Michael Haverkamp / Köln 
Visualisation of
Music
A comprehensive image of Perotin’s famous
piece „viderunt
omnes“ showing the architectural
characteristics of this
early polyphonic music, which also for
this reason is rightly
classified as “Notre-Dame-style”.
“Spem in Alium” by Thomas Tallis reflects
the exuberant
impression of maximum polyphonic structure
achieved during
the Renaissance era. This piece is
composed as a 40-part (!)
motet with sequences where polyphonic structure
dissolves
into pure harmony, leaving twinkling
fragments of melody.
The intuitive colours and shapes
are shown as perceived and
not chosen by aesthetical considerations.
Piano motif from Franz Schubert’s song „Die Stadt“,
lyrics by Heinrich Heine, included into
the song cycle
„Schwanengesang“
D.957 XI.
György Ligetis “poéme symphonique” is
based on the sound
of 100 mechanical metronomes, each acting
with different
tempo. Started quite simultaneously, the
ticking noise
diminishes one by one. The total noise
changes from amorphous
random to transient quality of single
pulses, passing various
steps of complex rhythm. The graphics
demonstrates this
effect using 16 groups of bars with
different distance
causing different length. Overlapping the
bar series leads
to a structure that changes from random character
on the
left to more and more simplified rhythms
on the right.
While remembering Ligetis composition
“Lontano”, its complex,
micro-polyphonic structures compress to a
landscape-like image
with various textures.
Arnold Schönbergs movement “Farben”
(colors) as 3rd part of
his 5 pieces for orchestra op.16 was
characterized as “musical
pointillism” with analogy to
impressionistic paintings (e.g. by
Georges Seurat). This visualization is a
result of mathematic-
physical transformation performed by a
sound-analysis software
(HEAD acoustics: Artemis).
Surprisingly, this image clearly shows
the pointillist structure which was
intuitively described before.
An orchestral glissando from the 1st
Symphony by Krzysztof
Penderecki. Continuously decreasing pitch
evokes an illusion
of infinite downward movement, based on
the principle of the
Shepard scale. The transformation by the sound analysis
software includes time (horizontally from
left to right hand
side), pitch (vertically) and sound
pressure (colour scale).