Musical Speech

A screenshot of how the audio software Logic hears pitch in speech.

The space between music and speech has been a common theme throughout my recent work. In the past, I listened to the recorded speech and transcribed the melodies on my own, where the unique way that I hear a certain turn of phrase translates into how I hear that speech as a musical melody. For Family Association, I’m enlisting help from software tools (Logic Pro and Dorico) to refine what the machine hears as pitch, and then translate that into music that I think would serve as an effective counterpoint to the text.

Family Association is going to be divided into a few different movements, but they aren’t really movements per se. Since the listener is free to wander Chinatown, depending on where they go, they will hear different movements. Each movement will likely center on a specific theme. This weekend I’m working on the “chinatown/memories” theme, which groups together a few common stories regarding the comfort of familiar foods.

With some experimenting, I tried to create melodies out of the speech, but also harmonies as well. Here’s what some of these experiments sound like at the moment.