Musical Analysis -- Moving Beyond the technical...

See my previous post on my Variations V analysis for background. 

So, the main chunk of my analysis is actually not computational. I match up the musical and movement events in the various performances of excerpts Variations V (see tables below) & then highlight them on the similarity matrices of the music and movement (see similarity matrices below). I have conclusions and remarks in my paper, which I have a complete first draft of (!). 

Structure in Miller's Cage Centennial Performance of Variations V

Sample had two main sections,

1 louder and is movement and music are less similar – running through sensors

2. Starts with a transitional relative silence, is softer, much higher movement & audio similarity, especially at the end.

Event #	Movement	Music
1	Stillness	High sustaining tone, no onsets
2	Dancers break stillness and all move at once	Low honking sounds resume
3	Two dancers still, one dancer running in a wide circle	Noisy, percussive synth sounds that seem triggered by the running, at end glissandos start when all 3 are on stage
4	All three dancers fall down, dancers turn in unison	High downward glissando in sync with fall, silence for unison turn
5	Two dancers circle arms in sync, third dancer still	Silence
6	Two dancers jump & change levels, third dancer still	Low honking sounds in response to level changes, lower sounds that seem to be in response to dancers’ movements
7	Duo unison ends, all dancers change levels	Loud honking sounds
8	One dancer rocks back and forth, others move very little	Low sounds roughly in sync with rocking

Structure in decibel's Performance of Variations V

Less obvious relationships in music and audio than in Miller's version. The work starts out with one dancer moving in front of a sensor like (1), and these moments have the most audio & movement similarity. Then, she breaks up this by running around the space, and setting off a loud burst of sound. The last part involves some dancers moving very near to a sensor, while the other dancer moves away from the triggers. Thus, there are some indications of similarity between the matrices, but they are much less clear than in the beginning.

Event #	Movement	Music
1	1 dancer moving arms, in front of projection and sensor, 2 other dancers moving minimally	Glissando sine waves that seem to be affected by the dancer arm’s movements
2	2a – dancer in front of the projection moves away all dancers briefly pause or move very little	Much softer noise, soft phased, saw wave  sounds glissando
3	1 dancer runs around the stage twice, two dancers move in unison in different corners of the stage area	Quieter noises continue 3a – loud siren-ish burst, which sounds during the first circle of the dancer When the dancer passes again, another, slightly different and softer noise triggers
4	Running dancer stops, unison dancing continues. One of the unison dancers stops & begins to move towards her unison partner for a duo	High glissando sine waves continue, seemly following the movements of unison dancers
5	1 duo, 1 solo (previously the runner) all moving and changing levels, no unison	Again, high glissando continues seemingly related to duo movements, but not the solo dancers
6	Solo dancer moves to the side off camera, duo breaks up, and everyone is changing position, perhaps away from sensors	Less glissando until there is a moment of sustain
7	Two dancers exit from view of the camera, off the stage area	High glissandos begin again

Music / Relationship Structure in 1966 Hamburg Cage and Cunningham performance

The video analysis of this work contained much more noise than in the previous two samples, since there were small camera movements and images obscuring the main viewpoint of the dancers. However, the similarity matrices show less connection between audio and music, except for the last moments of the clip, when a third dancer enters, and they all seem close to sensors as they move. All the SSMs show this moment. (Interaction #1)

Also, while it is not clear in the similarity matrix, the dancer on the left seems to be controlling a white noise bursts by his movements for a short time, exhibiting interaction #1.

Four different sections

            +opening – 2 men, each near a pole

            +2^nd man exists

            +man & woman

            + short section when a second man enters, very apparent on similarity matrices

Cage –1^st part, structure and correspondences

Event #	Movement	Music
1	One dancer stays in position, but arms move. A second dancer enters.	Radio static, feedback sounds, one clank
2	First dancer lunges & turns, second stays at the same location, but moves back and forth quickly	More sounds of radio static tuning, more feedback
3	First dancer stays still and balances, 2nd dancer still moves from side to side	Rhythmic clanking sounds enter over the sounds of radios tuning
4	First dancer collapses then starts jumping up and down and occasionally turning. Second dancer continues in his side to side figures but also occasionally jumps	The clanking changes rhythmic pattern, and the radio sounds get louder. Occasionally there is a burst of white noise which seems related to the movements of the first dancer’s movements

Cage – 2nd part, structure and correspondences

Event #	Movement	Music
1	Left dancer on one leg holds still. On right, dancer also on one leg, moves arms while turns	Quiet white noise with some quiet tones beneath
X	Close-up obscures view, disregard	Disregard
2	Dancer spins moving slowly left until out of camera view. Meanwhile, dancer in front slowly turns and moves one arm out and back	Soft buzzy clicks
3	Dancer extends leg out and back	Low bell sound that  seems controlled by leg
4	Dancer from left enters again. Meanwhile, dancer in front leans and lunges	Mostly quiet noises. Loud honk as left dancer takes a backward step
5	Third dancer enters. All dancer move.	More loud, intermittent honks. Radio static-type noise crescendos.