Cymatic Music: Towards a Metatheory of Harmonic Phenomena: My Interactive Compositions and Environments
Ronald Pellegrino · Leonardo · 1983
Articulating notion of 'cymatic music' and identifying, exploring, and developing its creative ramifications are principal objectives of my current research. The term 'cymatic' is derived from Greek word kyma which means something swollen or a wave. Kyma is closely related to another Greek word, kyein, which means to be pregnant or swollen with child. Hans Jenny in his book, Cymatics [1], defines word as study of the structure and dynamics of waves and vibrations. I find all these colorings of meaning valuable in pursuing study of waves-the variables, their transformations, their interactions and resulting dynamic structural configurations. The word cymatic was planted as a seed in my mind in 1974 when Jeff Goldstein, a student and colleague in one of my seminars at Oberlin College, loaned me Jenny's book. Goldstein knew that I had been working with electronic arts of sound and light since 1967 and that from beginning I saw importance of wave theory in making sense of electronic arts.