An exploration on whistle tones on the colour tone row spelling out the word "autumn"

My favourite season, as the colours of the trees are so vibrant, the air is becoming crisp again, and the magic that is the feeling and sound of the crunch beneath your feet as you walk through fallen leaves. The painting is in fact not a representation of autumn with the colours of the tone row the word provides, but a colour splash of the leaves on the trees outside my home in October.

The painting is acrylic on 3x3 canvas.

Spring is a fresh instalment of my ongoing colour project - a series of pieces for flute, electronics, and visual art based off of experiences with synesthesia. Spring incorporates the sound scanned in and manipulated from the digital art produced, manipulated sounds of bird calls in the morning, found sound from things like plants, sticks, and water, as well as flute sounds to create a sound world of emerging from darkness into light of spring.

Does darkness still linger?

Nothing is as it seems.

Thunder storm is a piece for flutes, electronics, and inclement weather. My hope is that the lyrical piccolo lines can make the listener feel the sense of haunting calmness I feel during the rain before the distant rumbles of thunder approach.

Both the flute and piccolo lines pick up momentum and disorder as the storm approaches, trying to mimic that sense of unease.

Audio-reactive visuals were created in TouchDesigner.

A little bit different than the previous compositions in this project, FXColour consists of two improvisations on a set of pitches based on colours chosen by the performers.

Created in the FluteXpansions Sonic Immersion 2021, I had participants list their favourite colours which I then set out a group of pitches based on my synaesthesia associations. We improvised with these pitches as our home base, and created what is heard here.

I created the art based off of the recordings and the colours chosen, and incorporated those into the recordings with a virtual ANS synthesizer.

This collaboration was performed and recorded 100% virtually.

Immense gratitude for my FXColour contributors:

Nandin Baker
Susan Geaney
Renata Kambarova
Shannon Lewis
Emma McCartney
Josefine Persson
Shanna Pranaitis
Dustin White

special guest soloist - Cheddar

Moon is a piece for flute and electronic track. The flute improvisation, as well as the extended techniques, are based off of a tone row spelling out the colours associated with the letters in the word moon. I have also included sound from the virtual ANS synthesizer while scanning the image in the piece.

As the letter M to me is representative of a rich indigo as well as a shimmer of violet, played around with the low register F, E quarter sharp, and E natural with glissandi, trills, and eventually chaos.

Crows is a piece for flute and electronic track. The flute improvisation, as well as the extended techniques, are based off of a tone row spelling out the colours associated with the letters in the word crows. The sonic backdrop is the painting scanned into a digital ANS synthesizer, as well as field sound.

The exploration, inspiration, and motivation behind this work is based on my family's stories and experiences with crows.

I provide two perspectives of the painting as the visual can tell a completely different story depending on how it is perceived.

Crows is dedicated to the memories of John Lewis and Annie Lewis.

From the keeper of the flame, gratitude and apologies to Lou...

Eyeball is an improvisation based around a tone row composed of any notes associated with white and grey, green, cherry red, yellow, and violet. The electronic track is made up of various sounds on the flute made while on the notes of the tone row, percussive flute sounds, as well as manipulated and amplified eye noise.

If another performer were to perform this, the tone row might vary based on their own colour associations, resulting in a different piece of music.