effects as
consumption of the material itself.

In the same issue of EMI, there is also an article by Susan Alejander
called DNA tunings that uses data from DNA sequences to generate
interesting tunings that she then plays on a synth.

W. A. Sethares and T. Staley, ``Sounds of crystals,'' Experimental
Musical Instruments, Vol. VIII, No. 2, Sept. (1992).

and

S. Alexjander, ``DNA tunings,'' Experimental Musical Instruments, Vol.
VIII, No. 2, Sept. (1992).

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TONY SALINAS wrote:
>
> With all the respect for all his work done, his assumptions
> are considered an offence for some Indian music theorists.

On what grounds?

--
Jonathan Walker
Queen's University Belfast
mailto:kollos@cavehill.dnet.co.uk
http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~walker/

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