Achorripsis: A sonification of probability distributions
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Childs, E.
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Abstract
The 1957 musical composition Achorripsis by Iannis Xenakis was composed using four different probability distributions, applied over three different organizational domains, during the course of the 7 minute piece. While Xenakis did not have sonification in mind, his artistic choices in rendering mathematical formulations into musical events (time, space, timbre, glissando speed) provide useful contributions to the ``mapping problem'' in three significant ways: 1. He pushes the limit of loading the ear with multiple formulations simultaneously. 2. His mapping of ``velocity'' to string glissando speed provides a useful method of working with a vector quantity with magnitude and direction. 3. His artistic renderings, ie. ``musifications'' of these distributions, invite the question, in general, as to whether musical/ artistic sonifications are more intelligible to the human ear than sonifications prepared without any musical ``filtering'' or constraints (e.g. that they could be notated and performed by musicians).
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2002-07
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