Before class, we were asked to choose a song to talk about while introducing ourselves. I chose Um Kulthoum – Alf Leila w Leila, which translates to ‘a thousand nights and a night’. At the second half of the class, we were paired and asked to choose one song to design an interactive musical experience to. I was paired with Gil, we liked each other’s choices, but we decided to go with Gil’s choice which is Quant en moy - Guillaume de Machaut (Motet Isorythmique) because we both felt we could do more with it than the song I chose.
Catalog of Attributes:
Sound elements: 3 voices*
Language: French*
Composer Time Period: Medieval*
Piece Style: Medieval*
Gil and I were trying to decide between two ideas. His idea is great, but I feel like it would work better for another song. Gil’s idea is to let two users dance next to each other side by side. The user on the right side would control the rhythm with their dance moves and the one on the left would control the tempo. I feel like this idea is great for another genre, maybe a song with beat. However, this masterpiece is very calming and therapeutic which in my opinion it's best for us to close our eyes and just stand there to bless our ears with it.
Since Quant en moy means ‘when I was first visited by love’, I thought of matching the same theme and go with something that represents affection. I thought of creating an experience with hugging since it’s a universal sign of love. Therefore, the interaction would require two users approaching to hug each other, and while they’re moving towards each other the volume of the song increases.
Gil felt that my idea is kind of simple and wanted to add more to it.
Finally, we both agreed on providing two users with jackets. These jackets would act as a switch, meaning the song will play once both jackets touch (or users hug).
The jackets main purpose is to:
1. Measure the intensity of the hug and that would change the melody accordingly.
2. Control the rhythm based on the users’ body movement.
Final Sketch:
*https://imslp.org/wiki/Quant_en_moy_(Machaut%2C_Guillaume_de)