Ecology

"Ekologija" ("Ecology") is a composition of field recordings created in 2023, with the material collected in Lithuania, Greece, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.This work was the creative part of the author's final Bachelor's project in 2023, at Kaunas University of Technology, graduating from the Music Technology program.

The creative process involved an unconventional intention: to musicalize environmental noises  by composing them according to certain principles of traditional Western music such as tonality, harmony, and structure.

A little quote from the personal description of this piece.

"First of all, I'd like to present the structure of the piece which was supposed to correspond to what we know as the rondo structure of the music piece. [Rondo is a musical form, that emerged in the Baroque period that contains a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain") that alternates with one or more contrasting themes, very generally called "episodes". In this way, the repetitive, circular structure of the piece is achieved.] And the choice of this structural form came up after the recognition of this form naturally appeared in one particular field recording used in this piece. It was a field recording made in Milan during a metro journey. Since the recording itself consists of a repeated organization of sounds, it was very natural to apply the recording to the basis of the rondo form of composition. The part of the recording between the journeys - the opening and closing of the door, reflecting a stop at a subway station - was left as a refrain. The sound of acceleration that follows becomes a kind of bridge to the next episode of the composition - a collage of field recordings.

The second experimental approach to the musicalisation of the field recordings was an attempt to sort all of the audio material into categories corresponding to the idea of four-part harmony. Based on the dominant frequency band in the spectrum of the recording, the recordings were categorized into soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Then, by composing them together, I tried to find a way to harmonize them according to the basic rules of harmony. However, I was not able to achieve this task in a way that sounded natural. Thus, this idea was only applied conditionally, as a kind of guideline to encourage constant reflection on the balance of the sounds divided into four voices and their aesthetic interaction. 

In my exploration of field recordings, I also delved into the tonality of the sounds and attempted to identify any possible harmonic functions within the composition. To simplify it, we can understand the most basic harmonic functions as the relationships between three main tonal points: the tonic, subdominant, and dominant. Identifying these pitches is crucial in determining the tonality and key of the piece. For this particular work, I selected three field recordings in which the pitch was identifiable:

The tonic sound is a church bell recording (F)

The subdominant sound is the scream of a child falling off a scooter in a park (Bflat)

The dominant sound is the sound of a speeding car (C)

So, following this idea, an attempt was made to compose the field recordings as if the whole work was tonal and written in the key of F. In the end of the piece you will also hear an element of vocal improvisation with a church bell as its accompaniment.

Throughout the piece, each stop represents a sonic journey into a unique acoustic environment created by various field recordings that are unrelated to each other. Although the collages that follow the 'refrain' may appear chaotic and unexpected at first, they ultimately contribute to the repetitive structure of the composition. 

In conclusion, it's probably unlikely that you can perceive the harmony by ear in this piece. However, creating a general balance between the various sounds that comprise the piece was the goal, and using idea of harmony-based composition helped me achieve that."