#and has to use tonal architecture time manipulation

[profanetools]

instead of a coherent narrative, you could dissect my brain precisely and find a fully rendered demonically difficult 8-bit metroidvania game where you play bthemetz, a once prestigious academic, now wayward dwemer, who has to make her way through the labyrinthine red mountain stronghold in full 'siege defence' mode on the last day of the battle of red mountain, to confront her ex-girlfriend one last time

[barfok]

taking this and running with it i need to drill into the actual connection between akatosh and the thu'um. bc admittedly i've been operating under the assumption that, though it's mainly used by dragons, it actually derives more from kyne than akatosh. however

me and mori talked about the difference between the thu'um and the kiai and what we settled on was that, though both operate on manipulation of the earthbones, the thu'um is domination-based: it involves forcing the earthbones into shape, while the kiai and tonal architecture are more negotiative and subtle. and that's where the connection to akatosh comes in. akatosh/auri-el's sphere is control so obviously his way of interacting with the world is via domination and control of its fabric.

now to figure out where herma-mora comes into this, i think we have to look at herma mora's connection to auri-el. i think herma-mora and auri-el are connected via the intersection between fate and time. fate depends on the notion of time, after all. you could also see fate as a notion of control-- for something to be fated, it must be controlled, bound to a particular timeline and inevitably going to happen

which leads me to this theory: hermaeus mora is obsessed with the thu'um because the thu'um can disrupt fate. maybe this effect isn't so prominent when it's wielded by dragons and only emerges when mortals are concerned, but what if the thu'um has the singular ability to perturb something fated? the first nordic empire was built on the back of the thu'um; alduin's destined triumph was thwarted by the thu'um. what if these things weren't fated to happen according to herma-mora's take on fate, hence why its existence preoccupies him?

by tinkering directly with akatosh's version of reality, the thu'um uniquely fucks with herma-mora. and this is a fucking byproduct of it. no wonder he's obsessed

[shafyulislam]

Mastering the Art of Image Editing: Unveiling the Secrets to Stunning Visuals

In the dynamic and visually-driven digital landscape, image editing has become an indispensable tool for individuals and businesses alike. From social media influencers curating eye-catching feeds to businesses enhancing product images for e-commerce, the demand for high-quality, visually appealing content is at an all-time high. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the world of image editing, exploring its significance, popular techniques, and the tools that empower creators to transform ordinary visuals into extraordinary masterpieces.

The Significance of Image Editing:

Images are powerful communicators, capable of conveying emotions, telling stories, and leaving a lasting impression. Image editing serves as the catalyst that elevates visuals to new heights, making them more engaging and effective. Whether you're a professional photographer, a social media enthusiast, or a business owner, the ability to enhance and optimize your images is a game-changer in today's competitive digital landscape.

Key Techniques in Image Editing:

Color Correction and Grading:

One of the fundamental aspects of image editing is adjusting and enhancing colors. Color correction ensures accurate reproduction of hues, while color grading allows for creative manipulation, setting the tone and mood of the image. Professionals use tools like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop to fine-tune colors and achieve a visually cohesive look.

Retouching and Enhancement:

Perfecting portraits or product images involves retouching and enhancing details. Removing blemishes, smoothing skin tones, and refining textures are common techniques employed to achieve a polished and professional look. Advanced tools such as frequency separation help achieve nuanced results without sacrificing realism.

Cropping and Composition:

The right composition can transform an ordinary image into a captivating one. Image editing tools provide the flexibility to crop, resize, and reframe images to improve their overall composition. Attention to composition is crucial for creating visually pleasing and balanced visuals.

HDR Imaging:

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is a technique that combines multiple exposures of a scene to capture a broader range of light and detail. This is particularly useful in landscape photography, architectural shots, and any scenario with varying light conditions. HDR enhances the overall tonal range and details in an image.

Adding Filters and Effects:

Filters and effects are powerful tools for infusing creativity into images. From vintage looks to modern aesthetics, a plethora of filters and effects are available to cater to diverse preferences. These can be applied to evoke specific emotions or align with a brand's visual identity.

Tools of the Trade:

Adobe Creative Cloud:

Adobe's suite of creative tools, including Photoshop and Lightroom, remains the industry standard for professional image editing. With a wide range of features and capabilities, these tools offer unparalleled flexibility and control.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program):

GIMP is a free, open-source alternative to proprietary image editing software. Despite being free, GIMP provides a comprehensive set of tools for tasks ranging from photo retouching to graphic design.

Canva:

Canva is a user-friendly online platform that caters to both beginners and professionals. It offers a range of templates and tools for easy image editing, making it accessible to those without extensive design experience.

Snapseed:

For mobile users, Snapseed is a powerful and intuitive photo editing app. Developed by Google, Snapseed provides a wide array of editing tools and filters, making it a favorite among smartphone photographers.

Conclusion:

In the digital age, where visuals reign supreme, mastering the art of image editing is a valuable skill. Whether you're a seasoned photographer or a social media enthusiast, understanding the significance of image editing and familiarizing yourself with the essential techniques and tools will undoubtedly elevate the quality of your visuals. So, embark on this creative journey, experiment with different editing styles, and witness the transformative power of image editing in making your visuals truly stand out in the digital realm.

[old-antecedent]

Mysteries of the Dwemer pt. 2: Gyroscopic Dynamos Don't Run on Nothing

The spherical animunculi and other golems are often the first thing that mortals imagine when thinking of the Dwemer. Indeed, their machines and labyrinthine complexes are the only thing they may now be remembered by. It is therefore natural that most questions of the Dwemer are practical questions of their engineering. I could regale you with long explanations of how each of their myriad machines work, but instead I will tell of the obvious centers of their technology: steam and sound. All Dwemer technology is ultimately powered by steam. Furnaces boiling water to drive pistons and turn gears from the top to the bottom of their complexes. Without a running steam engine, the largest of their centurions is nothing but a statue. I shan't get into the specifics of how the system works. A few craftsmen on Stros M'kai have recently reproduced it for themselves. Instead, I will warn you that you are not capable of using this technology. Suppose these redguard craftsmen begin building steam machines for whoever will buy them. Who would use them? For what purpose? They cannot carry freight for they are far too expensive to produce for wagons, and either too heavy to float or too small to produce thrust in your ships. They cannot power animunculi or lights like within the dwemer ruins, as these are still mysteries to you. Even if a farmer could afford such a technological marvel to run their mill, what will they do when it breaks? You have no use for technologies as this. The Dwemer were further developed than the Third Aldmeri Dominion is, even now, when they created the tools they are so well known for. This advancement is not simply because of a difference in skill. It is rooted in a lucky discovery in the early history of the Dwemer. Like the ancient races of men, the Dwemer were skilled in the manipulation of sound. Nords have their shouts, Redguards have sword-singing, and the Dwemer learned tonal architecture. This underpins much of their technological achievement. If you have heard of "the music of the spheres", imagine tonal architecture as playing spherical conductor for a moment. Reshaping reality as you wish, so long as you understand what you're doing. Once the Dwemer found this power, it was quickly adopted as a major pillar of their engineering. Even by the time of the Battle of Red Mountain, the crown still had a chief tonal architect in its court. It was as versatile as it was powerful. You must understand this: holding a power as strong as reshaping reality has far-reaching consequences for both a culture and its products. Let us briefly discuss Dwemer metalworking. Your scholars have repeatedly stressed that Dwemer metal is something different from brass. Though it appears the same in many aspects, brass lacks the strength and durability of Dwemer metal. I ask you: for a craftsman that can manipulate reality, how hard would it be to make brass far stronger and more durable than it should be? How hard would it be to ensure a blade stays sharp forever? To ensure the spinning dynamos in your golems never stop moving? Tonal architecture was the root cause of the Dwemer's swift advancement and of their downfall.

[kagrena]

Prompt 2: Magic

Bthemetz, a woman with a wild beard and plain robes and not much more, is sitting on the floor with her knees up to her chest, eyes as wide as saucers at the other woman sat next to her. The other woman’s name is Kagrenac, she is something called ‘A Tonal Architecture Student’, which as far as Bthemetz can make out, is some kind of mad travelling scientist who wanders around the deepest reaches of Oblivion by herself, encountering all kinds of oddities and anomalies - for example, dissenting radicals and disobedient plebs who were exiled here an unfathomable amount of time ago for “inciting revolts” and “attempting to overthrow the priesthood”. Not that Bthemetz would know anything of the sort about that, of course. 

This is not, though, why she is staring wide-eyed at the woman named Kagrenac with painted eyelids, dressed in violet silks, with coloured brass beaded in her beard, who has placed herself directly beside her as if there is absolutely no difference between them at all. It is not even the fact that has littered the floor with wires and brass casing and screws and nuts and bolts, explaining in simple terms how the tones sing, as she turns her living room into a functioning workshop. 

It is how she hums softly as she fiddles with the circuitry on what will, eventually, be an arm. Bthemetz’s arm. She is making Bthemetz an arm. An arm that will not be stuck here, in this dingy little corner of the void.

“Magic,” Bthemetz says, softly, a smile growing on her face.

“What?”

Kagrenac has turned to her, sharply, her eyes alert, attentive, on her.

“Magic, Kagrenac,” she says, the smile growing broader.

“Where?”

Bthemetz chuckles. “Here, obviously. It’s magic.” She gestures, arms outstretched, at the space around her. “What you're doing. This Tonal Architecture thing.”

Her brow creases into a sceptical look. “Tonal Architecture is nothing like magic.”

“Well, how isn’t it like magic?” 

"It follows particular rules and uses particular sequences that can be found in the natural world to manipulate reality--”

“Like magic?”

“-- no -- nothing like that at all--”

“You’re a wizard,” says Bthemetz, with a broad grin. “I’ve never met a wizard before. Ooh, this is exciting.”

“I’m not a wizard,” she says, her lip curling into a slight pout.

“Alright,” says Bthemetz, “Not-a-wizard, Kagrenac, who is using not-magic, to conjure me back to Tamriel. Explain to me the difference, since I have been stuck here for the past millennium and a half, and haven’t exactly had the opportunity to get a formal education.”

She is still pouting. The sight of it almost makes Bthemetz laugh but also… well, she’s struck with this urge to just, reach out, and well… she doesn’t know what exactly, but her hand has reached out, and it’s lingering there, next to her jaw.

They stay in place, for a  moment. Her eyes widen - her eyes, they look like they have been dusted with gold - and a hand of her own reaches to touch hers.

“What are you doing, Bthemetz?” she asks, softly.

“It’s just... your magical energy,” says Bthemetz. “Your wizardliness.”

“Magical energy,” she says, with a sudden frown.

“Mhm.”

“I think you’re teasing me, Bthemetz,” she says. She takes her hand and gently places it back.

“Perhaps I am.”

Kagrenac does not say anything to stay. Instead, she says: “The difference is origin. Tones, as you already know, exist in the world. They sing through everything.” 

“I know that much. It’s just...” she gestures, again, to the room, full of brass contraptions. “This is all rather alien, to me. I can hardly believe we are the same people.”

“It is the same. It’s simply more advanced. What I am doing here doesn’t come from some inscrutable, unknowable source deep within me. What I am doing is manipulating forces that are already there, part of the fabric of the world.

“Not everyone can be a mage, you know,” she continues. “Yet anyone, with the right education, can learn to be an architect.”

Bthemetz nods at this, like it makes perfect sense to her. It should make perfect sense to her. Hadn’t she always dreamed of a world where who you were born to didn’t define who you were? And yet, for her part, she has folded her hands in front of her so they can’t wander astray and betray her by trying to touch a woman who looks like she has just walked out of a glittering mosaic. 

She is magic. And she can’t touch her.

[ansu-gurleht]

i love girnalin!! she's super fascinating to me because she has these like.. commentaries on the mythic dawn/36 sermons level metaphysics insights but instead of putting a big arrow to her and pointing out 'LOOK AT THIS WEIRD METAPHYSICS', she's just kind of chillin' by the waterside in Elden Root, not connected to any quests or pointed out at all

yeah dude like. i don’t play eso but i love her already. it’s great to hear about this stuff from a spinner’s perspective.......like there’s a lot to unpack: 

1.) there’s the fact that the rourken apparently chased after volendrung in goddamn airships

2.) there’s the fact that there’s three stories and i can’t help but compare that to the tribunal, or at the very least just enantiomorphs in general. like, you’ve got sotha sil (the sea), almalexia (aetherius, a.k.a. the stars), and vivec (the sky, a.k.a. the middle air). i was going to go somewhere in a similar vein with enantiomorphs, but i can’t seem to think of any decent connections in these. it really seems to fit better with the tribunal.

3.) the fact that y’ffre is “the earthbones,” implying that all of the earthbones are just y’ffre, and that the rest of the ehlnofey became the ancestors of mortals

4.) “Your frame of perception of the world is your own Bones, akin to the Earth-Bones.” - this more or less confirms that mortals share the same potential for change via perception as the et’ada, albeit on a much smaller scale, usually unable to just want something and have reality change to meet that desire

5.) “It is as possible to see into your own future and world as it is to immerse the Self in hysteria with no fear." - this tickled me to read bc i recognized that last bit as a direct reference (almost perfect quote, too) to the lessons - sermon 27, to be exact: “The third walking path explores hysteria without fear.” - at first i worried my judgement on which walking path this referred to, the tonal architecture of the dwemer, was invalidated by this reference. but now i don’t think so. she’s saying that for a normal mortal, it’s impossible to see into the future, unless you embrace the kind of rational madness (according to vivec, at least) of the dwemer. in other words, excluding divine intervention, it’s impossible to see into the future unless you tap into the earthbones with profane tones.

5a.) “To sing a law, and then Speak into the heart of that law, convincing it of a subtle error and how it must change its own Self. That is how Nature's course—its own Sea—is shaped and reshaped over time. Such changes can affect the whole of Mundus.” - this is further evidence that she’s confirming that the third walking path is tonal manipulation. the dwemer used pure tones, of course. but the nords also used the thu’um, the tsaesci used the kiai, and the bosmer use the tales of the spinners. the endgoal of all these practices is the same: use sound to convince the earthbones that they made a mistake in some part of reality, and to correct it. i.e., that some guy should be flying off the cliff at 50mph when i yell at him, and he’s not, so please fix that y’ffre.

6.) then there’s the “turning the sky and making an island” thing, which she outright says is one of the “six ways,” described by others in different terms. this perplexes me, bc i’m not sure which one it is. i’d have to do more thinking on it, but it strikes me as having connections to the first way (as enumerated by vivec), which the r/teslore guys call “the prolix tower,” which makes no sense to me so i call it “tower climbing” (a sideways island might look like a tower); the second way, the psijic endeavor, mostly bc this “sideways island” vaguely reminds me of vivec’s explanation of it (“Your hands must be huge to wield any sword the size of an ancient road, and yet he who is of right stature may irritate the sun with only a stick.”); and the fifth way, CHIM, or love, because of looking at a sideways island sounding like looking at the wheel of aurbis sideways, obviously. (it’s honestly probably just CHIM.)

7.) the way she describes aetherius and the starholes......like i can tell there’s some pretty big implications there but i haven’t quite figured them out yet

[zara-writes-shit-blog]

Toto, Africa, and Cats - The Greatest Invasion that Never Was

Africa was written by cats to create an insanely popular ear worm of a song to subdue the human masses into complacency for their eventual invasion of earth. Cats have had this plan in the making for millennia. As we all know from the studies of Kagrenac, Tolkien, and CS Lewis, music (or “tonal architecture” if you’re dwemeri/TESlore inclined) is the fabric of the universe, and manipulating the threads of music can cause effects up and down and all around the time and space stream. Other races of beings have attempted to use music to ascend to godhood or transcend reality, but sometimes they get lost in the void or become the skin of a giant face stompy robot.

The Cats (beings we believe come from the region of the constellation of Leo) avoided the pitfalls of those other beings and attempted to manipulate music for control. Some say they decided to forgo musical transcendence because of their lack of rhythm, others say they preferred the base pleasures of existence so much (i.e. licking, eating, sleeping, more licking) that they believed a new existence would cause them to lose their favorite pastimes. Either way, after the Klaxon-Egrinox Felinus War of a Thousand Timeless Stars (a story for another day) the Cats were forced to flee their home galaxy, beaten and shamed and almost completely destroyed. They sought a race that they could dupe into becoming their lackeys and their tools in order to establish galactic dominance. They found just the lackeys: Earthlings. Specifically human earthlings. Homo sapiens if you will. Or Homo Erectus…whichever one came first down the evolutionary line.

The cats infiltrated Earth and early human communities, subjugating the minds of the humans with their “fuzzy wuzziness” (the scientific term for the effects of cats on weak willed beings) and began their cultural and mental subjugation. The Egyptians, one of the oldest civilizations, began to worship the cats as gods, exemplified by the goddess Bast, a chief god of the Egyptian pantheon. The Egyptians held the first music festivals for cats, the cats’ first attempt at tonal subjugation. However, cats being cats, they got complacent and just kinda slept and licked themselves throughout the centuries and contented themselves with just watching humans adopt the feline arts of war and destroy themselves. This pattern continued for centuries, because, as stated above, cats enjoy sleeping and licking themselves (seriously cats spend about 50% of their days sleeping. Idk about you guys but I’m super jelly).

This pattern ended around the 80s, the peak of the Cold War. Cats were worried if humans blew themselves up they wouldn’t have their mindless lackeys to enact their revenge on the universe. So they began to tinker. They saw the success of Micheal Jackson and how that made humans go crazy, so they took the backing band from his most famous album (Thriller) and sought to use them as their tools of earworm conquest. Using their knowledge of the cradle of human civilization (which they actually didn’t know much about cause, you know, sleeping and licking themselves all the time) they created a song that pandered to the lack of understanding of humanity, exotic locales that could never be realized, and of course, catchy choruses. Thus was Africa born, and the cats were set to control humanity and conquer the stars…but for one fatal mistake.

As we know, the 80s was a time of extensive cocaine use. Like so much cocaine use that if you have money fro the 80s there’s a 90% chance that it has traces of cocaine on it (wash your hands after touching money kids). Cats, being creatures of base pleasures, fucking loved cocaine. The cocaine had addled their minds enough that, when they attempted to unlock the tonal mainframe of existence to control humanity, they struck the wrong notes. If Africa was in E major the world may be a different place…but nope it’s in A major. The tonal shockwave from the overplaying of Africa caused the cats to become more docile and forget how good cocaine was, instead instilling within them a love of a random member of the mint family (Nepeta cataria, which produces nepetalactone, the stimulant in cat nip). So hey at least they didn’t turn into the skin of a robot! However, every few years the cats remember their galactic conquests, and every so often Africa comes back into the public conscience. Perhaps this is the year the cats finally break through and control the minds of man….but until then…

[erinthomsonphotohnd2]

Lost and Found: Inspiration and Research

Ted Chin:

Based in San Francisco, Ted Chin studied Surrealism when he started using Photoshop and doing composite work. With both subtle and grand composites, nature and animals are a common theme alongside a fairy or fantasy element in all his pieces. One thing that also stood out to me when looking at his work was that the longer you look, the more you see and the clearer the details become. 

"I find it easier to tell my stories with images rather than words. By using my imagination and photography/photoshop skills, it becomes my passion to recreate and share my surreal fantasy with the world."

I chose to analyse this particular image because like with the first image by James Popsys, this made me think of my own concept and inspired me. I feel this is a successful creative manipulation because the artist has utilised the moon and location to build a strong sense of Uncanny with both the familiar and the unfamiliar. The fish belongs in the water below while the moon acts like the part of its most distinctive feature and although it is a fish out of water in a literal sense, the composite has been executed well enough so that the creature fits into the scene depicted. The overall tonality and colder temperature compliments the softer, cooler lighting above that accentuates the outline of the landscape reflected on the water. 

James Popsys:

James Popsys is an Australian photographer who does landscape and creative manipulation work. With Eric Johansson as his favourite photographer, Popsys utilises humour and juxtapositioning allowing him to create pieces that are an Uncanny vision.

"A  pen and paper won't write a book for you, a paintbrush won't paint a masterpiece by itself."

I chose to look closer at this image of his because the concept is similar to the one I had in mind for my project for this brief. I feel this  is a strong creative manipulation because the perspective of both the object and location are true to the nature of them. The warped viewpoint enhances the bend of the fishing rod and links to the feeling of being in the underground where the train is. Furthermore, the lighting is equal in both, with warmer tones accentuating the highlights and the details within while lighting the location the object has been manipulated into. Also this is successful because the transition between location and object is well executed and the two have been well blended together. 

Uli Staiger:

German born Uli Stagier is another photographer whose work features creative manipulation, compositing objects into locations that do not belong. Currently working in advertising and with experience in 3D art, his creations are complex and conceptual.

I decided to analyse this image of theirs because again the contrast between object and location stood out to me. Filing cabinets like these suggest things like organisation, time keeping, uniformity and management. Whereas with hot air balloons and the sky, these things don't exist, there is freedom and diversity with time not usually something we are aware of when in the air. I feel this is a successful creative manipulation because it is something that could only exist or come into creation through/within the human mind. The harsh warm lighting accentuates the shape and shadow of the balloons against the cabinet, suggesting everything was lit from the right and above. Additionally the components have been blended together well, creating the illusion that not only are the hot air balloons navigating the tall looming furniture, but also coming from there too, as if that is where their journey begins. 

Ceslovas Cesnakevicius:

Ceslovas Cesnakevicius is a photographer based in Lithuania who specialises in cursive manipulation. He created ‘The Zoo’ project which put animals into cityscapes, allowing them to blend in amongst the people and environment as means to begin his work in creative manipulations. This is similar to my concept and found this collection of his to be very inspirational. Some of his other work includes exploring the relationship between people and their landscape, creating a narrative that illustrates potential and possibility. 

“says the series reflects his impression of the diversity in those cities, compared to his hometown of Vilnius, where being “different” is not widely accepted. His series serves well to remind us how natural diversity is, and how without it, we would be living in a world of boring “oneness”

I chose to analyse this image because I feel it a strong example of the brief and also encapsulates what I would like to create with my own final image. I feel this is a successful creative manipulation because the object (being the sloth) has been well blended with the location, creating an Uncanny atmosphere with the familiar and unfamiliar. The viewpoint adds authenticity, allowing the sloth to more succinctly fit into the image with the impression it was taken from a distance and building on the narrative the artist wanted to create. Additionally the use of black and white adds a more cohesive feel by accentuating the details and textures of the sloth’s fur and the architecture of the landscape. 

Jabid Arsalan:

Jabid Arsalan’s work follows a very clean cut, minimalist style. With neutral pallets accompanying the nature, animals and landscapes he uses, Arsalan has refined his creative manipulation skills. I couldn't find much information about him but when looking through his instagram it was really interesting to see his progression and development as he began to specialise in this type of work.

I chose to analyse this image of his because the concept is similar to mine and it made me smile a lot which is something I feel is important in photography. I feel this is also a strong creative manipulation image because the neutral tonality matches the calming atmosphere of the sleeping panda, resting on the moon that is associated with sleep and the night. However there is also an element of the Uncanny because panda bears are so rare that they are unfamiliar to a great deal of people in today’s world and so for it to be resting on the moon as well as its presence is unfamiliar whereas the peaceful atmosphere builds a more calming narrative that can be seen as the familiar. Additionally like with the sloth image above, the perspective used adds a more behind the scenes idea, with blurred grass in the foreground building on the peacefulness while bringing the idea of leaving a scene undisturbed while photographing it. 

[chrisbitten123]

The Complete Definition Of The Music

Music Portal

Music is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. It is normally expressed in terms of pitch (which includes melody and harmony), rhythm (which includes tempo and meter), and the quality of sound (which includes timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture). Music may also involve complex generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. Music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The definition of what constitutes music varies according to culture and social context.

If painting can be viewed as a visual art form, music can be viewed as an auditory art form.

Allegory of Music, by Filippino Lippi

Allegory of Music, by Lorenzo Lippi

Contents

1 Definition

2 History

3 Aspects

4 Production 4.1 Performance

4.2 Solo and ensemble

4.3 Oral tradition and notation

4.4 Improvisation, interpretation, composition

4.5 Composition

//

[edit] Definition as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]

Main article: Definition of music

See also: Music genre

The broadest definition of music is organized sound. There are observable patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while there are understandable cultural variations, the properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by humans and animals (birds and insects also make music).

Music is formulated or organized sound. Although it cannot contain emotions, it is sometimes designed to manipulate and transform the emotion of the listener/listeners. Music created for movies is a good example of its use to manipulate emotions. http://www.chrisbitten.com/

Greek philosophers and medieval theorists defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies, and vertically as harmonies. Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the pre-supposition that music is orderly and often pleasant to hear. However, in the 20th century, composers challenged the notion that music had to be pleasant by creating music that explored harsher, darker timbres. The existence of some modern-day genres such as grindcore and noise music, which enjoy an extensive underground following, indicate that even the crudest noises can be considered music if the listener is so inclined.

20th century composer John Cage disagreed with the notion that music must consist of pleasant, discernible melodies, and he challenged the notion that it can communicate anything. Instead, he argued that any sounds we can hear can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound,"[3]. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990 p.47-8,55): "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined--which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus.... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be."

Johann Wolfgang Goethe believed that patterns and forms were the basis of music; he stated that "architecture is frozen music."

[edit] History as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]

Main article: History of music

See also: Music and politics

Figurines playing stringed instruments, excavated at Susa, 3rd millennium BC. Iran National Museum.

The history of music predates the written word and is tied to the development of each unique human culture. Although the earliest records of musical expression are to be found in the Sama Veda of India and in 4,000 year old cuneiform from Ur, most of our written records and studies deal with the history of music in Western civilization. This includes musical periods such as medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century era music. The history of music in other cultures has also been documented to some degree, and the knowledge of "world music" (or the field of "ethnomusicology") has become more and more sought after in academic circles. This includes the documented classical traditions of Asian countries outside the influence of western Europe, as well as the folk or indigenous music of various other cultures. (The term world music has been applied to a wide range of music made outside of Europe and European influence, although its initial application, in the context of the World Music Program at Wesleyan University, was as a term including all possible music genres, including European traditions. In academic circles, the original term for the study of world music, "comparative musicology", was replaced in the middle of the twentieth century by "ethnomusicology", which is still considered an unsatisfactory coinage by some.)

Popular styles of music varied widely from culture to culture, and from period to period. Different cultures emphasised different instruments, or techniques, or uses for music. Music has been used not only for entertainment, for ceremonies, and for practical & artistic communication, but also extensively for propaganda.

As world cultures have come into greater contact, their indigenous musical styles have often merged into new styles. For example, the United States bluegrass style contains elements from Anglo-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German and some African-American instrumental and vocal traditions, which were able to fuse in the US' multi-ethnic "melting pot" society.

There is a host of music classifications, many of which are caught up in the argument over the definition of music. Among the largest of these is the division between classical music (or "art" music), and popular music (or commercial music - including rock and roll, country music, and pop music). Some genres don't fit neatly into one of these "big two" classifications, (such as folk music, world music, or jazz music).

Genres of music are determined as much by tradition and presentation as by the actual music. While most classical music is acoustic and meant to be performed by individuals or groups, many works described as "classical" include samples or tape, or are mechanical. Some works, like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, are claimed by both jazz and classical music. Many current music festivals celebrate a particular musical genre.

There is often disagreement over what constitutes "real" music: late-period Beethoven string quartets, Stravinsky ballet scores, serialism, bebop-era Jazz, rap, punk rock, and electronica have all been considered non-music by some critics when they were first introduced.

[edit] Aspects as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]

Main article: Aspects of music

The traditional or classical European aspects of music often listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color or timbre, and form. A more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration.[1] These aspects combine to create secondary aspects including structure, texture and style. Other commonly included aspects include the spatial location or the movement in space of sounds, gesture, and dance. Silence has long been considered an aspect of music, ranging from the dramatic pauses in Romantic-era symphonies to the avant-garde use of silence as an artistic statement in 20th century works such as John Cage's 4'33."John Cage considers duration the primary aspect of music because it is the only aspect common to both "sound" and "silence."

As mentioned above, not only do the aspects included as music vary, their importance varies. For instance, melody and harmony are often considered to be given more importance in classical music at the expense of rhythm and timbre. It is often debated whether there are aspects of music that are universal. The debate often hinges on definitions. For instance, the fairly common assertion that "tonality" is universal to all music requires an expansive definition of tonality.

A pulse is sometimes taken as a universal, yet there exist solo vocal and instrumental genres with free, improvisational rhythms with no regular pulse;[2] one example is the alap section of a Hindustani music performance. According to Dane Harwood, "We must ask whether a cross-cultural musical universal is to be found in the music itself (either its structure or function) or the way in which music is made. By 'music-making,' I intend not only actual performance but also how music is heard, understood, even learned." [3]

[edit] Production

Main article: Music industry

Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, and they do not attempt to derive their income from music. Professional musicians are employed by a range of institutions and organizations, including armed forces, churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film production companies, and music schools. As well, professional musicians work as freelancers, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings.

Although amateur musicians differ from professional musicians in that amateur musicians have a non-musical source of income, there are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians. In community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles and orchestras. In some rare cases, amateur musicians attain a professional level of competence, and they are able to perform in professional performance settings.

A distinction is often made between music performed for the benefit of a live audience and music that is performed for the purpose of being recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is recorded and distributed (or broadcast).

[maddie-longson]

Stone is more stone than before

This post is directly lifted from my responses on the discussion board to two quotes and a video, asking what is meant by the phrase “stone is more stone than before”:

1. “The stone is more stone than before. In general we no longer understand architecture, at least by far not in the way we understand music. We have outgrown the symbolism of lines and figures, as we have grown unaccustomed to the tonal effects of rhetoric, no longer having sucked in this kind of cultural mother's milk from the first moment of life. Originally everything about a Greek or Christian building meant something, and in reference to a higher order of things. This atmosphere of inexhaustible meaningfulness hung about the building like a magic veil. Beauty entered the system only secondarily, impairing the basic feeling of uncanny sublimity, of sanctification by magic or the gods' nearness. At the most, beauty tempered the dread —but this dread was the prerequisite everywhere. What does the beauty of a building mean to us now? The same as the beautiful face of a mindless woman: something mask-like.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

2. “Material is endless. Take a stone: you can saw it, grind it, drill into it, split it or polish it - it will become a different thing each time. Then take tiny amounts of the same stone or huge amounts, and it will turn into something else again. Then hold it up to the light - different again. There are a thousand different possibilities in one material alone.” - Peter Zumthor

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ngVv8DM-ek

My application of meaning is relevant in the context of architecture today, with the rise of 3D printing and new ways to create the impression of stone that isn't actually stone. Likely this isn't the intention that Nietzsche had when writing at the turn of the 20th century, but in today's context, I think this is the new meaning that can be taken from his writings.

At first I was taking the quote in perhaps the more pessimistic sense that stone has lost the symbolic qualities that were associated with it through Greek and Christian religious use and is now rather just stone, a lump of material with no other symbolic meaning. As shown in Zumthor's quote, we now have so many ways we can manipulate the stone into different things that it's hard to attach one symbolic meaning to all of these newly available forms.

However, I think now I'm actually more inclined to think that stone is more stone because of an increase in the symbolic attachment. This being through examples like Kolumba and the stone’s spiritual connotations and references back to the original church, and Jerusalem's false front suggesting through a visual representation of the old city that this is indeed the holy city. 

Kolumba using and referencing the church:

This ability to manipulate it in so many different ways allows stone to become more false (as with the video of printing the stone texture), but even that false stone has the symbolic connotations of the real thing - that's why the texture is being printed, to give the feeling of stone and whatever that might mean in the context of its use. It's also likely being printed for aesthetic reasons, going against Nietzsche's seeming distaste of beauty being created through a mask. I think a good example of this is Zumthor's Therme Vals. That building is stone slabs cladding concrete. As much as it is a mask, a cover, it still has symbolic meaning (and it does look nice too).

Therme Vals’ “falsity” - the stone cladding hides the concrete structure within:

(Tutor): Interrogating the idea of dressing/cladding further, what if it is visually convincing as to not know if it is real stone or not (re: Loos, Semper, Ruskin)?

In a way I agree with Ruskin's idea of dressing/cladding being a falsehood and that's bad. It's not great to feel lied to. Then again, if the dressing is so effective as to be indistinguishable from the real thing you wouldn't feel lied to because you can't tell, so does it even matter?

I think Loos' law of cladding is a weird take on this. "we must work in such a way that the confusion of the material clad with its cladding is impossible". So you can't cover wood with wood coloured paint, but plastering concrete is fine because they look different? Seems like a bit of an arbitrary rule.

I bring up Therme Vals again as an example that goes against Ruskin's ideas and is, as you say, an effective example of dressing "so visually convincing that you can't tell it's not stone", which you would in theory think of as dishonest. My initial reaction to finding out that it was actually a concrete structure was "...okay, so?" I don't feel lied to upon finding out the "truth". So maybe it really just doesn't matter.

In summary I think what I'm trying to say is that stone is more stone that before because even stone that isn't actually stone, or stone that is purely a cladding (ideas which are both quite new), still maintain the symbolism of old stone by looking like it. If a cladding is visually convincing I think that there’s no way to feel lied to, thus there is still symbolism attached to it and I don’t see why a big deal need be made of it.

[kagrenacs]

u seem to kno ur dwemer lore and so i just wanted to ask what are your thoughts on the dragon in Blackreach

God I’ve been kinda wanting to talk about Blackreach but this is specific and an excellent topic so strap in:

The Thu’um is different from magic, its been speculated by many others that the Thu’um involves the manipulation and changing of the earthbones as it bends major elements such as time, will of people, animals and dragons and sound.

One important thing to note the Thu’um involves the voice, which is sound. Tonal architecture involves the manipulation of the music of the world. put simply everything of Mundus is made of music, what is music? Sound.

The shout needed to unleash the dragon is Unrelenting Force, pure sound. When the shout hits the orb, it makes a loud ringing sound, much like, if not the same as what we hear when we hit the Tonal Resonators in the Dawnguard DLC quest Lost to the Ages.

So the dragon seems to have been trapped by Tonal Architects and used for something. Now Blackreach is a damn big city, it was a major city of a massively powerful empire, its gonna need a lot of power. Soul gems are useful, they power machines, but this is a big area. Even the Numidium (Tiber Septim version especially) needed a really big soul gem with a really powerful soul. The orb glows and has been glowing for thousands upon thousands of years. Somethings gonna need to power it, and the dragon, being a child of Akatosh would be a good power source.

Around the time of the founding of Blackreach the dragons were being killed or going into hiding. Something I’d like to mention is this dragons name is Vulthuryol, Dark-Overlord-Fire, the dragons did enslave mortals, and to have that in his name probably indicates he was one of the more nasty overlords. So now most of the dragons are gone, and people will surely hunt after a dictator-like dragon who enslaved them for generations, he’s gonna need a place to hide. And the Dwemer are a particularly sneaky bunch, so they offer him a place in their city, unknowingly he enters and is trapped, he is safe, but the power is being sucked from him to power their city until the Last Dragonborn frees him.

[profanetools]

Kagrenac! I know that, theoretically speaking, they're not an OC, but..you know.

:^) !!!!!

Thank you!!!! Always down to talk about her.... my city now... my character now. (these ended up being very much bthemetz/kagrenac centric but like! whatever)

OC Ask Prompts

Something really awesome they can do 

An extremely high number of things, if I am honest. She’s like. That insufferable polymath who can speak several languages, play several musical instruments, sing and dance extremely well, and that’s before we touch on tonal architecture or any of her achievements she’s actually known for. Name a cool feat that defies the laws of nature and she has probably calculated her own special method to bring it into being through Tonal Architecture. Ugh.

I think her favourite thing that she can do, that is also pretty awesome, is probably making Bthemetz a ring that 1. is shaped like an intricate jewelled scarab 2. contains a serviceable clockwork metronome inside of it, and 3. can shoot a 40ft wall of flame on demand, at any time, because why the fuck not.  

A person, creature, or thing they adore

Bthemetz :^)

Also, I think in her heart, she loves to sing and to dance more than anything. She’s passionate, extremely passionate about science, about Tonal Architecture, about all of that - but she pursues it out of a sense of necessity, out of a sense that pursuing the impossible, by divinely changing the world and her people’s place in it, is the only way to protect them. Whereas I think she likes to dance simply because she finds a lot of joy in it.

A secret they’re hiding

Oh, she’s hiding at least a dozen at any given moment, if I’m honest. I think she uses favours and secrets as a key method of manipulating the political arena to her own ends.

A juicy secret they are sitting on is that she is 100% sure that it was Bthemetz who told the Chimer about Numidium. She has no basis beyond 1. reasonable assumptions and 2. knowing Bthemetz’s character inside out. She has not told anyone about this suspicion - which is a correct suspicion, actually - nor does she intend to.

A funny secret that she is hiding is that while she is well acquainted with a lot of Dwemer poetry, a good 50% of it goes over her head. Art, architecture, music, novels, all fine - but something about poetry doesn’t stick. Led to a very awkward date once early in her and Bthemetz’s relationship where Bthem took her to a lesbian poetry evening.

Something they truly fear

Oh, the Nords conquering her people again. Or the Chimer managing to accomplish the same feat. I think she really has this sense of duty, of belonging to her whole people more so than any one clan, and I think what she fears the most is being subjugated again, being humiliated in war again. I think she fears that the next invasion would lead to libraries being burnt, knowledge being destroyed, and their whole way of life being lost - either by destruction or by assimilation.

Part of the reason I think she acted rashly at Red Mountain was because her worst fears came true.

A place or item which gives them strong feelings

A lot of these in honesty. I think the Grand Debate Chamber/Cathedral that once lied at the heart of Red Mountain (I headcanon it was destroyed in the erruption and that Dagoth Ur is the remnants of it) inspired a lot of strong feelings of awe, aspiration, but also, a sense of dread, a sense of expectation, a sense of that this was the enormity of her task in pursuing the divine.

In terms of an item, I think the knife Bthemetz gave her as a bond gift has a lot of feelings attached to it - love, a lot of love and care and attention and detail, but also, this sorrowful sense that it was given because they had accepted the peace between the Dwemer and Chimer would never last, that it is not a dainty ornament, but will be used one day, to protect her, and to hurt another.

A dream or ambition for the future

Pretty much entirely:

1. Achieve godhood, securing the future of my people for infinity.

2. Retire to a cottage by the sea with my wife where she eventually opens a tea shop in an ill-advised business venture despite our remote coastal location. In the mean time, learn to garden, and not simply kill plants. Perhaps adopt an animal companion.

In that order.

An angsty fact about them

In my canon, she originates from a stronghold in the Velothi mountains that was one of the first in modern-day Morrowind to be hit by the Nordic conquests, when she was in her late teens. Her family was separated as her home was taken and the clan attempted to flee the stronghold and seek refuge in another. The Nords chased them down the spine of the Velothi mountains, before a number of ‘refugee’ clans bent the knee under false pretences, to then stage a shady, cloak-and-dagger counterattack that was very misinformed and turned into a total bloodbath. After her involvement in that fiasco - after the first man she ever killed - she fled the scene all the way to Vvardenfell. She has grudge against Nords, and a distaste for Nordic culture in all forms, as a result (can’t entirely blame her for it either).

I don’t think she heard word from her family for years. At least one person - probably a sibling - died. Everyone was separated, and impossible to get in touch with until the Nords were driven out of Resdayn entirely, and even then tracking everyone down was a task. It turns out one of her parents ended up abandoning Dwemer clan life entirely - an action in of itself traditionally considered pretty shameful, but to add insult to injury, eventually they ended up living in a Nord settlement, and marrying a Nord.

Kagrenac just never speaks of them; they are dead to her, quite honestly, and they never do reconcile, and it just sucks a lot. 

A domestic fact about them

Absolutely not a morning person. Bthem often makes her breakfast in bed on days off (I think Bthem enjoys spoiling her like that). If Bthem tries to get up early without her, she will sometimes get out of bed just to try to pull Bthem back into it with her (’I miss my wife so I will annoy her on purpose with my sleep-deprived grumpy antics’; sounds cuter than it actually is lmao).

She really enjoys cooking meals with Bthemetz, but honestly she’s not particularly domestic. She has most of her clothes made for her, she is a notorious houseplant killer, her main contribution to the household is finding nice ornaments and paintings and adding a decorative touch, but honestly, she’s not particularly homey, and only values it insomuch as it is quality time with Bthemetz (but she’d much rather go somewhere with her wife, if given the choice). She can cook and clean and has survived by herself, and her extensive travels as a young woman have left her far more self-sufficient than most dwemer, but left to her own devices I think she would survive entirely on whatever the fantasy equivalent of cheap store-bought ramen is. 

[mozgoderina]

MARTIN PURYEAR: Multiple Dimensions

Internationally recognized, well exhibited, and critically acclaimed sculptor Martin Puryear currently has a fantastic show of drawings and prints on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. (An iteration of this show was at the Morgan Library through January 10, 2016.) The works included in this tightly curated exhibition span the artist’s career, from his time in Sierra Leone in the early-mid ’60s to a recent batch of etchings.

In laying out the show roughly chronologically, the curators create a fluidity that the Morgan version lacked, allowing the viewer to track Puryear’s progress from a fine draftsman to a respected sculptor. Multiple Dimensions succeeds because it presents these works, many of which have not previously made it out of Puryear’s studio, as more than sketches that simply register the development of a sculpture realizing its final form. Rather, the exhibition gives the works on paper critical attention, links the concerns embedded in them to those of his sculptures, and demonstrates the breadth and depth of Puryear’s inquiry into how organic, abstract forms can resonate politically.

On the first wall of the show hangs a cluster of drawings, mostly in ink and mostly with line, that demonstrate Puryear’s early dedication to close looking. After college, Puryear joined the Peace Corps to teach French, English, and biology in Sierra Leone, one of two countries in West Africa where American slaves had been repatriated. Puryear refused to take a camera because he didn’t want what he was seeing to be filtered through its lens.[1] Instead, he drew what he saw—houses, figures, animals, foliage—with a confident thin line, hatched shadows and delicate ink washes, sometimes adding brief, written captions like “grass roofed house in area across from our house.” These are drawings Puryear has kept in his various studios (in Williamsburg in the ’70s, Chicago in the ’80s, and the Hudson Valley currently) for decades, drawings he made before he realized he was a sculptor.

They are interesting not only in that they are beautiful, delicate and well-composed, but also because they anticipate the formal interests that crop up repeatedly throughout his career: how things are constructed, how texture and surface—of skin, grass, thatch, and cloth—vary. The tight grip of Joseph Momoh’s hands (Untitled (Joseph Momoh), 1965) foreshadows the attention Puryear would give to his joinery. In the oval forms that comprise Gbago’s neck and the cactus (Gbago, 1966, and Cacti, 1965), we see Puryear looking both to document his surroundings and to understand how parts fit together. The drawings reveal how the Adam’s apple meets the neck skin, how the plant’s tubercles protrude from its spine, how the beetle’s legs attach to the stomach (Rhinoceros-Beetle—Female, 1965). In his sitters’ casual poses and frank gazes, these drawings expose the familiarity that Puryear cultivated with the community he was teaching and living, the Mende. These drawings are rooted in that time and in that place, which Puryear has called, in a 2016 conversation with Theaster Gates,“one of the most important experiences I could have had […] to finish college, go into the Peace Corps, and live among people who lived in the place, the part of the world that stamped me, as a black American.”[2]

Indeed, after leaving Sierra Leone to study at the Royal Academy in Sweden, Puryear made a number of prints that reworked the drawings he made in Africa. Modifying these images to make Gbow’s Gard (1966) and Gbago, Puryear added further compositional complexity and subtle tonal gradation. As a result, these prints—which resemble beautiful postcards—have a higher level of finish than the drawings. Alongside the prints that register his memory of Sierra Leone, Puryear made etchings of different architectural structures that are rooted in reality—in actual, monumental forms that Puryear transposed onto copper and then onto paper: Belltower, Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II, and Gate (all 1966).

In 1967, something new happened in Puryear’s work. The monumental became the archetypal. Puryear subsumed the real, architectural forms he had transposed into rounded mounds: Zig (1966 – 67) and Klot (1967). The thatched roof of the Mende huts was incorporated as a zigzag pattern; it lost its site specificity but kept its textural sensuality. Both Zig and Klot required multiple steps to achieve the final image and demonstrate Puryear’s dedication to craft, to the precise execution of the technical, and often finicky, process of printmaking. In using two plates for Zig and four plates for Quadroon (1966 – 67), Puryear broke away from the rectangular format that drawing and etching expect. Image and form converged; abstraction became Puryear’s language.

In titling this evocative piece Quadroon, Puryear acknowledged the social connotations of the image he made. He arranged three blush colored plates and a black plate around a diamond of blank paper, at once evocative of an orifice and an acknowledgement of the complexity of racial categorization. After all, “quadroon” was a widely popular term used to refer to an individual who had one black grandparent and three white ones. It is interesting that this piece came after his time in Sierra Leone, a time when a shift in context might have allowed him to recognize how deeply, yet how falsely, the binary of black and white exists in the American conception of race, how society has developed terminology dedicated to the classification that helps keep that hierarchy entrenched.[3] Throughout his career, Puryear has often used titles like this to hint, subtly or overtly, at the so-called “content” of the work; yet his art never feels illustrative of an idea. Rather, it is suggestive and deeply personal; the title functions as an ex post facto name in which Puryear makes textual a feeling or idea he sees in the piece.

In its selection of drawings, Multiple Dimensions suggests that Puryear’s drawing practice anticipates his sculpture not only in that it often provides a carpenter’s guide for what he must execute, but as a way for him to find his forms. In preparatory drawings, Puryear works in two dimensions, looking to the third. His drawings speak to a future thing that will exist beyond the paper, in our space. But, in some drawings, we see Puryear repeating himself to find the forms that will reappear in his sculpture. These drawings register discovery. In a charcoal drawing from 1990, “Drawing for Untitled,” he makes an elongated head and neck form, reminiscent of a Fang Mask, a Brancusi sculpture, and a drinking vessel. This elegant, evocative form informs many of his later sculptures, such as Bearing Witness (installed 1997), which stands outside the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, and Guardian Stone (2002), which was commissioned to sit outside TV Asahi’s headquarters in Tokyo. Many of Puryear’s commissioned sculptures use large formats so that the piece’s scale is divorced from its source, abstracting the thing and making it just unrecognizable enough to surprise. Puryear’s drawings, too, often feel bigger than their actual size. And here, Puryear demonstrates his accomplished sense of how to manipulate space, whether that is the plane of the paper or the places where he installs his public sculpture.

The final selection of works is perhaps the most exciting and illuminating in demonstrating the sustained process by which Puryear makes drawings and etchings to discover his forms and then uses drawing to plan their construction. In 2003, Puryear made two graphite drawings, both titled Drawing for Untitled. The smaller one renders a shaded, three-dimensional form—shaped almost like an elephant’s seated body—that curves to leave a key-shape opening. The larger flattens this form to reveal a cross-sectional slice, which looks to be made of stacked wood or stone. In two other Drawing from Untitled also from 2003, Puryear adds two more holes and softens any sharp edges. He elaborates on these forms in a more complex drawing, Untitled (2003), made with charcoal and conté crayon, so that the textures of the drawing suggest the material of the sculpture he seems to be planning. In 2012, Puryear made an etching of this more complicated form, suggesting cogs in some kind of machine. On view are two maquettes, Untitled, Maquette for Deichman Library, Oslo (2013), and Shackled (2014). The latter’s title, along with its prominent cuff, presages the forty-foot wooden sculpture Puryear plans to install in Madison Square Park in May 2016. More than a decade in development, this sculpture, crowned with an oversized gold shackle, will function as a temporary and hugely visible memorial to the slave trade so important to the growth of New York City.

Endnotes. [1] Mark Pascale and Ruth Fine, Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions. (Yale University Press, 2015): 33. [2] “Artist Conversation: Martin Puryear and Theaster Gates.” The Art Institute of Chicago (February 4, 2016) 30’27’’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LVmdOrC91c [3] Ibid. 37’50’’

  Source: The Brooklyn Rail / Kate Liebman. Link: MARTIN PURYEAR: Multiple Dimensions Illustration: Martin Puryear [USA] (b 1941). 'Untitled (State 1)', 2016. Intaglio in 3 colors on Hahnemuhle Bright White paper with deckled edge (104 x 101.5 cm). Moderator: ART HuNTER.

[steenpaal]

Serialism - Wikipedia

In music, serialism is a method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of post-tonal thinking. Twelve-tone technique orders the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, forming a row or series and providing a unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. Other types of serialism also work with sets, collections of objects, but not necessarily with fixed-order series, and extend the technique to other musical dimensions (often called "parameters"), such as duration, dynamics, and timbre.

The idea of serialism is also applied in various ways in the visual arts, design, and architecture (Bandur 2001, 5, 12, 74; Gerstner 1964, passim), and the musical concept has also been adapted in literature (Collot 2008, 81; Leray 2008, 217–19; Waelti-Walters 1992, 37, 64, 81, 95).

Integral serialism or total serialism is the use of series for aspects such as duration, dynamics, and register as well as pitch (Whittall 2008, 273). Other terms, used especially in Europe to distinguish post–World War II serial music from twelve-tone music and its American extensions, are general serialism and multiple serialism (Grant 2001, 5–6).

Composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Milton Babbitt, Elisabeth Lutyens, Charles Wuorinen and Jean Barraqué used serial techniques of one sort or another in most of their music. Other composers such as Béla Bartók, Luciano Berio, Benjamin Britten, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, Walter Piston, Ned Rorem, Alfred Schnittke, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Igor Stravinsky used serialism only in some of their compositions or only in some sections of pieces, as did some jazz composers, such as Yusef Lateef and Bill Evans.

Basic definitions

Serialism is a method (Griffiths 2001, 116), "highly specialized technique" (Wörner 1973, 196), or "way" (Whittall 2008, 1) of composition. It may also be considered "a philosophy of life (Weltanschauung), a way of relating the human mind to the world and creating a completeness when dealing with a subject" (Bandur 2001, 5).

Serialism is not by itself a system of composition or a style. Neither is pitch serialism necessarily incompatible with tonality, though it is most often used as a means of composing atonal music (Griffiths 2001, 116).

"Serial music" is a problematic term because it is used differently in different languages and especially because, shortly after its coinage in French, it underwent essential alterations during its transmission to German.(Frisius 1998, 1327). The term's use in connection with music was first introduced in French by René Leibowitz (1947), and immediately afterward by Humphrey Searle in English, as an alternative translation of the German Zwölftontechnik twelve-tone technique or Reihenmusik (row music); it was independently introduced by Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen into German in 1955 as serielle Musik, with a different meaning (Frisius 1998, 1327) but also translated as "serial music".

Twelve-tone serialism

Serialism of the first type is most specifically defined as the structural principle according to which a recurring series of ordered elements (normally a set—or row—of pitches or pitch classes) are used in order or manipulated in particular ways to give a piece unity. Serialism is often broadly applied to all music written in what Schoenberg called "The Method of Composing with Twelve Notes related only to one another" (Schoenberg 1975, 218; Anon. n.d.), or dodecaphony, and methods that evolved from his methods. It is sometimes used more specifically to apply only to music where at least one element other than pitch is treated as a row or series. In such usages post-Webernian serialism will be used to denote works that extend serial techniques to other elements of music. Other terms used to make the distinction are twelve-note serialism for the former and integral serialism for the latter.

A row may be assembled pre-compositionally (perhaps to embody particular intervallic or symmetrical properties), or derived from a spontaneously invented thematic or motivic idea. The row's structure does not in itself define the structure of a composition, which requires development of a comprehensive strategy. The choice of strategy often depends on the relationships contained in a row class, and rows may be constructed with an eye to producing the relationships needed to form desired strategies.(Mead 1985, 129–30)

The basic set may have additional restrictions, such as the requirement that it use each interval only once.

Non-twelve-tone serialism

The series is not an order of succession, but indeed a hierarchy—which may be independent of this order of succession.(Boulez 1954,[page needed], translated in Griffiths 1978, 37)

Rules of analysis derived from twelve-tone theory do not apply to serialism of the second type: "in particular the ideas, one, that the series is an intervallic sequence, and two, that the rules are consistent" (Maconie 2005, 119). Stockhausen, for example, in early serial compositions such as Kreuzspiel and Formel, "advances in unit sections within which a preordained set of pitches is repeatedly reconfigured ... The composer's model for the distributive serial process corresponds to a development of the Zwölftonspiel of Josef Matthias Hauer" (Maconie 2005, 56), and Goeyvaerts, in such a work as Nummer 4,

provides a classic illustration of the distributive function of seriality: 4 times an equal number of elements of equal duration within an equal global time is distributed in the most equable way, unequally with regard to one another, over the temporal space: from the greatest possible coïncidence to the greatest possible dispersion. This provides an exemplary demonstration of that logical principle of seriality: every situation must occur once and only once. (Sabbe 1977, 114)

For Henri Pousseur, after an initial period working with twelve-tone technique in works like Sept Versets (1950) and Trois Chants sacrés (1951), serialism

evolved away from this bond in Symphonies pour quinze Solistes [1954–55] and in the Quintette [à la mémoire d’Anton Webern, 1955], and from around the time of Impromptu [1955] encounters whole new dimensions of application and new functions.

The twelve-tone series loses its imperative function as a prohibiting, regulating, and patterning authority; its working-out is abandoned through its own constant-frequent presence: all 66 intervallic relations among the 12 pitches being virtually present. Prohibited intervals, like the octave, and prohibited successional relations, such as premature note repetitions, frequently occur, although obscured in the dense contexture. The number twelve no longer plays any governing, defining rôle; the pitch constellations no longer hold to the limitation determined by their formation. The dodecaphonic series loses its significance as a concrete model of shape (or a well-defined collection of concrete shapes) is played out. And the chromatic total remains active only, and provisionally, as a general reference.(Sabbe 1977, 264)

In the 1960s Pousseur took this a step further, applying a consistent set of predefined transformations to preexisting music. One example is the large orchestral work Couleurs croisées (Crossed Colours, 1967), which performs these transformations on the protest song "We Shall Overcome", creating a succession of different situations that are sometimes chromatic and dissonant and sometimes diatonic and consonant (Locanto 2010, 157). In his opera Votre Faust (Your Faust, 1960–68) Pousseur used a large number of different quotations, themselves arranged into a "scale" for serial treatment, so as to bring coherence and order to the work. This "generalised" serialism (in the strongest possible sense) aims not to exclude any musical phenomena, no matter how heterogenous, in order "to control the effects of tonal determinism, dialectize its causal functions, and overcome any academic prohibitions, especially the fixing of an anti-grammar meant to replace some previous one" (Bosseur 1989, 60–61).

At about the same time, Stockhausen began using serial methods to integrate a variety of musical sources from recorded examples of folk and traditional music from around the world in his electronic composition Telemusik (1966), and from national anthems in Hymnen (1966–67). He extended this serial "polyphony of styles" in a series of "process-plan" works in the late 1960s, as well as later in portions of Licht, the cycle of seven operas he composed between 1977 and 2003 (Kohl 2002, 97 et passim).

History of serial music

Before World War II

In the late 19th and early 20th century, composers began to struggle against the ordered system of chords and intervals known as "functional tonality". Composers such as Debussy and Strauss found differing ways of stretching the limits of the tonal system to accommodate their ideas. After a brief period of free atonality, Schoenberg and others began exploring tone rows, in which an ordering of the twelve pitches of the equal tempered chromatic scale is used as the source material of a composition. This ordered set, often called a row, allowed for new forms of expression and (unlike free atonality) the expansion of underlying structural organizing principles without recourse to common practice harmony (Delahoyde n.d.).

Twelve-tone serialism first appeared in the 1920s, with antecedents predating that decade (instances of twelve-note passages occur in Liszt's Faust Symphony Walker 1986,[page needed] and in Bach Cope 1971,[page needed]). Schoenberg was the composer most decisively involved in devising and demonstrating the fundamentals of twelve-tone serialism, though it is clear it is not the work of just one musician (Whittall 2008, 1).

After World War II

Serialism, along with John Cage's indeterminate music (music composed with the use of chance operations) and Werner Meyer-Eppler's aleatoricism, was enormously influential in postwar music. Theorists such as George Perle codified serial systems, and his 1962 text Serial Composition and Atonality became a standard work on the origins of serial composition in the music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.

The serialization of rhythm, dynamics, and other elements of music was partly fostered by the work of Olivier Messiaen and his analysis students, including Karel Goeyvaerts and Boulez, in postwar Paris.

Several of the composers associated with Darmstadt, notably Stockhausen, Goeyvaerts, and Pousseur, developed a form of serialism that initially rejected the recurring rows characteristic of twelve-tone technique in order to eradicate any lingering traces of thematicism (Felder 1977, 92). Instead of a recurring, referential row, "each musical component is subjected to control by a series of numerical proportions" (Morgan 1975, 3). In Europe, the style of some serial and non-serial music of the early 1950s emphasized the determination of all parameters for each note independently, often resulting in widely spaced, isolated "points" of sound, an effect called first in German "punktuelle Musik" ("pointist" or "punctual music"), then in French "musique ponctuelle", but quickly confused with "pointillistic" (German "pointillistische", French "pointilliste"), the familiar term associated with the densely packed dots in paintings of Seurat, despite the fact that the conception was at the opposite extreme (Stockhausen and Frisius 1998, 451).

Pieces were structured by closed sets of proportions, a method closely related to certain works from the de Stijl and Bauhaus movements in design and architecture called "serial art" by some writers (Bochner 1967; Gerstner 1964; Guderian 1985; Sykora 1983), specifically the paintings of Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Bart van Leck, Georg van Tongerloo, Richard Paul Lohse, and Burgoyne Diller, who had been seeking to “avoid repetition and symmetry on all structural levels and working with a limited number of elements” (Bandur 2001, 54).

Stockhausen described the final synthesis in this manner:

So serial thinking is something that's come into our consciousness and will be there forever: it's relativity and nothing else. It just says: Use all the components of any given number of elements, don't leave out individual elements, use them all with equal importance and try to find an equidistant scale so that certain steps are no larger than others. It's a spiritual and democratic attitude toward the world. The stars are organized in a serial way. Whenever you look at a certain star sign you find a limited number of elements with different intervals. If we more thoroughly studied the distances and proportions of the stars we'd probably find certain relationships of multiples based on some logarithmic scale or whatever the scale may be. (Cott 1973, 101)

Igor Stravinsky's adoption of twelve-tone serial techniques offers an example of the level of influence that serialism had after the Second World War. Previously Stravinsky had used series of notes without rhythmic or harmonic implications (Shatzkin 1977). Because many of the basic techniques of serial composition have analogs in traditional counterpoint, uses of inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion from before the war are not necessarily indicative of Stravinsky adopting Schoenbergian techniques. But after meeting Robert Craft and other younger composers, Stravinsky began to consciously study Schoenberg's music, as well as that of Webern and later composers, and began to adapt their techniques in his work, using, for example, serial techniques applied to fewer than twelve notes. Over the course of the 1950s he used procedures related to Messiaen, Webern and Berg. While it is difficult to label each and every work as "serial" in the strict definition, every major work of the period has clear uses and references to serialist ideas.

During this period, the concept of serialism influenced not only new compositions but also the scholarly analysis of the classical masters. Adding to their professional tools of sonata form and tonality, scholars began to analyze previous works in the light of serial techniques; for example, they found the use of row technique in previous composers going back to Mozart and Beethoven (Jalowetz 1944, 387; Keller 1955, passim). In particular, the orchestral outburst that introduces the development section halfway through the last movement of Mozart's next-to-last symphony is a tone row that Mozart punctuates in a very modern and violent way that Michael Steinberg called "rude octaves and frozen silences" (Steinberg 1998, 400).

Ruth Crawford Seeger is credited with extending serial controls to parameters other than pitch and to formal planning as early as 1930–33 (Tick 2001).

Reactions to and against serialism

the first time I ever heard Webern in a concert performance …[t]he impression it made on me was the same as I was to experience a few years later when … I first laid eyes on a

Mondriaan

canvas...: those things, of which I had acquired an extremely intimate knowledge, came across as crude and unfinished when seen in reality.

Karel Goeyvaerts on Anton Webern's music. (Goeyvaerts 1994, 39)

Some music theorists have criticized serialism on the basis that the compositional strategies employed are often incompatible with the way information is extracted by the human mind from a piece of music. Nicolas Ruwet (1959) was one of the first to criticise serialism through a comparison with linguistic structures, citing theoretical claims by Boulez and Pousseur, taking as specific examples bars from Stockhausen's Klavierstücke I & II, and calling for a general reexamination of Webern's music. Ruwet specifically names three works as exempt from his criticism: Stockhausen's Zeitmaße and Gruppen, and Boulez's Le marteau sans maître (Ruwet 1959, 83, 85, 87, 93–96).

In response, Pousseur (1959) questioned the equivalence made by Ruwet between phonemes and notes. He also suggested that, if analysis of Le marteau sans maître and Zeitmaße, "performed with sufficient insight", were to be made from the point of view of wave theory—taking into account the dynamic interaction of the different component phenomena, which creates "waves" that interact in a sort of frequency modulation—this analysis "would accurately reflect the realities of perception". This was because these composers had long since acknowledged the lack of differentiation found in punctual music and, becoming increasingly aware of the laws of perception and complying better with them, "paved the way to a more effective kind of musical communication, without in the least abandoning the emancipation that they had been allowed to achieve by this 'zero state' that was punctual music". One way this was achieved was by the development of the concept of "groups", which allows structural relationships to be defined not only between individual notes but also at higher levels, up to the overall form of a piece. This is "a structural method par excellence", and a sufficiently simple conception that it remains easily perceptible (Pousseur 1959, 104–105, 114–15). Pousseur also points out that serial composers were the first to recognize and attempt to move beyond the lack of differentiation within certain pointillist works (Campbell 2010, 125). Pousseur later followed up on his own suggestion by developing his idea of "wave" analysis and applying it to Stockhausen's Zeitmaße in two essays, Pousseur 1970 and Pousseur 1997.

Later writers have continued both lines of reasoning. Fred Lerdahl, for example, in his essay "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems" (Lerdahl 1988), argues that serialism's perceptual opacity ensures its aesthetic inferiority. Lerdahl has in turn been criticized for excluding "the possibility of other, non-hierarchical methods of achieving musical coherence," and for concentrating on the audibility of tone rows (Grant 2001, 219), and the portion of his essay focussing on Boulez's "multiplication" technique (exemplified in three movements of Le Marteau sans maître) has been challenged on perceptual grounds by Stephen Heinemann (1998) and Ulrich Mosch (2004). Ruwet's critique has also been criticised for making "the fatal mistake of equating visual presentation (a score) with auditive presentation (the music as heard)" (Grant 2006, 351).

Within the community of modern music, exactly what constituted serialism was also a matter of debate. The conventional English usage is that the word "serial" applies to all twelve-tone music, which is a subset of serial music, and it is this usage that is generally intended in reference works. Nevertheless, a large body of music exists that is called "serial" but does not employ note-rows at all, let alone twelve-tone technique, e.g., Stockhausen's Klavierstücke I–IV (which use permuted sets), as well as his Stimmung (with pitches from the overtone series, which is also used as the model for the rhythms), and Pousseur's Scambi (where the permuted sounds are made exclusively from filtered white noise).

When serialism is not limited to twelve-tone techniques, a contributing problem is that the word "serial" is seldom if ever defined. In many published analyses of individual pieces the term is used while actual meaning is skated around (Koenig 1999, 298).

Theory of twelve-tone serial music

The vocabulary of serialism eventually became rooted in set theory, and uses a quasi-mathematical vocabulary to describe how the basic sets are manipulated to produce the final result. Musical set theory is often used to analyze and compose serial music, but may also be used to study tonal music and nonserial atonal music.

The basis for serial composition is Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, where the twelve notes of the basic chromatic scale are organized into a row. This "basic" row is then used to create permutations, that is, rows derived from the basic set by reordering its elements. The row may be used to produce a set of intervals, or a composer may derive the row from a particular succession of intervals. A row that uses all of the intervals in their ascending form once is an all-interval row. In addition to permutations, the basic row may have some set of notes derived from it, which is used to create a new row. These are derived sets.

Because there are tonal chord progressions that use all twelve notes, it is possible to create pitch rows with very strong tonal implications, and even to write tonal music using twelve-tone technique. Most tone rows contain subsets that can imply a pitch center; a composer can create music centered on one or more of the row's constituent pitches by emphasizing or avoiding these subsets, respectively, as well as through other, more complex compositional devices (Newlin 1974; Perle 1977).

To serialize other elements of music, a system quantifying an identifiable element must be created or defined (this is called "parametrization", after the term in mathematics). For example, if duration is to be serialized, then a set of durations must be specified. If tone colour (timbre) is to be serialized, then a set of separate tone colours must be identified, and so on.

The selected set or sets, their permutations and derived sets form the basic material with which the composer works.

Composition using twelve-tone serial methods focuses on each appearance of the collection of twelve chromatic notes, called an aggregate. (Sets of more or fewer pitches, or of elements other than pitch, may be treated analogously.) The principle is that no element of the aggregate should be reused until all of the other members have been used, and each member must appear only in its place in the series. This rule is violated in numerous works still termed "serial".[citation needed]

An aggregate may be divided into subsets, and all the members of the aggregate not part of any one subset are said to be its complement. A subset is self-complementing if it contains half of the set and its complement is also a permutation of the original subset. This is most commonly seen with hexachords or six-note segments from a basic tone row. A hexachord that is self-complementing for a particular permutation is referred to as prime combinatorial. A hexachord that is self-complementing for all of the canonic operations—inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion—is referred to as all-combinatorial.

The composer then presents the aggregate. If there are multiple serial sets, or if several parameters are associated with the same set, then a presentation will have these values calculated. Large-scale design may be achieved through the use of combinatorial devices, for example, subjecting a subset of the basic set to a series of combinatorial devices.

Notable composers

See also

References

Anon. n.d. "Arnold Schoenberg". Milken Archive of American Jewish Music (archive from 1 December 2008, accessed 23 February 2016).

Bandur, Markus. 2001. Aesthetics of Total Serialism: Contemporary Research from Music to Architecture. Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhäuser.

Bochner, Mel. 1967. "The Serial Attitude". Artforum 6, no. 4 (December): 28–33.

Bosseur, Jean-Yves. 1989. "Votre Faust, miroir critique". Revue belge de musicologie/Belgisch tijdschrift voor muziekwetenschap 43 (Liber amicorum Henri Pousseur: Henri Pousseur, ou, Le sérialisme entre modernisme et postmodernisme/Henri Pousseur, of, De lange weg naar de toekomst): 57–70.

Boulez, Pierre. 1954. "… auprès et au loin". Cahiers de la Compagnie Madeleine Renaud–Jean-Louis Barrault 2, no. 3:7–27. Reprinted in Relevés d’apprenti, edited by Paule Thévenin. Collection "Tel quel". Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1966, 183–203. Also reprinted in Points de repère, third edition, 1:287–314. Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1995. English version, as ". . .Auprès et au loin", in Pierre Boulez, Notes of an Apprenticeship, texts collected and presented by Paule Thévenin, translated by Herbert Weinstock, 182–204. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. Another English version, as "Near and Far", in Pierre Boulez, Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, translated by Stephen Walsh, with an introduction by Robert Piencikowski, 141–57. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 0193112108.

Campbell, Edward. 2010. Boulez, Music and Philosophy. Music in the Twentieth Century 27. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86242-4.

Collot, Michelle. 2008. "Le génie des lieux". In Michel Butor: déménagements de la littérature, edited by Mireille Calle-Gruber, 73–84. Paris: Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle. ISBN 9782878544176.

Cope, David. 1971. New Directions in Music. Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown Co. ISBN 9780697035561.

Cott, Jonathan. 1973. Stockhausen; Conversations with the Composer, New York: Simon & Schuster.

Delahoyde, Michael. n.d. "20th-Century Music". Author's website, Washington State University.

Felder, David. 1977. "An Interview with Karlheinz Stockhausen". Perspectives of New Music 16, no. 1 (Fall–Winter): 85–101.

Forte, Allen. 1964. "A Theory of Set-Complexes for Music". Journal of Music Theory 8, no. 2 (Winter): 136–84.

Forte, Allen. 1973. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Forte, Allen. 1998. The Atonal Music of Anton Webern. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Frisius, Rudolf. 1998. Serielle Musik. In: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik. Second, newly compiled edition, edited by Ludwig Finscher, part 1 (Sachteil), vol. 8 (Quer–Swi): 1327–54. Kassel & New York: Bärenreiter; Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN 978-3-7618-1109-2 (Bärenreiter) ISBN 978-3-476-41008-5 (Metzler).

Gerstner, Karl. 1964. Designing Programmes: Four Essays and an Introduction, with an introduction to the introduction by Paul Gredinger [de]. English version by D. Q. Stephenson. Teufen, Switzerland: Arthur Niggli. Enlarged, new edition 1968.

Goeyvaerts, Karel. 1994. "Paris–Darmstadt 1947–1956: Excerpt from the Autobiographical Portrait", translated by Patrick Daly, Peter Vosch, and Roger Janssens. Revue belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap 48 (The Artistic Legacy of Karel Goeyvaerts: A Collection of Essays): 35–54.

Grant, Morag Josephine. 2001. Serial Music Serial Aesthetics: Compositional Theory in Post-War Europe. Music in the Twentieth Century, Arnold Whittall, general editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80458-2.

Grant, Morag Josephine. 2006. Untitled review of Wege zum musikalischen Strukturalismus: René Leibowitz, Pierre Boulez, John Cage und die Webern-Rezeption in Paris um 1950, by Inge Kovács (Schliengen: Argus, 2003); Die soziale Isolation der neuen Musik: Zum Kölner Musikleben nach 1945, by Michael Custodis (Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 54, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2004); Reihe und System: Signaturen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Symposiumsbericht, edited by Sabine Meine (Monographien der Institut für Musikpädogogische Forschung der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover 9, Hannover: Institut für Musikpädagogische Forschung, 2004). Music and Letters 87, no. 2 (May): 346–52.

Griffiths, Paul. 1978. Boulez. Oxford Studies of Composers 16. London and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-315442-0.

Griffiths, Paul. 2001. "Serialism". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 23:116–23. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Guderian, Dietmar. 1985. "Serielle Strukturen und harmonikale Systeme". In Vom Klang der Bilder: die Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, edited by Karin von Maur, 434–37. Munich: Prestel-Verlag.

Heinemann, Stephen. 1998. "Pitch-Class Set Multiplication in Theory and Practice". Music Theory Spectrum 20, no. 1:72–96.

Jalowetz, Heinrich. 1944. "On the Spontaneity of Schoenberg's Music". (Subscription access) The Musical Quarterly 30, no. 4 (October): 385–408.

Keller, Hans. 1955. "Strict Serial Technique in Classical Music". Tempo (new series) no. 37 (Autumn): 12–16, 21–24.

Koenig, Gottfied Michael. 1999. Ästhetische Praxis: Texte zur Musik, Supplement I, edited by Stefan Fricke, Wolf Frobenius, and Sigrid Konrad. Quellentexte der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts 1.4. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-89727-056-0.

Kohl, Jerome. 2002. "Serial Composition, Serial Form, and Process in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Telemusik." In Electroacoustic Music: Analytical Perspectives, ed. Thomas Licata, 91–118. Westport, Conn. and London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-31420-9.

Leibowitz, René. 1947. Schoenberg et son école: l'étape contemporaine du langage musical. [Paris]: J.B. Janin. (English edition, as Schoenberg and His School: The Contemporary Stage in the Language of Music. Translated by Dika Newlin. New York: Philosophocal Library, 1949).

Leray, Pascal. 2008. Portrait de la série en jeune mot. Mazères: Le chasseur abstrait éditeur. ISBN 978-2-35554-025-7.

Lerdahl, Fred. 1988. "Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems". In Generative Processes in Music, ed. John Sloboda. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reprinted in Contemporary Music Review 6, no. 2 (1992):97–121.

Lerdahl, Fred, and Ray Jackendoff. 1983. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Locanto, Massimiliano. 2010. "Karel Goeyvaerts – Henry [sic] Pousseur: deux compositeurs belges au cœur de la Nouvelle Musique". In Album Belgique, edited by Annamaria Laserra, 151–64. Brussels: P. I. E. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-90-5201-635-1.

Maconie, Robin. 2005. Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-5356-6.

Mead, Andrew. 1985. "Large-Scale Strategy in Arnold Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Music". Perspectives of New Music 24, no. 1 (Fall–Winter): 120–57.

Meyer, Leonard B. 1967. Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Patterns and Predictions in Twentieth-Century Culture. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. (Second edition 1994.)

Morgan, Robert. 1975. "Stockhausen's Writings on Music". (Subscription access) The Musical Quarterly 61, no. 1 (January): 1–16. Reprinted in the Musical Quarterly 75, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 194–206.

Mosch, Ulrich. 2004. Musikalisches Hören serieller Musik: Untersuchungen am Beispiel von Pierre Boulez’ «Le Marteau sans maître». Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag.

Newlin, Dika. 1974. "Secret Tonality in Schoenberg's Piano Concerto". Perspectives of New Music 13, no. 1 (Fall–Winter):137–39.

Perle, George. 1962. Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Perle, George. 1977. Twelve-tone Tonality. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Pousseur, Henri. 1959. "Forme et pratique musicales". Revue Belge de Musicologie 13:98–116. Slightly revised and expanded version, trans. into English as “Music, Form and Practice (An Attempt to Reconcile Some Contradictions)”. Die Reihe 6 (1964): 77–93.

Pousseur, Henri. 1970. "En guise de conclusion: Pour une Périodicitée generalisée". In his Fragments théoriques I: Sur la musique expérimentale, 241–90. Études de sociologie de la musique. Brussels: Editions de l’Institut de Sociologie Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Pousseur, Henri. 1997. "Zeitmasze: série, périodicité, individuation". Chapter 12 of his Musiques croisées, preface by Jean-Yves Bosseur, 171–89. Collection Musique et Musicologie. Paris: L'Harmattan.

Ross, Alex. 2007. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-24939-7.

Ruwet, Nicolas. 1959. "Contradictions du langage sériel". Revue Belge de Musicologie 13 (1959), 83–97. English trans., as “Contradictions within the Serial Language”. Die Reihe 6 (1964): 65–76.

Sabbe, Herman. 1977. Het muzikale serialisme als techniek en als denkmethode: Een onderzoek naar de logische en historische samenhang van de onderscheiden toepassingen van het seriërend beginsel in de muziek van de periode 1950–1975. Ghent: Rijksuniversiteit te Gent.

Schoenberg, Arnold. 1975. Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg. Edited by Leonard Stein, translated by Leo Black. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05294-3.

Schwartz, Steve. 2001. "Richard Yardumian: Orchestral Works". Classical Net (Accessed 10 May 2011).

Shatzkin, Merton. 1977. "A Pre-Cantata Serialism in Stravinsky". Perspectives of New Music 16, no. 1 (Fall–Winter): 139–43.

Smith Brindle, Reginald. 1966. Serial Composition. London, New York: Oxford University Press.

Steinberg, Michael. 1998. The Symphony: A Listener's Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz, and Rudolf Frisius. 1998. "Es geht aufwärts". In: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Texte zur Musik 9, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 391–512. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag.

Straus, Joseph N. 1999. "The Myth of Serial 'Tyranny' in the 1950s and 1960s" (Subscription access). The Musical Quarterly 83:301–43.

Sykora, Katharina. 1983. Das Phänomen des Seriellen in der Kunst: Aspekte einer künstlerischen Methode von Monet bis zur amerikanischen Pop Art. Würzburg: Könighausen + Neumann.

Tick, Judith. 2001. "Crawford (Seeger), Ruth (Porter)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Waelti-Walters, Jennifer R. 1992. Michel Butor. Collection monographique Rodopi en littérature française contemporaine 15. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi. ISBN 9789051833867.

Walker, Alan. 1986. Franz Liszt, volume two: The Weimar years 1848–1861. New York: Knopf. ISBN 9780394525402.

Whittall, Arnold. 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism. Cambridge Introductions to Music. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-86341-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-521-68200-8 (pbk).

Wörner, Karl H. 1973. Stockhausen: Life and Work, introduced, translated, and edited by Bill Hopkins. London: Faber and Faber; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02143-6.

Further reading

Delaere, Marc. 2016. "The Stockhausen–Goeyvaerts Correspondence and the Aesthetic Foundations of Serialism in the Early 1950s". In The Musical Legacy of Karlheinz Stockhausen: Looking Back and Forward, edited by M.J. Grant and Imke Misch, 20–34. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag. ISBN 978-3-95593-068-4.

Eco, Umberto. 2005. "Innovation & Repetition: Between Modern & Postmodern Aesthetics". Daedalus 134, no. 4, 50 Years (Fall): 191–207. doi:10.1162/001152605774431527. JSTOR 20028022.

Fürstenberger, Barbara. 1989. Michel Butors literarische Träume: Untersuchungen zu Matière de rêves I bis V. Studia Romanica 72. Heidelberg: C. Winter. ISBN 9783533040705; ISBN 9783533040699.

Gollin, Edward. 2007. "Multi-Aggregate Cycles and Multi-Aggregate Serial Techniques in the Music of Béla Bartók." Music Theory Spectrum 29, no. 2 (Fall): 143–76. doi:10.1525/mts.2007.29.2.143.

Gredinger, Paul. 1955. "Das Serielle". Die Reihe 1 ("Elektronische Musik"): 34–41. English as "Serial Technique", translated by Alexander Goehr. Die Reihe 1 ("Electronic Music"), (English edition 1958): 38–44.

Knee, Robin. 1985. "Michel Butor's Passage de Milan: The Numbers Game". Review of Contemporary Fiction 5, no. 3:146–49.

Kohl, Jerome. 2017. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zeitmaße. Landmarks in Music Since 1950, edited by Wyndham Thomas. Abingdon, Oxon; London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-5334-9.

Krenek, Ernst. 1953. "Is the Twelve-Tone Technique on the Decline?" The Musical Quarterly 39, no 4 (October): 513–27.

Miller, Elinor S. 1983. "Critical Commentary II: Butor's Quadruple fond as Serial Music". Romance Notes 24, no. 2 (Winter): 196–204.

Misch, Imke. 2016. "Karlheinz Stockhausen: The Challenge of Legacy: An Introduction". In The Musical Legacy of Karlheinz Stockhausen: Looking Back and Forward, edited by M.J. Grant and Imke Misch, 11–19. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag. ISBN 978-3-95593-068-4.

Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. New York: Schirmer Books.

Roudiez, Leon S. 1984. "Un texte perturbe: Matière de rêves de Michel Butor". Romanic Review 75, no. 2:242–55.

Savage, Roger W. H. 1989. Structure and Sorcery: The Aesthetetics of Post-War Serial Composition and Indeterminancy. Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities. New York: Garland Publications. ISBN 0-8240-2041-3.

Schoffman, Nathan. 1981. "Serialism in the Works of Charles Ives". Tempo, new series, no. 138 (September): 21–32.

Scruton, Roger. 1997. Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-816638-9. Quoted in Arved Ashbey, The Pleasure of Modernist Music (University of Rochester Press, 2004) p. 122. ISBN 1-58046-143-3.

Spencer, Michael Clifford. 1974. Michel Butor. Twayne's World Author Series TWS275. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 9780805721867.

Wangermée, Robert. 1995. André Souris et le complexe d'Orphée: entre surréalisme et musique sérielle. Collection Musique, Musicologie. Liège: P. Mardaga. ISBN 9782870096055.

White, Eric Walter, and Jeremy Noble. 1984. "Stravinsky". In The New Grove Modern Masters. London: Macmillan Publishers.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Serialism

[interfacialmag-blog]

5 times when art and fashion meant

1. Takashi Murakami x Louis Vuitton x MOCA Los Angeles

Amidst the millions of anime eyes and smiling flowers of Tokyo-born pop-artist Takashi Murakami's 2007 exhibition "Superflat," was the world's most indulgent museum shop. Monographs, posters, and key chains were reserved for MOCA's actual in-house store, a Louis Vuitton pop-up establishment with thousand-dollar totes. The monogrammed merchandise featured familiar characters and motifs of Murakami's and was specially designed for the in-situ boutique. The gesture was an unprecedented one for any American art museum, and in an interview at the opening of the exhibition, supermodel Linda Evangelista was asked by a reporter, "What do you think of this synergy of art and fashion?" Her response, "Well, it certainly makes fashion more interesting." The collaboration that began in 2003 as multicolored L's and V's had evolved into so much more. The cultural titans of 'high art' and 'high fashion' collided, and found their clash to be mutually beneficial; although it seems that there has yet to be as confident a move since.

2.  Daniel Buren x Louis Vuitton

2012 brought the collaboration between the legendary French artist, Daniel Buren (known for his striped posters and conceptual art work), and the legendary fashion house, Louis Vuitton (with Marc Jacobs serving as the creative head). Jacobs sought out Buren to offer his collaboration in the coming season and to extend gratitude for Buren's installation of the controversial work Les Deux Plateux; a work that served as a point of great inspiration for Jacobs and the Spring/Summer collection. Buren created the extravagant set of the highly anticipated Louis Vuitton runway show as a site-specific installation. Everything from the escalators to the immaculate yellow and white checked floor was a result of Buren's design and Jacobs' enabling. The work of Buren seemed to fit in seamlessly with Jacobs' collection for Louis Vuitton; stripes and the grid were frequent motifs in Buren's work, but also within the graphic culture of Louis Vuitton (as in the Damier check). Apparently the co-mingling of these two creative powers was so invigorating that Buren lent his time and talents to working on the advertising campaign and storefronts for Louis Vuitton after the close of the show. In a December 2012 interview with Vogue, Buren said of Jacobs' work: "And I must say I found it very, very beautiful, very strict, very strongly architectural."

3. Merce Cunningham x Rei Kawakubo

Rei Kawakubo first started designing under the name Comme des Garçons in 1969, and since then she has been making her name known as one of the foremost avant-garde fashion designers in the world. Merce Cunningham was making himself known under similar terms, but within the dance context. Kawakubo had always "shared similar creative philosophies with Merce Cunningham, including interests in engaging multiple artistic disciplines and aggressively pushing the boundaries of the unknown." After Cunningham's initial offer to give her complete freedom in designing the costumes and the set, Kawakubo declined. As myth has it, while working on her notorious spring collection of 1997, titled "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body," she changed her mind. The collection was an aggressive response to her feelings of boredom with fashion. She padded the dresses in a way to reshape the body under new circumstances—her own circumstances. Similarly to the "Body Meets Dress" collection, the costumes Kawakubo designed for her collaborative work with Cunningham (tilted Scenario) featured the same "irregular bulges on the dancers' hips, shoulders, chests, and backs." Wearing these costumes altered the dancers' proportions, their balance, sense of space, and even their fundamental extent of movement. This experimental collaboration between Cunningham and Kawakubo transcends boundaries of art, fashion, costumes design, set design, dance and performance; their partnership should stand to remind us that there really isn't that much of a difference between those categories at all.

4. Raf Simons x Sterling Ruby

The internationally acclaimed Belgian fashion designer, Raf Simons, invited German-born, Los Angeles-based artist, Sterling Ruby, in 2008 to use his "Tokyo boutique as a canvas." Sterling's intervention transformed the store's interior from a clinical white space into something that in some ways is hard to describe. The walls were left white by Ruby, and in his typical style, appears to have haphazardly thrown paint everywhere and ended up with something beautiful, simultaneously minimal, and chaotically expressive. The plinths used to display the clothing are black with bleach splashed across them (a technique favored by Ruby in his textile manipulation work), which creates a seductive and unifying tension between the architecture holding the clothes, and the greater structure holding the entirety of the shop. The slight tonal varieties and organic veins of color converts what appears to be drywall into a material more akin to marble in a gesture of a sort of beguiling decadence. The collaboration between the two creatives was so copacetic that Simons brought on Ruby to create a unique capsule collection following the same aesthetic theme of Tokyo boutique installation the following year. Simons and Ruby have continued their collaborative relationship as recently as 2012, when Simons created fabric with images of four of Ruby's recent works. The textiles debuted as a part of Simon's premiere haute couture collection with design house Christian Dior.

5. Tom Sachs x Nike

New York-based artist, Tom Sachs, introduced the world to his Space Program 2.0: MARS in May of 2012. Sachs' most recent Space Program incarnation was a fully embodied work. Fleets of workers inhabited the Park Avenue Armory space in New York City from May 16 to June 17. Men and women were dressed in full astronaut garb, and models of Mars Rovers, and extraterrestrial artifacts spanned the faux-NASA-headquarter space. In addition to living out a childhood fantasy of being an astronaut (especially without any chance of deep space death), Sachs took his collaborative creation a step further by having Nike join the league of forces propelling this dream of Space-on-Earth into reality. And thus NikeCRAFT was born, the line boasted original designs such as the "Mars Yard Shoe" and specially designed bags and outerwear for the collaboration. Product descriptions are littered with both clinical and far-out, playful language. One tote bag for sale by NikeCRAFT is described as "For everyday superheroes" and comes equipped with a thirty foot paracord, a grappling hooker, a pry bar and AAA batteries "(or drugs case)." Fanciful gestures like the latter butt up against scientific allusions to "JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)," and "vectran fabric from the Mars Excursion Rover airbags," and at times fail to describe anything to most civilians, but are still quirky and fun.

EFFE KOM 

[lovelytormentor]

The Guardian Of Eden

Written by: @KentOfEl and @HypnoticToxin 

Author Notes: A storyline between Superman and Poison Ivy. The continuation of their Prequel (http://lovelytormentor.tumblr.com/post/155971808328/prequel-superman-and-poison-ivy-authors). Superman is induced by Ivy’s toxins.

Photo Credit: @KentOfEl

Poison Ivy:

[Hours elapsed since the dismantling of Superman's mental fortitudes; resilience, self-discipline and morality debilitated from toxoids still circuiting his systems thus forfeiting his independence into the clutches of a botanic tyrant. Poison Ivy's influence upon the subdued super-human was so immense she barely enacted those sensuous traits to keep  @KentOfEl actively infatuated – a partial effect from the kryptonite. 

Given his extensive period to adjust beneath the inescapable ensnarement and adapt into this new environment of servitude, the immoral temptress thought it were time to experiment with his levels of obedience. A misdeed; one small enough that her earth wouldn't perish beneath untimely destruction but one large enough it left Metropolis citizens revisiting their repressed apprehensions about Superman and whether he was to be glorified as God or condemned as foe.] 

Protection, lover, doesn't begin with the Neanderthals roaming /my/ earth.  It begins /with/ Earth. The plants are the children, the continuers of life. These soils the producers, nutrients to the green world. These invaders are our enemies. Earth is not their inheritance. 

[Poison Ivy manoeuvred around the colossal male who stood upright like a trained solider awaiting command. Fingertips danced atop the cobalt fabric, which encapsulated  his brawny physique, tracing along the muscular indentations of muscle.] 

You, my dazzling knight, must thrawt those who  pose threat. A true hero towards those who cannot protect themselves, and you can start there. 

[The hand smoothing across @KentOfEl's rugged torso retreated, pulling away momentarily to gesture leftwards. Following the limb, off into the distance, was a  bridge which connected Metropolis to the city's Botanical Gardens. The manmade monument was bustling with tourists and the average civilian; each waltzing to and fro destinations.]

Destroy it. Safeguard the species. Do not focus on those caught in the crossfire.  

[By which Poison Ivy meant those @KentOfEl could potentially kill. Her voice lowered multiple octaves into that sultry tonality that was bewitching. She elicited her final statement in a tone so euphonious, one could believe it was a symphony performed by the Heavens.] 

Remember, you're doing this for me and only me, /lover/.

Superman:

Her voice and only her voice was clear in his mind. His vision, now tinted with the emerald aura that seemed to surround the vined vixen, was now fixated on her. He clung to her every word, observed her every motion, agreed with her every statement. This world needed protection from the humans who occupied it. She needed his protection, his help. Mother  Nature had fallen victim to an enemy too incapable to contest her. 

"The gardens. They're in danger." 

Clark's voice was low and cold, seemingly robotic. 

"I'll defend you."

His brows wrenched in anger. His fists clenched tightly. They would pay, the humans threatening this world. In a loud rumble he took off in flight, headed for the bridge's base like a missile. His servitude would not falter.

Poison Ivy: 

[Superman's departure generated a reverberating blare through the midday atmosphere. In Metropolis this clangour was a beckon of hope, signifying their Kryptonian protector was impeding villainy amongst their neighbours but not this day. No, Superman's flight was a battlecry; a first tune to this symphony of war with Poison Ivy as his coercive conductor. Had @KentOfEl's resistance retained its fabled vigour, his moral compass wouldn't of deterred from true North and lead Ivy's superhuman solider down an inevitable route of desolation.] 

Do not disappoint me, lover.                            

                                                  ❀❀❀ 

[Citizens meandered aimlessly on the bridge between destinations. The clement skies gifted with the sun's incandescent aura brought residents from their inhabitants and out onto the street to bask in nature's splendour. With marvelled weather working in Ivy's favour, it summoned crowds of these errant invaders to their one source of natural beauty: the Botanical Gardens. The congregation of residents and tourists combined meant this spectacle Gotham's floral seductress had hatched would be of the greatest magnitudes. Sinful, guiltless murderers would falter beneath the ungovernable strength of @KentOfEl manipulated wrath. Finally, a accurate definition to the word 'justice' would be publicised across the human-infested terrains when @KentOfEl's righteous hand condemned those who overshadowed the natural voiceless world. For now, the emerald Temptress manoeuvred from her base point  and strode to the manmade landmark. Terror was soon to plague Metropolis and she wouldn't pass an opportunity to have the front row seat when these Neanderthals perished alive for their transgressions.]

Superman:

Clark's cape rippled through the air as his speed increased. His collision course was immanent, aiming directly towards the structural base of the gigantic bridge connecting the major highway to the park and garden district. These humans would not threaten the green, the essence of life, the kingdom his new queen had charged him to defend. Clark growled loudly as he impacted the bridge. The massive columns of steel and cement began to moan and bend as the weight of the structure began wrenching downward. The stability cables began to creak and snap under the sudden shift in the bridge's weight. Large steel beams began to fall freely, loose of their bonds and welding. The spectacle of architecture and engineering was crumbling to the will of the Superman. Cars began to slide downward towards the chilling waters below as the pavement crumbled and fell. The bridge was a lost cause. As it continued to deconstruct and demolish, the man of  steel bolted his flight toward the Queen of the Green. He would report his success and look intently for his next set of instructions.

Poison Ivy:

[Pandemonium unfurled. Citizens caught within the crossfire scrambled for safety, attempting to dodge the fragmented debris while their unstable platform was pulled beneath gravity's weight. Very few civilians managed to escape their automobile confines while others imprisoned inside the metal plummeted into the glacial waters lurking beneath. Wires unlatched from their designated lodgings and the pillars upholding the highway bridge disintegrated into shards of stone. The tumult was heard across Metropolis; response squadrons ignited their blaring sirens and sped for the disarray while news teams claimed the darkening skies with helicopters to grasp better visualisations. The city drowned in desolation brought about by the bare hands of their God. Superman absconded the grim scene to rejoin his botanical Seductress. There Poison Ivy clapped thrice, the beat tantalisingly slow and drawn out for dramatic effect.] 

Well done, lover. Your subordination has spared my children from perishing. Don't you feel a greater sense of justice in protecting the defenceless? 

[Duplicating the properties of encroaching vines, this vixen weaved herself around the superhuman subjected to servitude. Emerald pigmented arms entangled around his brawny bicep, clenching to her man. The placement served as an access point for those intoxicatingly lavish lips to hover just mere inches from @KentOfEl's earlobe. Ivy's voice dipped multiple octaves to produce a alto tone laced in her sensuous artistry: manipulation.] 

But you deserve more, don't you? You deserve recognition. Metropolis should stare upon the saviour of the green. Allow them applaud your heroic acts, glorify the name Superman. Let us, lover,  fly above the wreckage together. Let us watch from the skies as these humans pay for their transgressions. Celebrate, sweetheart, for together we shall rejuvenate the entirety of Earth.

Superman:

Her words were that of pure ecstasy and temptation. Each sentence she spoke prodded him further down the path of chaos and mindless devotion. Upon her command he gently picked her up in his arms, 

"We will watch the masses. They will know the danger of threatening you, the green, the active hand of Mother Nature herself." 

He flew safely into the sky, a mere two hundred yards above the now demolished section of the bridge he had just destroyed. He could hear her laughter as he observed the citizens below, shouting out amidst the chilling waters that lie underneath them. His attention drew towards a young mother with two children in a car, dangling atop a twisted mass of iron bars and crumbled cement. She screamed out in fear, desperately shouting for help, a savior, anyone to nab her and her children from the clutches of what would be certain death if they fell to the icy waves beneath them. Clark's mind began to regress. The green had begun to fade ever so gently. The cries of this mother had shaken his trance for a brief moment. He could hear their screams. They needed help. They needed a hero. He blinked rapidly as he looked down to the bridge. He began to oncentrate intently, attempting to blot out the haze of green and whisper clouding his mind. 

"They....they're in trouble," he stammered, floating atop the wreckage. "We should....help them."

Poison Ivy:

[Teetering on the threshold of death was a precarious vehicle. Three citizens, a mother and two children no greater than the age of eight, were imprisoned within the metal enclosure and screeched with sheer desperation for the caped superhuman levitating above their impending doom to aid with a haste rescue. Amid their clamorous attempts to evoke attention, hypnotically induced mind was liberating from Poison Ivy's clutches. Judging by his request to offer assistance, Ivy's vigorous solider was succumbing to humanity thus galvanising these emotive responses to an abhorrent ordeal. Undoubtedly, @KentOfEl's combat  with morality was like an infestation of an unknown disease and fortunately for the destructive duo, this sinister temptress was prepped with a miracle cure.] 

 Nature rivals the greatest dangers. Look around, Superman. Look across the horizon barricaded by cement and stone. Before the grand infiltration of industrialisation ask yourself, 'what lived here first.'

[Emerald irises averted from the collapsed highway-bridge and fixated on the bustling civilisation instead. Pollution in every visible corner, factories roaring to life with steam excreting from the numerous chimneys, landfills compact with mountains of waste, and these conceited humans ignorant to the plague they've condemned upon earth. That visualisation was more horrendous than any guilt-stricken individual on the brink of perishing.] 

These people are parasites. Their death brings more prosperity to a world afflicted by chaos. Your duty is to cleanse the green, to /serve/ the green. 

[The limb encompassing @KentOfEl's robust torso manoeuvred to capture his jaw instead. Lithe fingers encircled the angular skeletal structure and rotated his cranium back in the general direction of his botanical Mistress. Before further protests or @KentOfEl awakening from  his poisonous enchantments, Poison Ivy compressed her most lethal weapon against Superman's mouth. Another dosage of toxoids expelled from her jade, succulent lips and was absorbed by those in waiting. When confident his consumption would obliterate any uncertainties to whom @KentOfEl obeyed, she retracted from the liplock by the most minuscule of centimetres. Poison Ivy spoke. This time her voice adopting a sinister tune, enshrouded by grim tones and a domineering edge.]

Now tell me, sugar. Who do you serve?

 [And in that juncture, the unhinged car filled with innocents began its plunge towards the glacial depths.]

Superman: 

His doubt and yearning to save the innocent had begun to resurface, but it wouldn't last long. Her feint embrace and kiss began to go to work on Clark's conscience. The hissing and droning of the green fog in his head returned with a vengeance. The innocence and compassion that had fought its way into Clark's expression was immediately snuffed out. As the family's vehicle had broken loose of its dangerous perch and fell to the waters below, Superman's face had once again turned cold. He remained motionless as the car crashed into the waves beneath the wreckage. He turned to the green temptress, held safely in his arms, 

"I serve you, and Mother Earth" he replied in a dutiful tone. 

His cape drifted softly in the breeze amidst the screams of horror and suffering beneath him.

Poison Ivy: 

[Reverberating behind @KentOfEl's devotional response were the screeches of anguish. Innocent voices encapsulated through the glacial breeze soared the streets of Metropolis, invoking despair upon the individuals whose ears caught this mournful tune. Numerous vehicles submerged beneath inescapable blues, powerless against the erratic waves surging atop their boxed metal.  Transparent windows showcased human suffering; faces plastered with trepidation, many still howling, others preserving oxygen and families eliciting their departing sorrows as water seeped through the cracks and filled the interiors to its brim. Upon land these grotesque scenes were just as perturbing, where automobiles were crushed by debris, citizens lost beneath the cemented pillars and the fortunate humans escaping the ordeal with one limb less. This day left a black streak in Metropolis' records, especially since the bringer of desolation was their trusted saviour who swore oath to humanity.  Onlookers witnessing the destruction first hand or by live satellite feed would feel distraught, their emotions would sympathise to the chaos and rippling hardship, but of course these sentimental responses were immune upon the ecoterrorist. Ivy scrutinised the scene with a sense of triumph; victory was obtained and her precious babies spared from miscreants. She turned to the levitating solider, a diabolical smirk adorning her exquisite features as @KentOfEl's sharp cheekbone was graced by her palm. The toxic seductress caressed his tensed features in a manner most celebratory for this successful venture Although she was appreciative to her mindless superhuman servant, his duties were far from finished.] 

Protecting the green was only the beginning, my love. Now you must /defend/ it. These parasites will try to reclaim its beauty for their city  and we mustn't allow the Neanderthals to reel close. 

[In other words: Metropolis botanical gardens would become the operating base for Mother Nature and her ultimate ambitions to decimate one of earth's most prospering civilisations.  With a indestructible solider serving Poison Ivy, her chances of losing were near impossible. Of course her first and primal objective was to rehabilitate and rejuvenate the species treated like a petting zoo.] 

 Come, Superman. Our work here is far from finished.