by Mike Pounds
The origins of The Truth of Suffering, a composition that was begun during the fall of 1995, were discussed in an article entitled Composing with Processed Voice: The Truth of Suffering in the Fall 95 EMS/CMP Notes. As reported in that article, the intention of the piece is to illustrate a psychological "drama" in which an individual, initially in a state of dualistic conflict with the world, undergoes a change that eventually brings the individual to a state of serenity and acceptance. The primary sound source for the piece is recorded readings from a description of the "truth of suffering" as found in Buddhist literature.
Structurally, the composition includes three sections. The first section presents the text most coherently and musically illustrates the anger and frustration associated with suffering. The second section further develops the textual material and is intended to portray the struggling of the individual with the truth of suffering that eventually leads to the serene acceptance and blurring of the distinction between the individual and the world that occurs in the final section.
The sound sources used in the piece include recordings of a voice reading the text, recordings of various kitchenware and a balloon, and sounds created on the Buchla synthesizer in Studio A. The sounds were processed in a wide variety of ways. Much of this processing was performed using computer software. Sound Designer was used to edit sounds, change pitch and amplitude, dynamically compress sounds, and, in conjunction with the DINR plug-in software, to reduce noise. HyperPrism was used to create Doppler effects, vibrato, stereo placement effects, filtering, chorus effects, and pitch and time manipulations. SoundHack was used especially for some of the more significant vocal processing. The SoundHack Convolution effect was used to combine the voice with some of the sounds created on the Buchla. This was particularly useful in the first section, where a dense texture of multi-tracked voice parts was convoluted with a Buchla sound to create a new sound that was very effective in conveying the desired sense of suffering. The SoundHack Spectral Mutation, Spectral Extraction, and Varispeed processes were also used.
The Buchla was used, along with the Alesis effects processors, to process many of the sounds. The Buchla was especially useful in the final section, where a complex mix of heavily processed vocal sounds gradually dissipates. The Buchla VCAs were used to create gestures of fragmented spoken words. The comb filters were used to divide the voice parts into different frequency bands, which were then sent to different channels of the mixer and through digital delays with feedback. The faders were then moved up and down to contribute voice parts with changing delays and frequency bands to the texture of the third section. Toward the end of that section, the voice sounds completely fade away, leaving only murmuring sine waves that were created by splitting the voice part into different frequency bands, and then running each of the resulting signals into a different envelope detector, which in turn controlled the amplitude of the sine waves.
Several bell-like sounds appear in the piece. These take on a particular programmatic significance. Bell sounds were chosen partly because bells are often used in Zen practice. As they were manipulated for this piece, they also take on a deeper meaning. During the second section, the attack portions of the bell sounds and the sustained ringing portions are split apart and presented separately. The bell attacks are intended to represent the disturbing influence in our lives (the suffering), while the ringing sounds represent the more peaceful, harmonious aspects of our lives. The separate presentation of these aspects symbolizes a dualistic view of the world. At the end of the composition, a single occurrence of a bell sound, complete with both the attack and the sustained ringing illustrates that both of these sounds are really just different aspects of a single thing, just as suffering and joy are both necessary aspects of our lives.
The Truth of Suffering has created its own share of suffering in the composer's life. The piece has gone through many stages of development from early sketch work to its final (?) form. Concerns in its creation ranged from the difficulties inherent in working with voice that were discussed in the Fall EMS/CMP Notes, to reducing noise, to compositional decisions. Early on, some of the Buchla sounds were judged to be inadequate for this piece. However, these sounds were able to be effectively used used through SoundHack Convolution and Mutation with the voice. Later, it was decided that the second section would benefit from more energy and activity, and more dynamic range and frequency range. This was addressed by adding additional sounds, and by making changes in the mixing process. The creation of this piece seems to have no end, but hopefully the final version of The Truth of Suffering will communicate something to the listener beyond the struggling of its own creation.