Dustin Zemel

(palé)Phonics is a generative sound experiment intended to extend our understandings of musical polyphony. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525) was able to compose ecstatically beautiful choral works for the church through polyphonic methods that gave each voice its own semblance of individuation. The algorithm I designed using Max/MSP attempts to extend this sense of autonomy through controlled randomization processes. In the examples below, the note sequences in the four parts remains in order, however the the note lengths are randomized hopefully in a manner that moves outwards from the accomplished, transcendent beauty of connsonant harmonies and standardized chord progression into the potentiated, energized shared terrain made possible with true polyphony.