City of Voids – sound analysis and sketch models

SOUND ANALYSIS
Instruments: Wood sticks, Rain stick and Triangle

Quality of sounds
Wood sticks – short and loud
Rain stick – sounds of falling water, length of sound depends on action and speed
Triangle – long and resounding

SOUND 1

Dominant sound: Wood sticks
Sub-dominant sound: Rain stick
Sub-ordinate sound: Triangle

The rhythm of four and a half beats is constructed with a background sound of the falling water sounds of the rain stick. One cycle includes three beats of the rain stick loosely hitting each other follow by one and a half beats of the triangle.

White – one cycle
Yellow – Dominant
Red – Sub-dominant
Green – Sub-ordinate

MODEL 1

Materials:
Wood stick (dominant) – Gold wire > to stand out
Rain sound (sub-dominant)- White wool felt > subtle in the background
Triangle (sub-ordinate) – Red felt ball > Circular to capture resonance

I twisted the sheet of wool felt to create voids in space.

Final Model

top view

Comments (class):

  • The sub-ordinate is a resounding sound, the sphere is too solid and small.
    Edit: could replace the sphere ball with a material, perhaps wire or thread, of a large volume.

SOUND 2

Dominant sound: Rain stick
Sub-dominant sound: Triangle
Sub-ordinate sound: Wood stick against table

One cycle is eight beat, with the rain stick being used like a shaker as the dominant beat of “dom chak chak”. The triangle is played after the three beats and at the end of the eighth beat, the sound of wood stick scrapped across table follows the triangle sound immediately.

White – one cycle
Red – Dominant
Yellow – Sub-dominant
Green – Sub-ordinate

MODEL 2

As the composition involves individual beats with only slight overlap at the end of the cycle, I decided to create a space composing of individual, thin units.

Materials:
Rain shaker (dominant) – Thin strips of hard plastic
Triangle (sub-dominant)- Red felt ball
Wood stick (sub-ordinate) – String

I placed the thin strips diagonally, seemingly to interact. 

The sub-dominant is elevated from the side. I used string to capture the rough sound from the wood stick scrapping the table top.

Final

Comments (class):

– The dominant units are too literal, liken the rain sticks.
Edit: Replace with wire or overarching metal sheet with curves following the rhythm.

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