Scriptones
Synth programming, field recording, circuit bending...
——TONAL THEORY (Abstract)——
The name Scriptones consists of 'scripton', as it is used in ergodic literature and cybertext theory, and the word 'tones' which refers to the tonal qualities or characters of sounds. Music is defined as a string of sounds: strings as they exist in the music and strings as they are perceived by the listener. In the music itself, the strings exist as textones. To the listener, however, they appear as scriptones. A scriptone is an unbroken sequence and combination of one or more textones as they are projected by the music.
A good example from literature to illustrate this is Raymond Queneau's Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes, a set of 10 sonnets that consist of 140 textons, which in turn can be combined into 'one hundred thousand billion' scriptons. Similar to textons in cybertext and ergodic literature, 'textones' in music are like a database (pitch, length, portamento or the silent interval between sounds), whereas scriptones are meaningful units that can be joined up to make musical structures (notes, melodies, rhythmic patterns or whole parts of a musical form).
Such musical structures, however, are never a complete form without interaction and the process of traversal perception. Thus scriptones are not readily available; they unfold in time, are brought forth by musification and unfold their meaning through playful exploration and interpretation.
Listen to Scriptones
|
(V.A.) Spray Volume 04 [Digital: moph record, 2009]
|01| Scriptones, Bergbahn – Magic
Autopoiesis |
