La Otra Voz for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano with electronics
and real-time visual image!

Miyuki Ito, Composer, Japan
Kazumasa Hiei, Real-time Visual Image, Japanin Spanish and koe in Japanese) arenotated in the score to be spoken by
the performers, which, when mergedwith breathing sounds and percussive
sounds produced by instruments, isintended to produce a mysterious
atmosphere pregnant with symbolic
messages.

INTRODUCTION

La Otra Voz for ensemble,
pre-recorded electronics and real-timevisual image, takes its inspirationfrom Octavio Paz’s La Otra Voz (1990).
Following his poesy, we tried to search
for invisible existence and inner voices
by means of music and the visualimage.
This article describes themusical material and structure, as
well as the technical system for thevisual image and the interactivity
between tha latter and the music.
La Otra Voz was premiered by theOnix Ensamble at the Seminario deMúsica
Contemporánea,EscuelaNacional de Música UNAM, Mexico, inFebruary 2010; supported by the Onix
Ensamble, the CMMAS, and the JapanFoundation. It is a work for ensemble
and prerecorded electronics, andreal-time visual image.
Softwaresuch as Audio Sculpt, Open Music,Max/Msp and Jitter were used asmeans of technological tools.

1. Ensemble Writing
The pitch materials are created frompart of the harmonic series of the pitch
D, its distortion – for instance, bymultiplying each of the frequencies by
a non-integer factor - and otherpitched spectra. These were obtainedusing Open Music: the patch is shownin figure 1, and the musical results areshown in figures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3.

COMPOSITIONAL MATERIALAND IDEA
The music is constructed as amultilayered
complexsonorityconsisting of sounds of the ensemble,
musicians’ voices and pre-recorded
electronics, which focus on diversity
while
remaining
consistent.
Translations of the word “voice”, (vozFig. 1: Harmonic distortion in the Open Music patch

1Fig. 2.1 Distortion of the harmonic series of D(146.83 Hz) using a factor n=1.2

Fig. 2.1 Distortion of the harmonic series of D (73.42

Fig. 4 Piano patternsHz) using a factor n=1.5

In the middle section (rehearsal
letter G), noise based sounds are
created by breathing through the fluteand clarinet, knuckling on the bodyand bowing behind the bridge of theviolin and cello, and striking the pianocross beams with the fingernails,
knuckling on its cover, and repeatedly
rubbing on the keyboard with flat
fingers (figure 5). This is meant toexpress a chaotic moment, reinforced
by a similar sonority that emerges
from the electronics part. The
resultant sounds are merged withelectroacoustic part, which itself isderived from percussive piano sounds;
reversing the relationship between theelectronics and ensemble.

Fig. 2.3 Partials obtained by choosing harmonics ofD (73.42 Hz) that are multiples of 5

In order to approximate the resultsof distortion as close as possible to theactual frequencies to the actual results
generated by the computer, quarter
tones are used (figure 3).

Fig. 3: Quarter tones used in the flute, clarinet, violin
and cello parts

The first four bars in the piano partcontain four patterns articulated in
the lowest register (figure 4), which
are used as a bass ostinato withdifferent figurations throughout thewhole piece. These piano patterns
are also recorded for use in theelectronics part.

Fig. 5 Noise based sounds produced by theinstruments in the middle section

22. Electroacoustics!
Therearefifteensoundfiles
triggered by Max/Msp during theperformance (the patch is shown infigure 6); each trigger point is precisely
indicated in the score. The soundfiles
are superimposed depending on thesituation, and often correspond to therole of an on-stage instrument. Thesesoundfiles were created using software
processes (e.g. using Audio Sculpt andMax/Msp) applied to recordings of a
piano, maracas and a rain stick; aswell as white noise: just as the real,
untransformed maracas are also usedby players, the electroacoustic partuses similar, but transformed audio
materials.

the piano. These were all processedin AudioSculpt together with white
noise, and eventually mixed in order toform the fifteen soundfiles. In total,
138 electronic sounds were processedby Audio Sculpt using the following
treatments:
1) Transposition: -1200 cents, -2400
cents, creating much lower registersounds.
2) Band-pass Filter
3) Dynamic Transposition: glissando
effect.
4) Clipping Filter5) Time Stretch: factors of 5 or 6.
6) Formant Filter: focused on bothvowels ‘o ’and ‘e’, which come from thewords koe in Japanese and voz inSpanish.
7) Generalized Crass Synthesis:
filtering with white noise.
Effects were carried out within
Max/Msp using the sounds recorded
from the piano, maracas and rain stick.
Both the harmonizer object harmv2b~
and the frequency shift object fshift1~
were used.
Applying transpositionsmoothing to the harmonizer patch
caused the glissando effect (figures 7and 8).

Fig. 6 Max/Msp concert patch

The recorded piano materials consistof the four patterns from the beginningof the piece (figure 4) and thepercussive sounds in the middle
section (figure 5): altogether, there are
79 excerpts that were recorded from

Figure 7: harmv2b~ in the Max/Msp patch3

Figure 9: Real-time visual image

1. Hardware System
A microphone picks up flute sounds
during a performance. Jitter samples
the amplitudes of these captured
sounds and then converts values ofamplitude into a wave shape. The
wave shape is then drawn on thescreen.

Figure 8: fshift1~ in the Max/Msp patch

The resulting processed sounds weremixed in Protools to produce the finalfifteen soundfiles.

2. Programming
This program is based on elemental
geometry as follows:
1) Description of a wave shape.

Real-Time Visual Image
The concept of the image is tovisualize invisible phenomena likesounds.
The visual image istransformed in terms of a performanceeach time, using the sound of the fluteto create a real-time visual image
during the latter (figure 9).
Theauthors’ collaboration began during aprevious work, The Sands of Time, inwhich the sound of the bass flute wasused to create a live visual image and aremix version.
Different kinds ofextended
techniques
suchasmultiphonics,distinct
types
ofbreathing sounds, sweeps throughharmonics, tongue clicks and the use of
the flutist’s voice are employed inorder to create mysterious textures,
both as visuals and audio.

Fig. 10. Description of a wave shape

Point C in figure 10 is moving along
the centre line at a velocity V. This isdescribed as.
41) Rotation of the direction of the centre
point.
The direction of Point C is controlled inreal-time by a rotary controller, shownin figure 11.

Its MAX/MSP implementation isshown in figure 15.
Now, we can calculate the boundariesof the wave shape, shown as points S
and Q in figure 13. If A denotes
amplitude of sound, point S iscalculated as

Fig. 11: Rotary controller

The velocity vector of point C is shownin figure 12 and can be written asv =(v cos (!), v sin (!) ).
Therefore, the centre point is

The MAX/MSP implementation of thecentre point is shown in figure 14.
1) Calculation of the borders of the waveshape.
First, we need to calculate the vector P,
orthogonal to the velocity vector.

Figure 13 Boundaries of the wave shape (points S and Q)

Similarly we can calculate a vector q,
also orthogonal to the velocity vector
but in the opposite direction to a vectorp.

Fig. 12 Velocity vector of point C

From figure 12, this is5

And from here, point Q is.

Fig. 16.1 Excerpt from the live visual images in the concert

Fig. 14: Center Point on the Max/Jitter patch
Fig. 16.2 Excerpt from the live visual images in the concert

Fig. 16.3 Excerpt from the live visual images in the concert

Fig. 15: Orthogonal Vector on the Max/Jitter patch

Images created during the concert
using the method described above areshown in figures 16.1 to 16.5.

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images.
Computer technology enhances ourcreativity and lets us think of newpossibilities.
Therefore we try to
explore a comprehensive approach inorder to give advanced technology anew meaning.
Furthermore, webelieve that the most important issue
isprecisely
those“invisiblephenomena”, which the computer
cannot calculate but human beings canfeel.
This is the invisible we
incarnate using computer technology,
whichinturn
cangeneratemultidimensional images in thelistener/viewer.

Fig. 16.4 Excerpt from the live visual images in the concert

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the Onix Ensamble, theCMMAS and the Japan Foundation,
who provided us with an opportunity
to create a challenging work.

Fig. 16.5 Excerpt from the live visual images in the concert

CONCLUSIONS

References

As a result of this project, our recent
interest has focused on imagining“invisible things”, which acts as apivotal energy in our creativity. Inaddition, Japanese sensibility andaesthetics are always present in ourworks, consciously and unconsciously
woven into its very fabric.
Because of the technical limitationsof the performance venue for thepremier concert in Mexico, it was risky
to use live electronics with Max/Msp,
as well as to use multiple microphones
for each instrument in order to create
complicated visual images. However,it will be possible in the future toachieve more diversity of visualised
sounds with a live electronics version
and multilayered complex live visual

Paz O (1990). La Otra Voz. Seix
Barral: Barcelona.

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