Audio · John Beaulieu
Axial Stone Sonic Balancing
Axial Stones — George Quasha
Axial Stone Sonic Balancing — John Beaulieu
Axial Stone Sonic Meditation is a collaboration between the Axial Stone Balancing of George Quasha and the improvised piano of John Beaulieu.
Axial Stone Sonic Meditations
Watch Axial Stone Sonic Meditations on Vimeo
©2012 John Beaulieu
A stone in its natural state becomes axial when it mates truly and perilously with another stone by way of unforeseeable precarious balance. Geroge Quasha
The musical performance of Axial Stones is based on the premise that Axial Stone photos can be interpreted as music scores. In order to translate them into sound I quantum entangle with the stones and integrate musical skills with synesthesia and intuition.
Synesthesia Keyboard Translation
| Synesthetic / Perceptual Parameter | Musical Translation | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Hand / Finger Position | Pitch / notes played | Position and shape of the hands and fingers determine the notes and note relationships. |
| Weight / Size of Stone | Keyboard register | Very heavy / large → lower registers • Very light / small → upper registers |
| Temperature | Tone color / timbre | The felt sense of warm, cool, hot, or cold is translated intuitively into variations of tone color. |
| Setting the Stone in Place | Volume / dynamics | Lightly setting down the stone → soft • Quickly or forcefully setting down the stone → loud |
| Felt Sense of Stone Placement | Duration of sound | The felt experience of placing and settling the stone determines how long a sound or gesture is sustained. |
| Felt Sense of the Balance Vortex | Duration of silence | The experience of the emerging axial balance point determines the duration of silence before the next stone—or sonic gesture—is placed. |
Process
The Axial Stone process requires the freedom of the hands to independently move, creating a mobile, moving, sonic form embedded in the vortex appearance of still points which unpredictably appear and disappear. The playing of the stone is always an indeterminate harmony subject to the movement patterns of emerging sonic forms. Centered in internal still point, I all the sound balance to appear. The mind appreciates yet makes not effort to control.
Foundation Stone: The base or bottom stone
Balancing Stone: The top stone or stone that is balanced on the foundation stone
Tune into a stone using the following procedure and visually become the stone. Sense its shape, size, weight, density, temperature, and color. Allow your sense of touch to scan the surface until you find an optimal finger position that allows you to grasp the stone. To find an optimal finger position you may have to move your hand(s) around until each finger “sticks”. Feeling the “stick” requires trusting your intuition. The optimal hand/finger position will vary based on your relationship with the stone. Once you have arrived at your optimal hand/finger position, hold the position. This is the hand position that will determine how your fingers make contact with the piano keys.
Sonic Balancing
The foundation stone is played first. It is “set in sound”. The pianist, guided by the Synesthesia Keyboard interpretation Chart and trusting in their intuition, allows their foundation stone hand to hover above the optimal position on the piano keys and descend in resonance with the sonic qualities of the foundation stone. Listening to the sound of the emerging foundation stone sound, bring your balancing stone hand to the keys. Allow the optimal sonic axial relationship between the foundation and balance stone to emerge. The sound that emerges from the piano is the correct sound and it must not be questioned.
Axial Stone Recording Visual Wave Analysis
Chart 1 below shows the waveforms of several Axial Stone Sound Recordings created in Digital Performer.
Chart 2 below, is a close up of an Axial Sound Stone wave recording. The first wave is the base sound stone, and the second wave is second sound stone. The centerline connecting the two stones is silence. Their relative shapes, amplitudes, durations, and the silence separating them create a sonic balance that visually resembles the relationship between the two stones in the photograph that was played.
In Chart 3, the two recorded waveforms are repositioned vertically so their relationship can be viewed in the same orientation as the original Axial Stone photograph. The Digital Performer centerline has been removed for visual clarity. The silence between the two sonic events, however, remains intact. When viewed vertically, the recorded waveforms reveal a form that resembles two “sonic stones” balanced around an axial point. The lower waveform visually assumes the role of the base stone. The upper waveform resembles the stone balanced above it. Between them is the silence that emerged during the performance.
Process Summary
The stone becomes an image.
The image becomes a felt gesture.
The gesture becomes sound.
The sound becomes a waveform.
And within the waveform, the balance of the stones appears again.
I recommend that you read
Axial Stone by George Quasha North Atlantic Books July 24, 2006
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