Abstract animation, emergent audiovisual motion and micro-expression: A case study of analogue music tracking with Robert Schumann’s Forest Scenes in AudioVisualizer

Abstract

Abstract animation inthe form of “visual music” facilitates both discovery and priming of musicalmotion that synthesises diverse acoustic parameters. In this article, twoscenes of AudioVisualizer, an open-source Chrome extension, are appliedto the nine musical poems of Robert Schumann’s Forest Scenes, with thegoal to establish a basic framework of expressive cross-modal qualities that inaudiovisual synchrony become apparent through visual abstraction and theemergence of defined dynamic Gestalts. The animations that build thisarticle’s core exemplify hands-on how particular ways of real-time analoguemusic tracking convert score structure and acoustic information into continuousdynamic images. The interplay between basic principles of information captureand concrete simulation in the processing of music provides one crucial entrypoint to fundamental questions as to how music generates meaning andnon-acoustic signification. Additionally, the considerations in this articlemay motivate the creation of new stimuli in empirical music research as well asstimulate new approaches to the teaching of music.