Brian Ferneyhough's use of Computer Aided CompositionComputer aided composition has had an important role in the works of Brian Ferneyhough.

While Ferneyhough initially worked purely by hand, eventually tools like Open Music helped Ferneyhough realize his musical vision. Ferneyhough used Open Music to help codify and implement has signature rhythmic patterns and also to develop specific patterns of specialization. OM allowed the composer to implement deep symbolic systems that would have been very time consuming to write out by hand, implement strictly randomized variables, and do spatialization analysis that would have been otherwise impossible.

Ferneyhough is known for a complex rhythmic systems involving deeply layered nested tuplets. This is meant by Ferneyhough to help symbolize his philosophical ideals about symbols and systems of symbols. Ferneyhough is a student of semiotics and high post modern philosophy. While mystifying on the surface, Ferneyhough's rhythms are generated based on specific plans that border upon the algorithmic. Simple sections are broken up into smaller, more irregular groupings. Ties and rests are added to further “complexify” the results (OM composer's Book, pg9) With this simple plan, music can easily be made the resemble the surface appearance of Fenerhough's output.

Even on this surface level, Open Music can be used as a tool to easily replicate Ferneyhough's apparent style. The Rhythmic tree feature of OM is a natural fit, allowing for multiple levels of nested rhythms. While the proportional aspect of the Rhythmic Tree notation may be confusing in some situations, this proportional aspect makes it exceedingly easy to replicate patterns on various tuplet levels. Mystifying swaths of dense polyrhythms are easily generated by the software. (OM Composer's Book, 10)

A deeper implementation of Ferneyhough's ideas can also be had. An example of a Ferneyhough style musical algorithm would be a system of a measures with a pattern of meter changes. (2 3 4 5 7 2 for instance.) Ferneyhough would use the numerators of these meter changes to form patterns in the music. For instance, he might reverse the pattern and put 2 buts in the final measure, 3 beats in the penultimate measure and so on. He might then map the numeric pattern into a set of tuplets with the measure, perhaps randomly generating rests and ties. The numbers can also be used to determine the likelihood of rhythmic events. The strategy is generally successful, and helps Ferneyhough achieve his aesthetic of ever changing densities. This is the process which was used for Ferneyhough's String Trio. In the case of this piece, the numeric pattern 543631 was generated via a break point function, and manipulated in a way very similar to what I outlined above (Om Composer's book 11).

A similar piece with a different a slightly different approach to computer generated material would be Ferneyhough's Unsichtbarre Farben. First, Ferneyhough listed the collection of all rhythmic cells which satisfied two criteria. 1) That the Cell be divided into two pules with proportions of 1/1 vs. 1/11 2) That these cells be divided further in to sections of 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Ferneyhough would then look for relations between the cells by rotating through permutations of the cell. Ferneyhough found a favored set of relations, and then used OM's rhythm tree library to organize his findings. Within this formal structure, Ferneyhough would also insert elements of random variation. The proportions themselves are randomized, to further vary the already complex tuplet structure.

Ferneyhough also used Open Music and systems like it for the purposes of specialization. During the production of his operetta Shadow Time Ferneyhough became deeply interested in spatialization of electronic sounds based on specific patterns. This is exemplified specifically in the final choral movement Stelae for Failed Time. Open music has a library to help generate said patterns, which can be bonded on to Max/MSP. Specifically this is the OmSpat library. Through OmSpat Ferneyhough is able to link in specific compositional aspects to the spatialization parameters. Synthesis, note choice, and rhythmic grouping can all change this parameters. Specific characteristics of the room could be figured in to the electronic play back in order to produce specific spatialized effects. Effects far more specific than the typical panning shapes can produced, with Ferneyhough specifying shapes that could speak to individual seats in the audience. Open Music accomplished this

by gathering specific data about the room sound, and crunching the numbers, comparing this against Ferneyhough's desired spatialization, and feeding the information to an additive synthesis pax in Max/MSP. (OM Music 258)

Open Music, specifically the Rhythm Tree library and the OMSpat library represent not only an excellent set of tools for the simulation of Brian Ferneyhough's music, but a tool used directly by the composer himself. Through techniques of rhythmic displacement, and algorithmic organization, and through advanced spatialization techniques the composer is able to realize his signature style