Re: [microsound] live from altair IV: it's... 'the krell tones!'

[graham miller <grahammiller@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

a tiny except from a rough draft of something i'm working on... it has
yet to be refined... so bare with me...

begin:

????????

The current trend of scoring science fiction with symphonic orchestras
was not always the case, however.  Some early science fiction films made
use of a variety of eclectic electronic instrumentation, such as the
theremin, to try and articulate this concept of ?The Futuristic? so
central to the science fiction genre.  In many ways these musical
practices and unorthodox techniques were more akin to 20th century
experimental artists such as Stockhausen, Xenakis and Cage.  Other
worlds and distant times would have a music far different than our own,
perhaps even entirely indecipherable to our ears or breadth of
understanding.  What might this Future sound like? What kinds of music
might these strange societies conjure? Would we even have the cultural
codes to decipher meaning in these musical sounds, or would it simply
translate as noise?  Is such a Futuristic aesthetic even possible to
predict, using history as our model, or are our efforts purely in vain,
forever prisoners of the Present?  And even so, what exactly is it about
a sound or a genre that signifies it as ?Futuristic? in the first place?

One such attempt to imagine these sorts of sounds was the 1956
soundtrack to the film Forbidden Planet by Louis and Bebe Barron.
?Using no orchestral instruments ? only the sounds emitted by the
cybernetic circuits they conceived, designed and built ? they created a
unique and compelling score, so original that is was credited on the
title as ELECTRONIC TONALITIES.  However, its true musical qualities
were recognized by the critics and the public, and it was honored by an
Academy Award nomination,? writes filmmaker Bill Malone in the
soundtrack?s accompanying liner notes.
The score conceived by Louis and Bebe Barron was clearly unconventional:
there were no harmonic progressions, hooks, or melodies; no identifiable
metre, or recognizable instrumentation.  There was not even any sort of
obvious structural elements, such as refrains, choruses, intros, or
codas.  In fact, many would have argued that this soundtrack was not
even music at all.  If anything, it operated more as sound effect than
music in the ?conventional? sense ? a trait mirrored in 20th century
orchestral and experimental music?s preoccupation with process and sound
unto itself.

The story of  Forbidden Planet  transpires as a kind of eulogy for an
ancient extinct alien civilization known only as the Krel.  Like the
character of Victor Frankenstein, their own doom was ultimately
predestined by their relentless pursuit of knowledge and desire for
mastery over nature.  They had engineered the ultimate computer: a
machine so powerful it could transform any thought into reality.  But in
a single instant the entire Krel race vanished from the surface of
Altair IV ? wished away by their own inner id ? leaving only the
repentant sounds of their restless souls, mourning their mistake for all
eternity.  The result is an eerie electronic ambiance of dive-bomb
drones and sunken starship klaxons, swarms of percolating sine waves and
swirling saucercraft, drown in the cavernous reverberation of some alien
world.  Without any real world referents, only the imagination can make
sense of sounds so strange.   In some ways, it seemed almost as if Louis
and Bebe Barron simply ?channeled? the right frequency ? that transient
space between life and machine ? and pressed ?record.?  ?We design and
construct electronic circuits which function electronically in a manner
remarkably similar to the way that lower life-forms function
psychologically,? the composers explain. ?There is a comprehensive
mathematical science explaining it, called ?Cybernetics,? which is
concerned with Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine.  It
was first propounded by Prof. Norbert Wiener of M.I.T. who found that
there are certain natural laws of behaviour applicable alike to animals
(including humans) and electronic machines.  In scoring FORBIDDEN PLANET
? as in all our work ? we created individual cybernetic circuits for
particular themes and leit motifs, rather than using standard sound
generators.  Actually, each circuit has a characteristic activity
pattern as well as a ?voice.? Most remarkable is that the sounds which
emanate from these electronic nervous systems seem to convey strong
emotional meaning to listeners.?

Forbidden Planet represented a radical break from the traditional
cinematic score, for it actually tread into the creative territory of
what would later be known as ?sound design.?  The boundary between
diegetic and nondiegetic sound had been breached and blurred ? it was
never fully clear whether or not the intrepid crew of the C-57D
Starcruiser  could hear the eerie ?electronic tonalities? produced by
the composers? cybernetic circuits and custom audio machines.  In
classic film theory nondiegetic music is the music which falls outside
of the perception of the characters and events which occur within the
narrative realm of the film.  This kind of music, often referred to as
the ?score? of a film, functions to intensify drama, emphasize or
recontextualize onscreen action, as well as create a particular
cinematic mood or atmosphere.   It is generally understood by audience
members that the characters in the film are unaware of this music ? that
is, that it occurs beyond their scope of reality.  Diegetic music is its
antithesis ? it is music which emanates from an onscreen source, such a
radio, a sound system in a dance club, a musician, or a television.
Film sound theorist Michel Chion explains the concept in greater
detail:  ?I have given the name pit music to music that accompanies the
image from a nondiegetic position, outside the space and time of the
action.  The term refers to the classical opera?s orchestra pit.  I
shall refer as screen music, on the other hand, to music arising from a
source located directly or indirectly in the space and time of the
action, even if this source is a radio or an offscreen musician.?

?????????

:end

basically i'm on about the relationship between sci-fi sound design and
the articulation of techno/microsound as 'futuristic.' any input on this
would be greatly appreciated...

g.

Kim Cascone wrote:

> I'm sure someone has beaten me to the punch on this but here it is
> anyway:
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyIdD86840
>
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