Homologic

homology – (n.) In biology, the existence of shared ancestry between a pair of structures, or genes, in different species. Evolutionary theory explains the existence of homologous structures adapted to different purposes as the result of descent with modification from a common ancestor.

“Therefore I should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.” – Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859).

Homologic explores the musical applications of the above statements. The two instrumental parts display melodic structures originated from the same source materials and have gone through a process of musical evolution using invented scales. While an analysis of the source material and the melodic material in Homologic will not show intervallic similarities, it will uncover the same scalar structures. This type of musical evolution has been described by Matthew Santa as MODTRANS. The computer highlights these scalar structures (either chromatically or microtonally) with delay gestures built on different versions of exponential and parabolic curves and also provides textural accompaniment.

The source material includes two pieces for Chinese flute ordizi (dee-zih) that originate from the Suzhou region of China.