Cymatic Music: Towards a Metatheory of Harmonic Phenomena: My Interactive Compositions and Environments

Leonurdo. Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 12C-123. 1983 Printed in Great Britain 0024-094X/83$3.00+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd. CYMATIC MUSIC: TOWARDS A METATHEORY OF HARMONIC PHENOMENA: MY INTERACTIVE COMPOSITIONS AND ENVIRONMENTS Ronald A. Pellegrino" Articulating the notion of 'cymatic music' and identifying, exploring, and developing its creative ramifications are the principal objectives of my current research. The term 'cymatic' is derived from the Greek word kima which means something swollen or a wave. K.Drna is closely related to another Greek word. k,Pein, which means to be pregnant or swollen with child. Hans Jenny in his book, Cymatics [11, defines the word as the study of "the structure and dynamics of waves and vibrations". I find all these colorings of meaning valuable in pursuing the study of waves-the variables. their transformations, their interactions and the resulting dynamic structural configurations. The word cymatic was planted as a seed in my mind in 1974 when Jeff Goldstein, a student and colleague in one of my seminars at Oberlin College, loaned me Jenny's book. Goldstein knew that I had been working with the electronic arts of sound and light since 1967 and that from the beginning I saw the importance of wave theory in making sense of the electronic arts. Goldstein knew that I worked with synthesizers, computers. oscillographics. film. videographics and interactive environments and, at that time. I was about to begin working with laser graphics. He also knew that I was a classically-rooted composer and theorist. and that I was working on a metatheory of music based on wave theory. a metatheory that would embrace all music phenomena-western and non-western. traditional and emerging. sonic and visual. This metatheory. which is in the final stages of its gestation period, is based on the psychophysical principle of resonance, the reinforcing dynamic state of being that occurs in one system when it is excited by another system with coincidental wave characteristics. The interactive and interpenetrating wave characteristics of frequency. amplitude, waveshape, phase, duration. envelope. and the relationships of the rhythms of their respective changing states work together to create a powerful field that influences thought. feeling, behavior and one's sense of well-being. Harmonic forces (that is. periodic oscillations that have integral multiple relationships) give shape to our experience by providing easily recognizable references. Musical intervals present in the world are those harmonic intervals that became references because their interactions. in generating relatively beatless states. produce a sense of repose, agreement. normalcy and stability. The referencesare basic to the reality ofdeparture. tension. arrival and release, taken together, the binding force of dynamic art-sonic. visual and sonic/visual art. Harmonic phenomena create regions of reinforcement. tension. anticipation and resolution that communicate cross-culturally,yet allow for specific cultural nuances. Cymatic music is the metatheory's name. Goldstein's gift ofJenny's book functioned for me both as a seed crystal and a plant seed. After studying Jenny's work. I began to organi7e much of my pre-1974 research around *Composer and electronic artist. 15 Kelly Lane. Petaluma. CA 94952. [J.S.A. ( R ~ c e i ~ e d 12 December 19x2) cymatics. I came to realize that the essence of my work was the composition of electronic, mechanical and biological systems to create the structuresand direct the dynamicsof electromagnetic, mechanical and psychic (emanating from both the brain and the psyche) waves and vibrations. My pre-1974 research fell into coherent patterns out of which my post-1974 research could grow in a way that would harmonize both logic and serendipity, work and play. During the 1970s my work evolved along two parallel yet interdependent streams of thought and action-the biomechanical and the electromechanical. The biomechanical stream takes the form of organizing experimental social systems-flexible groups of people exploring the process of realtime composition. The real-time compositional mode of action has provided my life's most exalted musical experiences. In contrast to the mechanical nature of clock-time, real-time is the time of unfettered musical communion. the natural time of feeling, conversing and being. Real-time has structure that unfolds from within; it is the time whose ticks...