Cymatic Music

cymatic music is an ongoing sound art and science project exploring patterns of vibration patterns we can hear that is the same music and sonic patterns we can see now how can we see sound well when a physical matter is vibrated with sound certain geometric symmetries are manifest and this field of inquiry is called cymatics hence the name of this project cymatic music where my aim is to develop a creative bridge between the basic principles of music and those of cymatic phenomenon here a dish of water is vibrated with a low frequency sine wave as the volume is increased the circular ripples transform into a dynamic pattern with fivefold symmetry to appreciate the intricacies of this patterning fully the footage can be slowed down and waveform viewed from above you if the frequency of the sound source is increased the myriad of different somatic symmetries can be coax from the water threefold fourfold twofold and five fold symmetry the progression of these symmetries proceeds in an ordered periodic fashion as shown in this graph this wealth of evolving somatic forms constitutes the source material for a series of short films I've created with the video artist Gregory McNeely like a dish of water a string can vibrate indistinct periodic modes these are known as harmonics the fundamental first harmonic and the second harmonic third harmonic fourth harmonic fifth harmonic sixth harmonic sent harmonic and eighth tonic each tone an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency we can map this series onto a grid and add the mathematical universe a sub harmonic series the half the third the fourth the fifth the sixth the seventh and the eighth of the fundamental frequency each note of this series can in turn be taken as the fundamental of a different harmonic series the resultant matrix the proportional tones is called a lamb DOMA and is the cornerstone of a musical architecture called harmonious ISM and if we are to find a common language that links music and somatic phenomena this seems an appropriate system to adopt furthermore in order to explore the tonality of this different sound world I've had to design and build some new musical instruments which can be heard in the films I mentioned earlier the harmonic cannon the harmonic flute and the harmonic guitar to what extent then does cymatic patterning correlate with proportional harmonics ISM does matter vibrate harmonically can we see what we hear in the case of spherical media such as bubbles the answer is yes the pulsating symmetries of these bubbles directly reflect the rhythmic tones of the harmonic guitar other vibrating media show intimations of harmonicity but at this stage they're musical a complement is largely interpretive Oh you Oh you you

Channel: cymaticmusic

Views: 382,049

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Id: sThS9OfnM1s

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 25 2010