Patrick Marek Artist | Live Electronics

The Metaform

Real-time electro-acoustic music composition framework

Introduction

I developed the metaform in the context of my real-time electroacoustic music composition projects. It includes formal elements that enable unity to be achieved in music based on the repetition of infinite loops.

These elements and their arrangement are based on phenomena found in nature. The idea is to make machines more organic while interacting with them during the real-time composition and recording process.

Step 1 - The spark of life

Composition of the first loop

This element could be likened to musical material in traditional Western musicology. It is the spark, the original inspiration for the composition. Like the emergence of life, the metaform suggests that this spark is a random accident. I therefore recommend random explorations with instruments until the ear perceives something that satisfies it, and immediately capturing this spark in the form of a first "sample" looping endlessly.

Step 2 - Astronomical element

Polyrhythmic composition

As far back as I can trace the origins of music, rhythms, and more specifically cross rhythms or irregular rhythms, have always had a mystical, even magical function. Like the stars that revolve at different speeds but always synchronize at a given moment, polyrhythm is the fundamental compositional element of the metaform, it structures time. I recommend drawing inspiration from the original spark to develop different polyrhythmic motifs.

Step 3 - Reproductive element

Melodic composition

To ensure their survival, species must reproduce. To reproduce, they must mate, and this process always begins with a dialogue: seduction. Dialogue has always been a fundamental element of composition. The metaform suggests drawing inspiration from the original spark and then from polyrhythm to compose melodic lines in pairs, in the form of question and answer, one machine talking to another machine.

Etape 4 - Ecological element

Orchestration technique

The sharing of electroacoustic and temporal resources must ensure balance and optimal collaboration between the various sound and compositional elements. Psychoacoustically, humans can hear a maximum of between 4 and 5 distinct groups of elements. The metaform suggests dividing the elements into a maximum of 5 groups and allowing only 2-3 groups of instruments to collaborate at the same time.

Step 5 - Biological element

The execution of the work

Life is an eternal exercise in adaptation. Nothing ever goes as planned, and we are never completely immune to uncertainty. In this context, it is the present moment that should be valued. Adapted to the characteristics of the machines, the metaform suggests that the work be played, improvised, and recorded in a single take. Once recorded, they cannot be modified. They are engraved in the present. The past cannot be replayed; the integrity of time and finitude remain intact.