EVOLUTION OF MUSIC

Collaboration with Luke Cissell, which was recorded for his Sonata for Viola and Piano--Three Piano Pieces, 2017.

Through the process of evolution, Nature creates interesting life forms. I was curious to see if the same process could be used to create interesting music. I invited the American composer, Luke Cissell, to join me. He wrote a melody (1.0) and I created 9 variations (1.1 to 1.9) by mutating it just as DNA is mutated in evolution. Here is a diagram of our process where different colours represent different notes so the mutations are easier to track. Beside it is a list of the types of mutations I made to the music. In keeping with biology, I made the changes to the music in a (more or less) random way.

1. inversion--a chunk of music (say 5-10 notes long) reverses in the right/left sense
2. missense mutation--alteration of a single note
3. deletion--one or several notes go silent
4. frameshift--a chunk of music shifts up or down a semi-tone (At the level of DNA, it's no more interesting than a small insertion or deletion but it has major downstream effects on the proteins.)
5. translocation--a chunk of music moves from one part of the music to another
6. insertion of viral DNA--a chunk of music from another piece of music gets inserted
7. methylation--a chunk of music gets peppered with sharps and flats
8. duplication--a chunk of music or single note gets repeated
9. repeat expansion--dramatic increase in the number of repeats in a section of music that is already repeated twice in succession
10. transposon insertion--a tiny fragment of music suddenly appears in more than one location in the music
11. nonsense mutations--alteration of a single note that causes termination of the music, not at that spot, but at some arbitrary point further on

Luke chose the variation he found most inspiring (1.9), worked on it, and gave it back to me in its revised form (2.0) for another round of mutation. We continued handing the music back and forth like this. The final piece, Mutatis Mutandis, evolved from multiple repetitions of the process, just as new species evolve in Nature.

Luke performed and recorded Mutatis Mutandis. It is available here, along with more of Luke's exquisite compositions.

He kindly provided this feedback on the project:
When Tia asked me to work with her on Evolution of Music, I was excited to get more of a look into the mechanics of this process of weaving order out of chaos. Working with Tia provided me not only with insight into the often sublimated decision-making that is happening in my own creative process, but also an opportunity to consider and incorporate changes, mutations, variations, and so on that I wouldn’t have arrived at on my own.