Birds, flutes, horns and memes were just a few of the wide variety of sound samples you could hear in the Recital Hall of the Music Building on Friday.
From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the School of Music hosted The Electronic and Computer Music Concert No. 1. Students from the Introduction to Computer Music Classes showcased projects they worked on during the semester.
Unlike other live performances, this concert was a fixed media concert, meaning that only the music and song descriptions were visible, allowing the audience to focus on the music playing rather than the artist.
John Wolff, a first-year music performance graduate student, said this style of concert was unlike other concerts he’s attended.
“It’s all music on the computer. So most of the concerts have someone performing the music, at least in some aspect,” Wolff said. “This one’s all electronic, so that’s what makes it the most different.”
Another unique aspect about this concert was its lighting. Instead of having a lighting system, the concert turned off all the lights in the Recital Hall, letting the audience immerse themselves into an environment the song created for them.
Senior Blake Wiles and sophomore Miguel Dominguez, recording arts and media technologies majors, said the darkness of the room made people focus on the music.
“The theme is very quiet in a sense, but also loud at the same time. I say quiet visually, because they dim the lights, so it’s dark in there, and you can’t really focus on anything but the music,” Wiles said.
Dominguez added onto Wile’s observation, focusing on the emotional aspect of the concert.
“Like Blake said, it’s very dark, and all you can really do is just intake the music,” Dominguez said.
In this darkness, 19 songs were played, each with their own unique style and sound. Some of these songs, such as “Running Low” by Jacob Morgan had an atmospheric and dream-like sound through their instrumentation.
Other songs could be classified into genres such as progressive house, ambient, techno, dance, trip-hop and bedroom pop.
Rather than using physical instruments, these songs utilized synthesis, a process where producers use audios and synthesizers to make musical notes. Additionally, some students took snippets of other songs or audio pieces and turned them into one-of-a-kind works of art.
One song, titled “Literally Being Funny in a Foreign Language” by EmVi Legaspi, took advantage of this feature, adding samples from various memes that trended on the internet.
Sophomore music major Raven Hanson said that their favorite song of the night was an upbeat song towards the end of the show.
“It was kind of a dance song. I forgot the name of it, but it was by Joseph,” Hanson said.
The song Hanson was describing was “sk8wifme” by Joseph Messina, which used sampling as well, adding in the sound of a skateboard rolling and landing a trick as the cue for the start of the song.
The primary program behind the music is Ableton Live, with some students using FL Studio. These Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) allowed for students to create their songs with just a laptop or their phone.
With these DAWs, student producers are able to create longer, more technical songs without the complexities of music production in recording studios.
For those interested in the science behind each song, there will be an upcoming Live Processing Concert on Wednesday, April 29.
For those who missed the event, you can rewatch the livestream on YouTube.
