\pard\tx520\tx1060\tx1600\tx2120\tx2660\tx3200\tx3720\tx4260\tx4800\tx5320\f0\b0\i0\ul0\fs32\fc0 I carried a camp chair over to the cot where the younger children were. Then I sat there, leaning forward, to watch them sleep.\
A random tumble of heads and dangled limbs. In those soft warm faces was a quality of trust so absolute and pure that I did not want to think it might be misplaced. There must be something, somewhere, large and grand and redoubtable enough to justify this shining reliance and implicit belief. A feeling of desperate piety swept over me. It was cosmic in nature, full of yearnings and reachings. It spoke of vast distances, awesome but subtle forces. These sleeping children were like figures in an ad for the Rosicrucians, drawing a powerful beam of light from somewhere off the page. Steffie turned slightly, then muttered something in her sleep. It seemed important that I know what it was. In my current state, bearing the death impression of the Nyodene cloud, I was ready to search anywhere for signs and hints, intimations of odd comfort. I pulled my chair up closer. Her face in pouchy sleep might have been a structure designed solely to protect the eyes, those great large and apprehensive things, prone to color phases and a darting alertness, to a perception of distress in others. I sat there watching her. Moments later she spoke again. Distinct syllables this time, not some dreamy murmur -- but a language not quite of this world. I struggled to understand. I was convinced she was saying something, fitting together units of stable meaning. I watched her face, waited. Ten minutes passed. She uttered two clearly audible words, familiar and elusive at the same time, words that seemed to have a ritual meaning, part of a verbal or ecstatic chant.\
\i Toyota Celica.
\i0 \
A long moment passed before I realized that this was the name of an automobile. The truth only amazed me more. The utterance was beautiful and mysterious, gold-shot with looming wonder. It was like the name of an ancient power in the sky, tablet-carved in cuneiform. It made me feel that something hovered. But how could this be? A simple brand name, an ordinary car. How could these near-nonsense words, murmured in a child's restless sleep, make me sense a meaning, a presence? She was only repeating some TV voice. Toyota Corolla, Toyota Celica, Toyota Cressida. Supranational names, computer-generated, more or less universally pronounceable. Part of every child's brain noise, the substatic regions too deep to probe. Whatever its source, the utterance struck me with the impact of a moment of splendid transcendence.\
One day while listening to a recording of Steve Reich's piece
\f0\i Vermont Counterpoint
\f1\i0 , I thought to myself: "Gosh darn! I wonder if I could simulate this composition with a computer!" At about this time I had also been playing with Perry Cook's
\i SlideFlute
\i0 synthesis algorithm, which does an amazing job of modelling the physics of a flute.
\i Reich-o-Matic
\i0 is the result of this happy conjunction of idea and algorithm.\
The performance model in this version is somewhat crude, using only some simple probabilities and constrained randomness -- not many rules concerning the actual construction of the music or the playing of the flute are included. But it does manage to produce some snazzy sounds, plus I had fun fooling around with the numbers to see what music would result.\
I have included models of four different compositional techniques which Steve Reich has used in his music:\
\b Pulsing
\b0 -- This fades in nice, pulsing chords similar in spirit to the woodwind/voice parts in
\f0\i Music for Eighteen Musicians
\f1\i0 \
(my favorite Steve Reich piece, by the way...).\
\b Canon
\b0 -- This generates a constantly changing three-voice canon (strict imitation). It sort of reminds me of
\f0\i Tehillim
\f1\i0 .\
\b Phasing
\b0 -- One of Steve Reich's early techniques was to have two\
(or more) performers play the same pattern of music, with\
one of the players speeding up relative to the other(s). I\
think that this simulation manages to capture a Reich-like\
quality the best.\
\b Interlock
\b0 -- Small interlocking melody fragments are produced by this\
simulation, inspired by the original idea I had while listening\
to
\f0\i Vermont Counterpoint
\f1\i0 .\
To hear these, simply select the corresponding radio button and start (or re-start) the program by hitting the
\f0\b Sounds!
\f1\b0 button. Let them run for awhile -- they're sure to drive your friends, family and/or office mates crazy!\
\b\i About the Slide Flute algorithm
\b0\i0 \
The flute sounds are produced in real time on the NeXT DSP chip using a physical model of flute acoustics realized with the NeXT MusicKit. The technique used to model the flute is known as waveguide filtering, and was developed by Julius O. Smith and others at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. Perry Cook (prc@ccrma.stanford.edu) is the author of this flute model. Perry has written a number of other astounding waveguide models (
\i TBone
\i0 ,
\i HosePlayer
\i0 , etc.). Many of these are available at various archive sites.\
\b\i About the drawing
\b0\i0 \
My daughter, Lian Garton (age five), has become absolutely enraptured by the
\i Draw
\i0 app. There are days when she is logged onto the NeXT more than her father(!). I asked Lian to draw a picture for
\i Reich-o-Matic
\i0 , the drawing included here is the result. She drew this while listening to the "phasing" version of
\i Reich-o-Matic
\i0 . The particular choice of flute pattern she heard had a fair number of key-clicks; Lian explained that this drawing has marbles and sticks clinking together because the music sounded that way. She also drew in a highly rhythmic fashion. As Don DeLillo puts it: "There are no amateurs in the world of children."\
I hope you find this music enjoyable. Each time you start it up, the patterns should be different (or at least until random(3) becomes tired). If some obviously bad notes pop out, this is a result of the performance and flute models. What fun! Sometimes the embouchure or air flow will be set up slightly "off". Hey, even James Galway and Ransom Wilson have bad days!\
(.txt)