Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T02:43:07.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Translation, Emphasis, Synthesis, Disturbance: On the function of music in visual music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2012

Anton Fuxjäger*
Affiliation:
Department of Theater, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna, Hofburg, Batthyanystiege, A-1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Abstract

Starting from the premiss that the central aesthetic feature of non-representational moving images (visual music) is their structuring of reception time, the function of the accompanying music in contributing to the total (combined) temporal structure of the resulting artwork is discussed. A taxonomy of the different roles that music can play in the production and reception of visual music consisting of three basic categories is presented and examples are given:

  • ‘Music translations’: certain parameters of the accompanying music are transcoded into certain visual parameters, the accompanying music thereby provides the temporal structure of the audiovisual artwork.

  • ‘Synthetic structures’: the music and the images provide different temporal informations with enough coincidences to be synthesised into a combined audiovisual strucuture by the viewer/listener.

  • ‘Mutual disturbance’: the aforementioned process fails to be realised due to a lack of sufficient points of synchronisation. As a result the accompanying music will disrupt the recognition of the temporal structure of the images and vice versa.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adrian, M. 2004. uarei (1977). On Marc Adrian 1 – Das Filmische Werk 1 – Abstrakte Filme. DVD. Zürich: ArtAdventures.Google Scholar
Algar, J. et al. . 2000. Fantasia (1940). On The Fantasia Anthology. DVD. Disney Enterprises.Google Scholar
Anon. 2005. The Eye and the Ear: Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, 1944/5. http://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/stefan_and_franciszka_themerson/the_eye_and_the_ear.html. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Bute, M.E., Webber, M., Nemeth, T. 2005. Rhythm in Light (1934). On Unseen cinema – Early American Avantgarde Film 1894–1941. DVD, Disc 3. Chatsworth, CA: MMV Image Entertainment.Google Scholar
Camper, F. 1999. Contribution to a discussion of Sound and Silence in Harry Smith on the Frameworks List. http://people.wcsu.edu/mccarneyh/fva/S/HSmith_Other.html. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Castel, L.-B. 1740. L'optique des couleurs. Paris: Briasson.Google Scholar
Chapman, D. 2009. Chance Encounters: Serendipity and the Use of Music in the Films of Jean Cocteau and Harry Smith. The Soundtrack 2(1): 518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobson, T. 2006. The Film Work of Norman McLaren. Eastleigh: Libbey.Google Scholar
Evans, B. 2006a. calidri. http://vimeo.com/30272941. Accessed on 3 December 2012.Google Scholar
Evans, B. 2006b. Musical Connections and Heterophonic Maps. ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Sketches, NY: ACM, 174. http://www.brianevans.net/docs/heterophony.pdf. Accessed on 2 January 2012.Google Scholar
Filimowicz, M. 2010. Video Sonification. Parsons Journal for Information Mapping 2(2). http://piim.newschool.edu/journal/issues/2010/02/pdfs/ParsonsJournalForInformationMapping_Filimowicz-Michael.pdf. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Fischinger, O. 2004. A Document Related to Motion Painting I. In W. Moritz Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger. London: John Libbey: 184186.Google Scholar
Fischinger, O. 2006a. Studie Nr. 6 (1930). On Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films. DVD. Los Angeles: Center for Visual Music.Google Scholar
Fischinger, O. 2006b. Motion Painting No. 1 (1947). On Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films. DVD. Los Angeles: Center for Visual Music.Google Scholar
Frank, T. 2005. Chronomops. On Essays on Radio: Can I Have 2 Minutes of Your Time?. DVD. Porto: Crónica 2005. http://vimeo.com/770640. Accessed on 4 January 2012.Google Scholar
Frank, T., LIA. 2010. Audiovisual Parameter Mapping. in Music Visualizations. In D. Daniels, S. Naumann and J. Thoben (eds) See this Sound: Audiovisuology Compendium. Cologne: Walther König, 376381.Google Scholar
Fries, R., Gebhardt, S. 1969. Legendary Epics, Yarns & Fables, Part 2: Stan Brakhage. http://www.ubu.com/film/brakhage_yarns.html. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Gehr, H. (ed.). 1993. Optische Poesie: Oskar Fischinger – Leben und Werk. Frankfurt am Main: Deutsches Filmmuseum.Google Scholar
Grond, F., Schubert-Minski, T. 2010. Sonification: Scientific Method and Artistic Practice. In D. Daniels, S. Naumann and J. Thoben (eds) See this Sound: Audiovisuology Compendium. Cologne: Walther König, 284295.Google Scholar
Hébert, P. 1966. Op Hop – Hop Op: Variations optiques sur 24 images/Optical Variations on 24 Images. http://www.pierrehebert.com/index.php/2009/06/04/129-op-hop. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Jewanski, J. 2006. Von der Farbe-Ton-Beziehung zur Farblichtmusik. In J. Jewanski and N. Sidler (eds) Farbe – Licht – Musik: Synästhesie und Farblichtmusik. Bern: Peter Lang: 131–209.Google Scholar
Jones, R., Nevile, B. 2005. Creating Visual Music in Jitter: Approaches and Techniques. Computer Music Journal 29(4): 5570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juárez Latimer-Knowles, N. 2007. Raindrops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AVyhytUy7k. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Le Grice, M. 1977. Abstract Film and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Levin, T. 2003. Tones from Out of Nowhere: Rudolph Pfenninger and the Archaeology of Synthetic Sound. Grey Room 12: 3279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malinowski, S. (n.d.) See Inside Music: The Music Animation Machine. http://www.musanim.com. Accessed on 02 January 2012.Google Scholar
McLaren, N. 1950. Animated Sound on Film. In R. Russett and C. Starr, Experimental Animation. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold: 166168.Google Scholar
McLaren, N. 2006a. Dots (1940). On Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition. DVD. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada.Google Scholar
McLaren, N. 2006b. Synchromy/Synchromie (1971). On Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition. DVD. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada.Google Scholar
Moritz, W. 1997. Restoring the Aesthetics of Early Abstract Film. In J. Pilling (ed.) A Reader in Animation Studies. London: John Libbey, 221227.Google Scholar
Moritz, W. 2004. Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger. London: John Libbey.Google Scholar
Moritz, W. 2010. Harry Smith, Mythologist. In A. Perchuk and R. Singh (eds.) Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular. Los Angeles: The Getty Research Institute, 6368.Google Scholar
Pfaffenbichler, N. 2010. Computergestützte Animation in Österreich [Computer-based Animation made in Austria]. In C. Dewald, S. Groschup, M. Mattuschka and T. Renoldner (eds) Die Kunst des Einzelbilds: Animation in Österreich – 1832 bis heute. Vienna: Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, 311325.Google Scholar
Richter, H. 1965. My Experience with Movement in Painting and in Film. In G. Kepes (ed.) The Nature and Art of Motion. New York: George Braziller.Google Scholar
Rimington, A. 2004. Colour-Music, ed. M. Betancourt (1895). Rockville, MD: Wildside Press.Google Scholar
Ruttmann, W. 2009. Lichtspiel opus 1 (1921). On Walther Ruttmann: Berlin, die Sinfonie der Großstadt & Melodie der Welt. DVD. Munich: film & kunst.Google Scholar
Sachs, K., Dahlhaus, C. 2001. Counterpoint. In Grove Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/06690. Accessed on 14 October 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santos, A., Palazzo, N. 2009. PyR'09 official competition. http://www.puntoyrayafestival.com/competicion09_eng.php. Accessed on 14 October 2011.Google Scholar
Singh, R. 2010. Harry Smith, an Ethnographic Modernist in America. In A. Perchuk and R. Singh (eds) Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular. Los Angeles: The Getty Research Institute, 1561.Google Scholar
Smith, H. 2007. Film No. 7: Color Study (1952). On Harry Smith: Volume #1. DVD. New York: Harry Smith Archives.Google Scholar
Themerson, F., Themerson, S. 2007. The Eye & the Ear, third song: ‘Rowan Towers’ (1945). On The Films of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson. DVD. London: LUX.Google Scholar
Whitney, J. 1980. Digital Harmony: On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art. Peterborough: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wilfred, T. 1947. Light and the Artist. In M. Betancourt (ed.) Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux. Rockville, MD: Borgo Press, 2006: 921.Google Scholar