Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com and at disquiet.com/junto, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.
Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:
This assignment was made in the late afternoon, California time, on Thursday, July 23, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, July 27, 2015.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0186: My Name
Explore the sonic contours of a word you’ve spelled out loud frequently: your name.
These are the steps in this week’s project, which is a micro-exploration of the techniques employed by the composer Scott Johnson. It’s also about various spectra of repetition.
Step 1: Record the sound of you spelling your own name. Best to do just one word, either your first name or last name — whichever you’ve been more likely to enunciate clearly over the years.
Step 2: Slow the recording just a bit, to maybe 75% of the original speed. Adjust to your own taste, but don’t slow it too much: Your name should still be “audibly legible.”
Step 3: Listen very closely to the segment. Note the melodic shape, the rhythm, the inherent grace moments, other granular aspects specific to how you say your name.
Step 4: Record a short piece of music that emulates those shapes, that rhythm, those grace moments, and so forth.
Step 5: Set a loop of the newly composed piece of music over a loop of you repeating your name. Repeat for between 30 seconds and a minute.
Step 6: Go back and tweak the composed music over the length of the work.
Step 7: Set it so that the volume of you saying your name decreases, so that by the end of the length of the piece your name is no longer audible, with just the music remaining.
Step 8: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.
Step 9: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This assignment was made in the late afternoon, California time, on Thursday, July 23, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, July 27, 2015.
Length: The length of your finished work is up to you, but a length between one and two minutes is recommended.
Upload: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, only upload one track for this assignment, and include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0186-myname”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track, please be sure to include this information:
More on this 186th Disquiet Junto project (“Explore the sonic contours of a word you’ve spelled out loud frequently: your name”) at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0186: My Name
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
https://disquiet.com/forums/
Image associated with this post by Yersinia Pestis and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
