Foundation: Live Electronic Music Exploring the Harmonic Series

• Main Authors: Jensen, Andrew, Ricks, Dr. Steven
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2014
• Subjects: live music; electric music; harmonic series; Music; Orca
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2014/iss1/503; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/context/jur/article/2842/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf

The harmonic series is one of the most fundamental or foundational elements of musical harmony. The relationships between elements in this series explain why certain chords appeal to the human ear while others do not. My ORCA project involved creating a software synthesizer that uses the tones in the harmonic series to create improvised electronic music on a laptop computer. I performed in concert with the instrument at the Utah CrossTalk concert at the University of Utah on December 3, 2013. I copied the source code onto the computer in BYU’s Electronic Music Studio for composition faculty and students to use. I also released the source code publicly on the internet.