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| Ignasi Terraza in concert in Spain photo courtesy El Mundo net |
Continuing from the
previous post, with our discussion about the perception and temperature of
space, we talk for awhile about carpeted spaces. I learn that a good acoustic makes a warm
space, but lots of rocks or empty walls
produces a cold space. Our conversation continues:
RAS – Ignasi, if you go out in nature, is there a different sense of
space? Is it different from internal space?
IT – I was once in an experiment at a university where they
study acoustics – they made experiments and had a *camera which they called an equalikoid
(sp?) a structure which had no reverb and no echo at all. It was built with
this special foam and some other materials, and when you go in you are
suspended in a kind of network, because the ground is also made of the same
soundproof material (*Cámara sin eco: a soundproof room or structure)
RAS And what was it called?
IT – In Spanish it’s called Echoica or No Echo
RAS - Like a No Echo Chamber?
IT - Yeah, no echo chamber....and the sensation there was
very strange. It was like being in open air.
RAS - Really!
I T - Yeah, the difference is that you don’t have sense of
any information coming back – the one sound with nothing returning. Then, it’s
like being in the open air. But the difference with open air is that normally,
there is weather. Like wind. And this is
information that you perceive through your skin. So if you perceive wind, it’s
because it’s open air
RAS Yes – or you can hear the sound of the leaves rustling
IT – Yeah, like that. And I remember that it brings back the
sensation of the open air because what we have is the sense of no echo or reverb.
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| Celebrated Catalan Jazz man Ignasi Terazza alongside Carlos Puyol from the Spanish National Soccer Team |
RAS - Well now, you say that but if you went to the top of a mountain
and shouted, there would be an echo coming back – what you call reverb. It
exists in certain natural places.
I T– Yes, of course,
that’s an example of an echo coming back from a long distance of space. But
there are the little echos that you are having from the wall, for example. This
kind of information helps me notice that, there’s a wall there (to my surprise,
Ignasi points at the wall located right
behind us)
And its the information from what that sound makes, which
helps me know that this wall is closer then that
wall (points at the other intersecting wall to my left)
I can feel all this through sound.
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| Ignasi on Yamaha Musicians website |
RAS – That’s amazing! And have
you ever had a sense of the vastness of space – internally even?
IT- Normally I used to rate a space in sense of feeling good
or feeling bad in that space. That usually comes through a sense of acoustics –
whether it was warm or cold. And if no echo, not good. Too much echo is not
good either
RAS – You’re talking about it in a practical sense – whether the space
is good or not good for music
IT – That's the thing,
RAS - There is also a sense of space in music as well?
IT - Of course, (in music) there is a different sense of
dimensions in space. The music is a kind of three dimensional structure
RAS - Three dimensional....
I T– Yeah because you
have a kind of dimension. Two dimension, for me, is to realise you have – in
one moment – seeing what notes, what harmonies – what changes. A change is some
notes played at the same time.
RAS - Uh huh, that’s two
dimensional
IT – yes, that’s two dimensional. The third dimension is
time. And you can see in music there’s a
sense of space also. What I mean is...the rhythm is a sense of space – you are
dividing the time into different units.
You are playing with time. You are building a composition, an improvisation.
You build it in time, using a tune, a melody that...when you look at it in
another way, you can imagine it as a space. First, second, third....
RAS - First second and third space?!
IT – No, first second and third part. I mean the form in
music can be seen as space.
Form means for example, a song...its a melody. Then, after the melody, the song has three
little parts. This part is repeated twice, and then comes different parts and in
the end comes again the first melody ....
but you can see it in terms of a construction in space too.
RAS - I never thought of it that
way.....
I T– A symmetry in
space!
And on that note, the
interview ends, as Ignasi rushes off to the rehearsal studios, leaving me behind, lost in deep thought, wondering about three dimensional musical compositions in Space/Time.
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| Courtesy of Google.ru |
