THE SOUNDSCORE TO heartBEAT: A NARRATIVE-FORM MUSIC ...

THE SOUNDSCORE TO heartBEAT:
A NARRATIVE-FORM
MUSIC VIDEO
by
DAVID JOSEPH KNEUPPER, B.M.E., M.M.
A DISSERTATION
IN
FINE ARTS
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
May, 1988

'CO
cp -^
Document and Soundscore
Copyright 1988, David Kneupper
Text and Video
Copyright 1988, Kim Smith
Used with permission

FOREWORD
The following document is submitted as supporting material to the soundscore of
heartBEAT. Readers are encouraged to view the artwork in conjunction with an
examination of this document.
heartBEAT was a collaborative effort between the author and Dr. Kim Smith,
Department of Art, Texas Tech University. Dr. Smith, executive producer of TV on TV.
produced, wrote, and directed the work, and is the sole author of its text (included in its
entirety in Appendix A).
u

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my gratiuide to Dr. Mary Jeanne van Appledom for the seven
years of criticism, support, and superb scholarly study, without which this project would
have been a very different thing.
HI

CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
iii
HGURES
V
CHAPTER
L HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 1
IL STRUCTURAL DIMENSIONS 7
m. METHODOLOGY AND MATERL\LS 13
IV. CONCLUSIONS 20
ENDNOTES 21
REFERENCES 22
APPENDICES
A. SPOKEN TEXT AND GRAPHIC OVERLAYS 27
B. OPENING REMARKS AT THE PREMIERE PERFORMANCE 38
IV

FIGURES
1. A List of Materials Used In the Preparation of the
heartBEAT Soundscore 16
2. A List of Structural Divisions Witiiinhearj^EAT 18

CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Introduction
heartBEAT is an attempt to relate aural and visual sensation as a single, unified
aesthetic experience. This desire has produced, throughout history, numerous attempts at
combining these two modes of perception. Such efforts have been both theoretical and
practical in nature, originating from the interrelated fields of philosophy, science, art,
drama and music.
Synaesthgsia
The tendency to associate between aural and visual sensation is a common one,
observable in such familiar areas as language. Descriptive phrases such as "loud reds"
and "muted browns" are useful and accepted metaphors. In music, string sounds can be
"bright" and a voice "dark." The association can be more complex, however, not limited
merely to the senses of sight and hearing. The Cherokee Indians had color associations
with the sense of direction. South was seen to be "white," North "blue," East "red,' and
West "black."^ Though in no way conclusive, these examples do suggest a complex and
highly subjective relationship between the senses.
This relationship is known as synaesthesia. Traditionally, the term describes a
particular psychophysical experience, in which the stimulation of a single sense arouses
images from the other senses. To such an individual, the sound of a bassoon may have a
characteristic color and taste, as well as sound. One of the most common manifestations
of the synaesihetic experience is "colored hearing." Widely noted by researchers in the
early part of this century, synaesthetic individuals were reported as having strong color
sensations from a variety of auditory stimuU.^ One blind subject, for example,
professed a sudden understanding of the color "purple," as "the sound of a trumpet.'

Svnaestheric Art
Synaesthesia also refers to a class of artworks which attempts to combine media,
engaging two or more senses simultaneously with a single presentation. It is in this sense
that heartBEAT may be regarded as synaesthetic. Image, music, spoken text, graphics
and sound effects are combined and presented through the medium of television.
Synaes±etic conventions can be observed across a broad historical range of
creative thought. Synaesthetic elements constitute central aesthetic features of such
established artforms as opera and ballet Most recently, film and television have emerged
as important new synaesthetic artforms, and are enjoying growing attention by both artists
and the public as serious aesthetic media.
Aristotle
Historical Thought
The plausibility of a link between the senses was discussed as early as the fourth
century B.C. by Aristotie. He believed that our ability to perceive sensation lies in a
single faculty of perception.
May we not, then, conceive this faculty which perceives white
and sweet to be one qua indivisible in its actualization, but
different, when it has become divisible in its actualization.-^
Aristotle believed that taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell were monitored
simultaneously by this one sense. Individual sensations were combined by the beholder
into the perception of an object (or experience) as a whole.
Newton
Isaac Newton believed that a physical relationship existed between sound and light
and attempted numerous models of his theory in drafts for the Opticks."^ Newton
theorized that, as light and sound share in a basic wave nature, colored light has inherent
physical similarities with musical pitch. He divided the speco^m somewhat arbitr:irily
into seven colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and presented an
analogy to the seven pitches of the diatonic scale. Newton went even further, however,
postulating properties of light based on the principles of acoustics. He asserted that the
ratio of vibrations from extreme red to extreme violet (opposite ends of the spectnim) ;ire
in a 2:1 ratio of the musical octave. However, his calculations proved less conclusive in
other areas, and in the final version of Opticks. Newton abandoned his attempt at
establishing specific ratios for the color spectrum.

Clavicin Oculaire
The first known color music system was put forth in 1734 by a Jesuit priest and
scholar, Louis Bertrand Castel.^ He constructed the clavicin oculaire. or "harpsichord
for the eyes," an instrument which featured an arrangement of colored tapes, attached to a
keyboard, through which light was passed. These tapes were arranged according to the
color spectrum, though Castel did not adopt Newton's details of pitch and color
equivalences. Rhythmic alternations of keys resulted in corresponding changes in the
colored tapes. Historical accounts of the clavicin oculaire suggest that its practical success
was limited, due largely to technological shortcomings of the period.
The Symbolists
The most intense period of artistic interest in synaesthesia occurred from 1880 to
1930, beginning with the Symbolist movement in 1880. The Symbolists, led by
Baudelaire, Rimbaud and others, held the notion that the primary differences among the
related arts were differences only in their physical nature. Art, literature, music and
drama were seen as signifiers of a single type of aesthetic experience. Charles Henry, a
Symbolist artist and philosopher, predicted that man ultimately would develop "one totally
dynamogeneous art."^ This was to be an integrated, synaesthetic experience designed to
affect the viewer not just aesthetically, but in a holistic, restorative sense. Henry
speculated that this experience would probably not even be regarded as aesthetic, but as
some super-mental environment
New synaesthetic combinations were actively explored during this period.
Literature, long an integral element in drama, was combined synaesthetically with color in
Rimbaud's sonnet Les vovelles. in which each vowel was typeset in the color in which it
appeared to him (A black, E white, I red, Q blue, Ii green).^ The Song of Solomon (text
by Paul Roinard, music by Flamen de Labrely), premiered in Paris in 1891, was designed
to engage the senses of sight, sound and smell.^ Described as "a symphony of spiritual
love in eight mystical devices and three paraphrases," the first section featured vocal
recitations of the vowels I and Q, music in the key of D major, bright orange stage
decorations, and the dispensing of the odor of white violet throughout the hall. Each
succeeding scene had its own particular tonality, vowel combination and odor.
Color Organs
By the end of the nineteenth century, scientific advances in the practical application
of electricity made possible the successful constniction of numerous color organs.'^

4
These instruments usually did not produce music, but attempted to translate music into
color patterns by projecting displays of colored Ught onto a screen. Performances on
color organs were essentially visual accompaniments to performances of musical works.
The most celebrated use of the color organ is in Scriabin's orchestral tone poem,
Prometheus: the Poem of Fire (1908-10). The score includes a clavier a luce or
"keyboard of lights," notated in two parts on one staff The lower part functions as an
optical pedal point, indicating the color of the basic background light flooded throughout
the hall. This color changes gradually throughout the work, denoting the spiritual
evolution experienced by listeners of the music. ^^ The upper part is more active,
involving continuous changes in numerous colored spotiights. A new color is indicated
for each tonal center, and the intensity of the lights follows the dynamics of the music.
Film
Film and Television
The medium of film provided early enthusiasts of color music the first practical
means of creating synaesthetic artworks. Adrian Bemard Klein, an important color music
theorist and builder of several color organs, said of the medium in 1937,
It is sufficient to assert here that the colour film seems by far the
most direct method of reahzing nearly everything which had
occurred to the imagination of the pioneers of colour music.
Hardly the fringe of possibihties has been explored. ^^
Klein saw tremendous advantages in film methods over color organ techniques,
including the elimination of expensive and unique equipment, the precise synchronization
of sound, and an ability to reach a large audience easily. He was particularly sensitive to
the medium's tremendous creative potential to artists. Klein proposed numerous
techniques for the making of an "abstract colour film."^*- These included the preparation
of individual colored cells, animating solid models, and handpainting individual frames of
film with colored dyes.
Cinematography has emerged in the twentieth cenuiry as an important and highl\'
popular artform. Significant and diverse contributions exist in the work of Sergei
Eisenstein ^Alexander Nevskv. 1938, score by Sergei Prokofiev), Walt Disney (Fantasia.
1940), Stanley Kubrick fClockwork Orange. 1971) and Francis Ford Coppola
(Apocalypse Now. 1979). Advances continue in the techniques of film production and
presentation, while an ever-expanding audience, through home video and cable television,
insure its continued success and dissemination.

5
Television
Immediacy. Television, like fikn, presents visual artists with design possibilties of
an enormous range and scope. One the most intriguing (and economical) aspects of
videotape is its immediacy: there is no developing process. The tape is simpl\' rewound
and played back. This presents numerous advantages to an artist wishing to work in a
time-based visual medium. Elements can be manipulated quickly and immediately, with
the results recorded and reproduced in far less time and expense than on film. Video and
sound recording both utilize magnetic tape for storage, and are thus easily combined.
Cultural Identity. Over the past thirty years, television has emerged as a medium
with a unique cultural voice. It is totally familiar at all levels of society, and presents a
broad range of aesthetic and social values. The medium has shaped, and is shaped by,
the culture which has created it.
Television is at times a curiously contradictory experience. Key moments in a
fictional dramatic broadcast (such as the death of a loved one, or a profound moment of
personal discovery) segue incongruously into commercials conceming the values of a
low-calorie soft drink or a financial institution. The medium often presents totally
unrelated information simultaneously. Severe weather bulletins, election results and,
even more self-referentially, scheduling changes, electronically crawl across the bottom of
the television screen during programming of any type, from sporting events to talk
shows.
Many aspects of contemporary life are known to us only through the medium of
television. Our understanding and knowledge of the Vietnam war, for example, was
shaped significantly by the fu-st-hand information gathered and broadcast daily by
television news media from 1965-74. Live television coverage of sporting events,
political debates and church services provides viewers with a range and level of
experience previously unavailable through other mass media sources. As an educational
tool, television has significantly enhanced the practical instruction of such diverse subjects
as surgical techniques, home repairs, and pilot training.
Television speaks to our culture through a large vocabulary of familiar symbols and
conventions. heartBEAT not only communicates through these conventions, but
incorporates them as primary design elements of the work. heartBEAT expresses its form
and content through (and as) the presentational aspects of television. Contradictor.'
information, rapid changes in content, mood and tone, and kaleidoscopic sound
sequences call attention to (and thus defamiliarize) the medium, functioning
simultaneously as both presentational devices and elements of content. heanBEAT may

e viewed as being as much about television as any of the other literary, musical or
dramatic themes it presents.

CHAPTER n
STRUCTURAL DIMENSIONS
heartBEAT is a work of television art, integrating the physical aspects of the
television medium witii the symbols through which it speaks to our culture. The work
draws from the related disciphnes of visual design, drama and music in a musico-dramatic
form uniquely designed for (and about) television. Central to the aestiietic of this work is
the presentation of three distinct, yet interpenetrating levels of meaning simultaneously.
Conceptual Levels
Plot-Narrative Level
On its most obvious, plot-narrative level, heartBEAT is the story of a man (MR)
returning home from a long day at the office. He goes to the bathroom and bathes,
shaves and dresses for bed. During these activities, he reflects on his life, his job and his
family. MR goes to bed, falls asleep and dreams.
Psychological Level
As we observe these events, heartBEAT explores a second idea: the process of
thinking. At the beginning of the piece, the Host and the Expert/Contestant discuss
dioughts. Graphics appear which read, "THINK." We see Rodin's The Thinker. The
process of thought is explored through the symbols of thought. In a stream-ofconsciousness
style, MR's thought sequences are presented as montages of both image
and sound. Familiar to the viewer at first, these thoughts become more cryptic as the
work progresses. Symbolic elements (the gun, the head. The Thinker, the car horn, an
elephant playing the harmonica, bells, the telephone) reappear throughout the piece in
new combinations and forms. These symbols eventually arrange themselves as large
patterns of elements from which many possible meanings can be derived.

8
Presentational Level
On a third level, the work concerns the medium of television. Suggestive at limes
of such broadcast conventions as newscasts, dramatic series, gameshows and
advertisements, heartBEAT communicates through the symbols and conventions of
television. These elements range from specific programming and presentational cliches to
the textural aspects of the medium. Texture is observable in television as the rhythmic
effect generated by interuptions in television programming by advertisements, and
includes the rapid editing styles of newscasts, advertisements, sports broadcasts and
music videos. Graphic elements, such as window inserts and character generation, play a
definitive role in the look and tone of television. Even the remote control device has
contributed significantly to the textural aspect of the medium by encouraging
programming changes by the viewer. By rapidly scanning through available
programming, the viewer participates in a significant presentational aspect of television.
Defamiliarization
All of these features represent the "television-ness" of the medium. As a work of
television art, heartBEAT utilizes and exploits the presentational aspects of television.
Both the plot-narrative and the psychological levels of the work are communicated
through the conventions and inherent qualities of the television medium. These
presentational devices are rarely used in a literal way, but are defamiharized through a
variety of structural techniques. Drawing various contextual relationships between
familiar symbols is an important defamiliarizing device used in heartBEAT. Graphics
crawl across the bottom of the screen in the manner of a severe weather bulletin, yet they
read "YOU SPEND 2/3 OF YOUR LIFE IN UNDERWEAR." Larger interplays of
context and convention are incorporated as well. Near the end of the piece, a man (the
Ring Announcer) sits by a music stand, strumming the teetii of a handsaw as if it were a
musical instrument. We hear the strumming of a microionally-tuned harp, while a \ oice
reads:
VOICE
Turn out the lights.
The party's over.
All good things must end.
But, tomorrow...
(chuckle)
The game starts again.

9
Before this recitation ends, the sound of someone knocking loudly on a pane of glass is
followed by the sound of a car crash, as the graphic "WINDOWS WTTHOUT PAINS" is
superimposed. These montages of sound and image do not suggest one particular
meaning or experience, but attempt to present constellations of possible meanings.
The Role of Sound
Television Opera
A significant aesthetic dimension of heartBEAT is the role sound plays in the work.
Rather than serving in an incidental, background role, sound works dynamically with
visual content and style, communicating not only mood and tone, but the pace of the
dramatic action as well. In this respect, heartBEAT resembles opera. In opera, music is
designed to communicate a sung (and often spoken) text, while reinforcing the dramatic
mood and action as well as the symbolic content of the libretto. In heartBEAT. music is
augmented with natural, non-musical sounds and electronically processed speech. This
texture is then combined with sequences of visual images which suggest numerous
musico-dramatic dimensions. Though heartBEAT does not sound or look like traditional
manifestations of opera, the ontological similarities suggest that it may be regarded not
only as a narrative-form music video, but as a television opera as well.
Synaesthetic Elements
The careful coordination of auditory, visual and conceptual design constitutes a
central aesthetic feature of heartBEAT. The synchronization of these elements is
accomplished through a wide variety of structural techniques.
Sound and Visual Edits. Different musical effects were created to reinforce specific
editing techniques. There are musical gestures designed to work with quick edits (the
orchestral hits in Mall Performance One), slow dissolves (the rich synthesizer textures in
the St. SebastianA^enus section), smears (digital effects beneath the fiddle tune as MR and
MS dance), wipes (the record scratch sound during the transition from the Office Dance to
the Star Fantasy), and chromakey effects (the sound montage behind the Star Fantasy).
Leitmotives. heartBEAT incorporates a wide array of acoustic and electronic
sounds used in a leitmotivic fashion, reinforcing the repetition of visual, literary, or
conceptual elements. The most important of these is the "Think" motive, symbolized by
the sound of an automobile hom. This motive appears eleven times in a variety of
contexts. The horn is preceded by a drum roll in the opening of each of the four
"Thoughts," and is heard whenever the word is spoken or presented as a graphic. Other

10
leitmotivic elements include the ticking clock, tiie beating heart, and the opening musical
theme.
Sound Effects. Sound effects play an important role in the soundscore to
heartBEAT. These devices tend to trigger strong associative responses from viewers,
affording them tremendous impact. In heartBEAT. sound effects are presented both in
precise synchronization with visual design (MR shaving, and the robots rolling the large
sphere) and in more loose and subjective ways. For example, the work opens witii a
nineteen-second sound effects montage (crickets, the car hom, a jet airplane landing, an
orchestra tuning up) which swells over a black screen. Though there is a lack of visual
content, attention is aroused in both senses as the viewer looks intently at the screen,
hearing a complex sound sequence but seeing nothing. One is left to provide any number
of possible meanings.
At times, the use of naturalistic sound effects tends to place heartBEAT
momentarily in a frame of reference closely aligned with everyday life. Over the final
credit roll, sound effects convey the wordless narrative of MR waking in the moming,
eating breakfast, getting in the car and driving to work. The viewer leaves the aesthetic
experience of the work by reading information about the piece and listening to a sequence
of namral, "real life" sounds.
Musical Style
The score to heartBEAT is programmatic in form, working closely v,i\h dramatic
action and tone. As with the visual design, the musical style of heartBEAT is eclectic,
drawing from a wide range of historic and ethnic forms. For example, a detuned organ
playing a passage in the Phrygian mode accompanies the stylized visual images of St.
Sebastian and Venus, while a dark, Stravinsky-like orchestral texture accompanies the
bubble gum sequence in Mall Performance One. A samba underscores Mall Performance
Three, while footstep patterns of the samba dance punctuate the visual flow. Rock music
textures accompany the Star Fantasy, while a country fiddle plays under the MR and MS
dance sequence. During the underwear scene and the elevator sequence, one hears
soundscores to television advertisements.
heartBEAT makes use of a wide variety of acoustic as well as electronically
produced sounds. Digital sampUng provides a primary aesthetic and structiu^al resource
of the work, and permeates the duration of the score. Characteristic examples appear in
the Flying Dance, where a sampled slide whistie creates the unusual ethnic flute effect. In
the bath sequence of MS, and during the Spanish Bride scene, samples of a female voice
provide a critical synaesthetic element.

11
The Spoken Text
The spoken text is a combination of dialogue and styhzed poetic treatments. It has
virtually no plot-narrative function. Instead, the text is used to convey the thoughts of
MR and to relate the psychological and presentational aspects of the piece.
There are six speaking parts: MR, MS, Host, Expert/Contestant, Voice and
Chorus. Each of these parts serves a unique dramatic function, often with numerous
contextual dimensions. For example, the Host and Expert/Contestant dialogues suggest
the question and answer sequences one might observe on talk shows or game shows.
However, the content of these brief dialogues concerns the notion of thought.
HOST
Thoughts?
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Thoughts?
HOST
Thoughts.
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Thoughts are cerebral gunshots!
MR, as the main character, actually speaks only one on-camera line in the work.
We observe his spoken part as poetic thought sequences, simple and enigmatic, yet with
their own inner sense of logic:
MR
The head's so thick
Like wood
A forest all my own
But small...
Boxed about
Like a shadow
On the wall.
The Voice speaks through an archetypal television announcer. Lines have peculiar
self-referential qualities, while at the same time bearing a resemblance in tone and content
to a newscast or spoken advertisement.
VOICE
There's only one way
To play it.
It's a wonder
.No one thought of it before.

12
The Chorus resembles free verse in both form and tone. The important Chorus
sections appear during the Line Dance, the Robot Dance, the Flying Dance and the Animal
Dance. The furst letter of each of the key words of these Chorus segments forms the
acronym "SHADOW." The following example is from tiie Line Dance:
CHORUS
Said, said, said, said the Stars.
Said-said, said they
SOOTHINGLY
HAPPILY
ANOlTOvlOUSLY
DARINGLY
OmCLALLY
wicKEDLY
Each of the voice parts were processed electronically in different ways. This
convention contributed signiflcantiy to the particular identities of each voice, and aided in
generating interesting and unexpected musical characteristics from readings of the text.

CHAPTER m
METHODOLOGY AND MATERL\LS
heartBEAT features an electronically produced soundscore, utilizing current
developments in digital sampling, synthesis, and tape synchronization technologies. The
score was composed, performed, engineered and produced by the author at Broadway
Studios, Lubbock, Texas, and is the result of three years of applied study in these related
technologies.
Methodology
The Post-Score Process
The soundscore to heartBEAT was post-scored, or prepared after the visual portion
of the artwork was complete. This allowed for considerable flexibility in sound design
and aided in a more complementary musical contribution to the overall dramatic tone of
the piece.
Background. The post-score process is used widely in preparing audio for film
and television. This method saves producers and directors valuable time when in the
field filming or shooting a work, as critical attention can be shifted away from audio
elements during the filming process. Aesthetically, post-scoring allows for visual design
to remain the primary interpretive vehicle of the script. Music and sound can then be used
to provide subjective reinforcement to dramatic form.
Working Method. In preparing the soundscore, individual scenes were viewed
repeatedly until the visual tone and dramatic content suggested a musical or auditor.'
setting. While watching the screen, music was initially improvised until specific musical
dimensions of the section (tempo, key, and themes) were determined. A click track at the
chosen tempo was then gridded against subsequent playings of the scene. Visual edits,
graphic elements and spoken text could thus be converted into musical time, appearing in
relationship to specific measures, beats, and subdivisions of beats. The primary
13

compositional technique involved modifying and building musical ideas around the
occurrence of specific visual cues which had been converted into musical time.
14
Tape Synchronization
A significant techiucal dimension of the heartBEAT soundscore was the
synchronization of sound and image. Audio and video portions of the work had to
remain physically synchronized during all stages of score preparation. This was
accomplished through the use of SMPTE time code. SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture
and Television Engineers) is an audio signal in which bits of data arranged in a sequence
of hours, seconds, minutes, frames, and subframes are encoded.
The use of SMPTE time code synchronization in heartBEAT was an integral part of
the production process. A time code stripe, previously recorded onto one of the audio
channels of the videotape, was duplicated onto one of the sixteen tracks of audio tape. A
time code synchronizer monitored and compared the two signals, sending servo
instructions to the capstan motor of the slave machine (in this case, the Fostex E-16)
locking it with the video deck with a measurable acciu^cy of 1/300 of a second.
The Fostex synchronization system contains chase and lock features, automatic
record punch-in and punch-out, the setting of play-to-park values, and numerous other
SMPTE-based functions. By using the foldback feature of the synchronizer (essentially a
time-code "thru" jack) the time code stripe on either the audio or \ ideo tapes can be used
to synchronize any code-based device.
Computer Music Systems
The preparation of the score to heartBEAT made use of numerous developments in
computer music technology. These developments are currently in an industry-wide stage
of rapid growth, with new hardware and software improvements occurring continuously.
As background work surrounding the project spanned a three-year period, the production
of heartBEAT was characterized by the use of numerous generations of music hardware
and software.
For example, the Kurzweil 250, a digital sampling synthesizer which ser\'ed as a
centerpiece of sound design in heartBEAT. underwent two software updates (Versions
1.0 and 2.0) during the early stages of the project. This particular unit was eventually
sold in February, 1988 and replaced by the newly developed Kurzweil 250 RMX
(Version 4.1). Sequencing software was initially limited to the Kurzweil's internal
sequencer. This system was eventually replaced by Southworth Music's Midi Pa int. a
software-based sequencer for the Apple Macintosh. This software offered numerous

improvements over the Kurzweil system, including graphic editing capabilities and a
direct time code lock witii video.
15
Materials
Figure 1 below contains a comprehensive list of equipment used in the preparation
of the heartBEAT score. Extensive technical information is available in manuals and
related articles (see References), and no attempt is made here at a further contribution to
this area.
Structure
Musical Form
heartBEAT is a programmatic work, and numerous structural parameters were
pre-determined by the visual portion of the artwork. For example, the lengths of
individual sections, as well as the length of the entire piece, were fixed constants when
compositional efforts began.
The overall musical form was derived from the inherent structural dimensions of
the video. Upon examining the video for structure, it became evident that a clear musical
form was suggested: a prelude (exposition) is followed by four discrete, yet inten-elated
inner movements (development). A closing section (recapitulation) leads directiy into a
coda.
Stmcmral Divisions
Figure 2 below lists individual scenes and their respective lengths in seconds. This
Hst also represents divisions in musical form.

Sound Generating Devices
Kurzweil 250 and 250 RMX
Yamaha TX7
Yamaha TX416
Yamaha 8IZ
Yamaha RX5
Roland D50
Keyboard Controllers
Kurzweil 250
Yamaha KX88
Recorders
Soundcraft SCM 380 (24-track)
Fostex E-16 (16-track)
Revox (2-track)
Otari 5050 Series m (2-track)
Consoles
SoundWorkshop Series 30 (28-channel)
Fostex 450 (16-channel)
Processing Devices
Yamaha SPX90n
Yamaha Rev 7
Eventide Harmonizer H949
Video Deck
Sony 5850
Synchronization Equipment
Fostex 4030 Synchronizer
Fostex 4035 Synchronizer Controller
Southworth Music's Jambox/4
Computers and Software
Apple Macintosh 512K and MacPlus
Southworth Music's MidiPaint (ver. 1.0
Opcode's DX/TX Patch Librarian and Editor
Kurzweil Music Systems' Macattach (ver. 2.0) and OLS
16
Figure 1. A List of Equipment Used in the Preparation of the heartBEAT
Soundscore.

17
Microphones
Neuman U87
ShureSM81
Monitors
JBL 4406, 4408
Yamaha NS10
Amplifiers
Crown D-75
Figure 1 (cont.)

Prelude
(Exposition)
Movement One
(Development)
Movement Two
Movement Three
Movement Four
20
04
40
19
10
23
21
02
37
13
13
06
51
07
14
15
35
14
:41
:14
:09
:15
:11
:11
:13
:53
:25
:40
:16
.31
22
36
13
36
Intro (over black)
heartBEAT (tide)
Credits
MR in Car (Host and Expert/Contestant)
Driveway; LATE
MR in Bathroom (Mirror Performances)
Office Dance
MR in Minor
Star Fantasy
MR in Bathroom
Hostage Scene
Underwear
MR Bathes
FOUR THOUGHTS
MR Shaving
THINK #1
Mall Performance One
Huntress
Line Dance
Lab Technician and Intertitie
MR in Bathroom
THINK #2
Mall Performance Two
Ring Announcer
Telephone Girl
Robot Dance
Elevator Woman and Intertitie
MR in Bathroom
THINK #3
Mall Performance Three
St. Sebastian and Venus
Rying Dance
Spanish Bride and Intertitie
MS Batiies
18
List of Structural Divisi ons' Witiiin heartBEAT

Closing Section
(Recapitulation)
Cpd^
:06
:24
:18
:21
:41
:16
:27
:24
:35
:15
:24
:38
1:23
18:50
THINK #4
Mall Performance Four
Boy and Girl
Fishing
Animal Dance
Man with Saw and Intertitie
MR and MS In Bedroom
MR and MS Sleep
Hostage Nightmare
Starchild Dream
Dream of Adam and Eve
MR and MS/ THINK
Credit Roll
TOTAL LENGTH
19
Figure 2 (cont.)

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSIONS
In the author's survey of artworks of this kind, it is evident that the often superb
conceptualization and execution of visual design in television art has not always matched
with an equal attentiveness to sound design. This has been due largely to technological
limitations. Until recentiy, tape synchronization technologies were expensive capabilities
to support, and were thus largely unavailable to projects with limited budgets. The advent
of computer music technology has made the creation of large and complex soundscores a
logistic and economic possibility as well, affording composers and producers total,
flexible control of a synchronized musical score.
The creation of a carefully designed and executed soundscore was a primary
objective in heartBEAT. Considerable attention was addressed to the engineering and
production aspects of the work. As a result, noise levels have been kept to an appreciabl>
low level, and the final mix is characterized by the careful balance and placement of
sounds in a 180-degree stereo spectrum.
heartBEAT will be submitted for broadcast presentation in the United States and
Europe, for closed-circuit presentation in museums and galleries, as well as to major
festivals and competitions. At this writing, the piece has been submitted to tiie Houston
International Film and Video Competition and the Third Coast Music Project in San
Antonio, Texas. Efforts are currently being conducted to arrange for a private release of
heartBEAT on VHS, Beta and audio cassette formats.
20

ENDNOTES
^ Lowrie, R. H., "Psychology and Sociology," American Journal of Sociology.
VoL21, 1915,p. 229.
^ WTieeler, Raymond, The Synaesthesia of a BHnd Subject with Comparative Data
from an Asvnaesthetic Blind Subject (Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Press,
1921), p. 94.
3 DeSensu. 449a 12-14.
^ The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton, ed. Alan Shapiro (Cambridge: University
Press, 1984) VoL 1, p. 546-47.
^ "Colour and Music," The New Oxford Companion to Music, ed. Denis Arnold
(Oxford: University Press, 1983), Vol. 1, p. 425.
^ IM., p. 424.
' Klein, Adrian Bemard, Coloured Light: An Art Medium (London: The
Technical Press, Ltd., 1937), p. 243.
° Arguelles, Jose A., Charles Henrv and the Formation of a Psychophysical
Aesthetic (Chicago: University Press, 1972), p. 156.
" "Color and Music," The New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Ed.
Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980) Vol. 4, p. 585.
^^ Fabian Bowers, in the preface to Alexander Scriabin's Prometheus: The Poem of
Fire. Op. 60 (London: Ernst Eulenberg, 1980) p. V
11 Klein, p. XIX.
12 Ibid., p. XXIX
21

REFERENCES
Television Artworks
Primary Sources
Berry. Judith. Mu-age (1985). 14 minutes.
Bienvenue, Marcella. Frustrations of a Rock Fan (1984). 16 minutes.
Davidovich, Jaime. Saludos Amigos: Dr. Videovich Goes To Texas (1984).
25 minutes.
Herschmann, Lynn. Loma (1984). 14 minutes.
Smith, Kim. Spotless (1984). 1 minute.
Smith, Michael. Go For It. Mike! (1984). 3 minutes
Yonemoto, Bruce and Norman. Vault (1984). 14 minutes.
Broadcast Media Sources
Alive from Off Center. Public Broadcasting System. Half-hour program.
Arts and Entertainment Channel. Various programming.
Music Television. 24-hour broadcast of music videos.
Nightflight. USA Network. One hour program featuring music videos and other
electronically synesthetic artworks.
Sound Recordings
Periodicals
Kneupper, David. Muad'dib (1986). 17 minutes. 1/4 inch, two-track stereo.
15 ips.
. Trojan Women (1986). 40 minutes. 1/4 inch, two-track stereo.
15 ips.
Secondary Sources
In a field characterized by rapid and continous changes in essential technology,
periodicals gain an important significance as technical references and user forums. Digital
audio technology has generated a number of well-written and researched periodicals
which address new developments in product use and programming. A major inclusion in
this periodical bibliography is the monthly publication. Keyboard. This magazine has
22

23
regular columns and features by leading specialists in all keyboard instruments, from the
piano, organ and harpsichord to the latest in digital keyboards. Performance practice,
programming and technical information , and product development constitute primar\'
editorial thrusts. A useful and readily-obtainable reference, information gleaned from
this and related periodical resources proved invaluable in this study.
Aikin, Jim. 1985. "Digital Sampling Keyboards: What's Available, How They
Work and Why They're Hot." Keyboard 11(12): 76-94.
Blesser, Barry A. 1979. "Digitation of Audio." Journal of the Audio Engineering
Society. 18(10): 146-193.
Bruin, Herbert. 1985. "Volume, the Tyranny of the Beat, Mating Video With
Audio, and Improvisation vs. Originality." Keyboard 11(12): 8.
Byrd, Donald and C. Yavelow. 1985. "The Kurzweil 250 Digital Synthesizer."
Computer Music Journal 10(1): 64-94.
CasaBianca, Lou. 1984. "Computer Primer." Mix 8(5): 38-41.
Cooper, Jim. 1986. "Clearing the Air Surrounding the MIDI Spec." Keyboard
12(7): 80-87.
. 1986. "Data Transmission, Mixing and Filtering." Keyboard 11(12):
104-105.
1986. "Using MIDI To Send and Receive SMPTE Time Code."
Keyboard 12(7): 130-133
De Furia, Steve. 1986. "Digital Envelope Generators." Keyboard 12(3): 88-89.
.1986. "Track Offsets Can Solve Timing Problems." Keyboard
12(8): 114-115.
Dilberto, John. 1986. "The Electro-Acoustic World of Philip Glass." Electronic
Musician 2(10): 35-40.
Doerschuk, Bob. 1985. "The Piano: Can It Survive in the Electronic Age?"
Keyboard 11(12): 76-94.
Fryer, Terry. 1986. "Allocating Memory for Multisamples." Keyboard
12(7): 126.
. 1986. "Better Samples Through Equalization." Keyboard 12(9): 123.
1986. "ControlUng Aliasing by Filtering and Half-Speed Mastering."
Keyboard 12(4): 102
. 1986. "How to Clean Up Your Signals Before They Reach Your
Sampler." Keyboard 12(6): 135.

. 1986. "More Distortion Solutions." Keyboard 12(5): 106-107.
24
. 1986. "Sample Transposition." Keyboard 12(8): 119
. 1986. "Selecting Sampling Rates." Keyboard 12(3): 82-83.
Fryer, T. and D. Milano. 1986. "Outboard Gear: Magic Boxes for Paintins
Sound in a Thousand Colors." Keyboard 12(6): 72-86.
Greenwald, Ted. 1986. "Keyboards in the Professional Studio." Keyboard
12(6): 64-86.
. 1986. "The Synclavier Phenomenon." Keyboard 12(4): 48-59.
Joe, RadcliffeA. 1984. "Computers in the Studio." Mix 8(5): 34-37.
Klapholz, Jesse. 1986. "Synchronizers for Beginners." Music and Sound
Output 6(11): 14-16.
Kneupper, David. 1985. "The Kurzweil 250: Digital Sampling Synthesis is Alive
and Well (and Living in West Texas!)." West Texas Music News 3(6): 5.
Lanser, B. and D. Milano. 1986. "A Simplified Guide to Specs, Levels and Tape
Formats." Keyboard 12(6): 43-56.
and . 1986. "Secrets of Syncing." Keyboard 12(6): 94-104.
Lowrie, R. H. 1915. "Psychology and Sociology," American Journal of
Sociology. Vol 21.
Nathan, Bobby. 1986. "MIDI Tricks." Keyboard 12(7): 122-123.
1986. "Using Compression and Limiting With Keyboards." Keyboard
11(12): 102-103.
Nazarian, Bruce. 1986. "A User's Guide to Triggering Sampled Sounds." Mix
10(6): 110-115.
. 1985. "In Sync: Computerized Productions." Mix 9(6): 58-60.
Oppenheimer, Larry. 1986. "Sampling Primer, Part 1." Mix 10(5): 56-70.
. 1986. "Sampling Primer, Part 2." Mix 10(6): 54-62.
. 1985. "Synthesizer Oriented Studios" Mix 9(6): 18-24.
Pohlmann, Ken. 1984. "Audio Applications: Synchronization." Mix 8
(4):42-46.
Stewart, Dave. 1986. "Using Synthesizers Effectively As Bass Instruments."
Keyboard 12(5): 28-29.

Books and Scores
25
Manuals
Appia, Adolphe. Music and the Art of Theatre. Coral Gables: The University of
Miami Press, 1962.
Arguelles, Jose A. Charles Henry and the Formation of a Psychophysical
Aesthetic. Chicago: University Press. 1972.
Beardsley, Monroe. Aesthetics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1981.
Busoni, Ferruccio. The Essence of Music, trans.by Rosamond Ley. London:
Rockliff, 1957.
The Complete Works of Aristotie. Edited by Jonatiian Barnes. Princeton, NJ:
University Press, 1972.
Gombrich, E. H. Art and Illusion. Princeton, NJ: University Press, 1961.
Janson, H. W. History of Art. 2nd ed. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc., 1962.
Klein, Adrian Bemard. Coloured Light: An Art Medium. 3rd edition. London:
Technical Press, Ltd., 1937.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie.
London: Macmillan Publishers, Ltd., 1980.
The New Oxford Companion to Music. Edited by Denis Arnold. Oxford:
University Press, 1983.
The Optical Papers of Isaac Newton. Edited by Alan Shapiro. Cambridge:
University Press, 1984.
Scriabin, Alexander. Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Op. 60. London: Ernst
Eulenberg, 1980.
Swanston, Hamish F. G. In Defence of Opera. New York: Penguin Books,
1978.
Swan, Alfred J. Scriabin. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969.
Tambling, Jeremy. Opera. Ideology and Film. New York: St. Martin's Press,
1987.
Three Classics in the Aesthetic of Music. New York: Dover Publications, 1962.
Wheeler, Raymond. The Synaesthesia of a Blind Subject with Comparative Data
from an Asvnaesthetic Blind Subject. Eugene, Oregon: University of
Oregon Press, 1921.
dhx 160X: Preliminary Manual. Newton, MA: dbx, Inc., 1980.
Fostex 4030/4035 Owner's Manual. Norwalk, CA: Fostex Corp., 1987.

Jambox/4 Owner's Manual. Harvard, Massachusetts: Southworth Music Systems,
Inc., 1987.
Kurzweil 250 Operator's Manual. Waltham, Massachusetts: Kurzweil Music
Systems, Inc., 1986.
Midipaint Owner's Manual. Harvard, Massachusetts: Southworth Music Systems,
Inc., 1987.
Yamaha KX88 Owner's Manual. Hamamatzu, Japan: Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.,
1985.
Yamaha RX5 Owner's Manual. Hamamatzu, Japan: Nippon Gakki co. Ltd.,
1987.
Yamaha TX7 Owner's Manual. Hamamatzu, Japan: Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.,
1985.
Yamaha TX 816 Owner's Manual. Hamamatzu, Japan: Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd.,
1984.
26

APPENDED A: SPOKEN TEXT
AND GRAPHIC OVERLAYS
The following is the script used in preparing the soundscore to heartBEAT. It
contains the spoken text, graphic overlays and brief stage directions. The script is
presented here in a slightiy modified form. Changes have been limited to the stage
directions, and were made to more accurately reflect the final version of the work.
heartBEAT
written by Kim Smith
Voice Characters
MR
MS
Chorus
Host
Expert/Contestant
Voice
Flashing title, alternating red and white, three times:
heart
BEAT
Cascade of automobile headlights with opening credits superimposed. FoUovved by
MR at the wheel, driving home. Passing lights cause face to flash on and off Over
music, a cross between a talk show and a game show. A man's voice serves as the host,
a woman's voice as the expert/contestant's.
HOST
Thoughts?
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Thoughts?
27

HOST
Thoughts.
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Thoughts are cerebral gunshots I
28
Car pulls into driveway and lights go out. Over black, the word:
LATE
MR in bathroom. Does several mirror perfonnances.
MR
Yesterday...
Today...
Tommorrow.
He stops and thinks about work.
Office Dance. The graphic "Taking Stock," paper shuffling, etc. Returns abruptiy
to MR in bathroom, leaning into mkror.
MR
I should have been a star.
Star Fantasy: MR as a TV star, scholar, rock star, boxer, and jet fighter ace. MR
then sees himself in the public eye only by being held hostage.
MR
My moment of fame!
Superimposed text crawls over hostage scene:
YOU SPEND 2/3 OF YOUR LIFE IN. . .
UNDERWEAR.
MR's underpants fall to floor. Turns on bathtub faucet.
Bath Dance. Followed by close-up of comb passing through hair, with a
sumpcrimposed '?" dissolving into a superimposed "I". Fade to black. Intertitie:

29
4 THOUGHTS
MR shaving. Classical head appears with the word "think," then a gun and the
number "1" followed by the tiiinker. An image of MR's head appears with "OPAQUE
OBJECT" superimposed.
MR
The head's so thick
Like wood
A forest all my own
But small...
Boxed about
Like a shadow
On the wall.
Mall Performance One: Bubble Gum
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Thinking...is invisible.
But subject to inflationary cycles.
HOST
And speech?
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Beautiful...bubbling...breath.
HOST
Very good!
Huntress drawing bow.
HOST
A single word?
MR as Starchild. Superimposed text:
AT A LOSS.

30
HOST
A single word?
Hand holding telephone. Superimposed text:
FOR WORDS.
A bride.
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
A single string...
Plucked
Like a chord.
Line Dance.
CHORUS
Said, said, said, said the Stars.
Said-said, said they
SOOTHINGLY
HAPPILY
ANONYMOUSLY
DARINGLY
OFHCIALLY
WICKEDLY
Lab technician with lightbulb.
VOICE
A grievance will be filed
We're suprised.

That's all.
Just real surprised.
31
Intertitie:
THE SEARCH FOR A PERFECT LIGHT
Man examines freshly washed hands. Robot Head followed by gun, numbers, and
tiiinker. MR's hand defamiliarized with "RAGING ROSES" superimposed.
MR
The hand's flat
Like a wallet
A furrowed field
Arid
And clean.
Mall Performance Two: Bowing Noses
CHORUS
The nose knows no rest.
The finger no pause
Action,
And reaction...
The Newtonian Laws.
Ring announcer, holding microphone.
HOST
I'm sorry,
Your time is up.
"Actions speak louder than words."
EXPERT/CONSTESTANT
Of course!

Telephone girl with graphic superimposed:
32
SEEING IS...
BELIEVING
Robot Dance.
CHORUS
Said, said, said, said the Comet
Said-said, said he
SOBERLY
HEATEDLY
APOLOGETICALLY
DIVEN-EL-Y
OFFHANDEDLY
WASPISHLY
Woman with building on fire.
VOICE
There's only one way
To play it.
It's a wonder
No one thought of it before.
Superimpose text:
AN ULTIMATE LUXURY
EASY COME...
EASY GO

MR in batiiroom, checking the pulse in his neck witii a watch.
33
MS
May I come in?
MR clips his fingernails.
Sure!
MR
MR probes chest with his fingers. Woman's head followed by gun, numbers, and
tiiinker. MR's chest defamiliarized with "CLUTCH PURSE" superimposed.
MR
The heart-pump thumps
Like a drum.
Clasping thorns...
And tokens of lasting affection.
Mall Performance Three: Matches
CHORUS
DEEP DEVOTION
So E-Z emotion
A match-maker's dream
A pair
Exhaling worlds in a steady stream
Breathing each others air.
St. Sebastian/Venus with "Talk Show/Game Show" television sound overlay.
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Tossing the question back to you...
Picture "LOVE."

HOST
Well...
Living stereo,
A binocular view...
34
Flying Dance.
CHORUS
Said, said, said, said the Moon
Said-said, said she
SEVERELY
HEADILY
ABSENTMESIDEDLY
DOUBTFULLY
OPTIMISTICALLY
WISTFULLY
Spanish bride.
VOICE
She, too
Reveals her thoughts.
In order
To be sure of them.
Superimpose text:
BEHIND THE MASK
WHERE MEMORIES REGISTER

35
Tub Dance. MS bathes. MR helps MS from the tub. An animal's head appears,
followed by the gun, numbers, and thinker.
Mall Performance Four: Saran Wrap
CHORUS
SALIVA FIRE
Moist, seesaw desire
Birtii
Deatii
Sex
And Money,
Pushing the envelope
Breaking the barrier.
Boy and girl necking on the couch.
CHORUS
PLEASURE
PLEASURE
Heartbeat treasure
Silhouettes on the shade
MR and MS night fishing.
HOST
On a more serious note...
Tissue.
EXPERT/CONTESTANT
Shadow,
From inflammatory depths...
Starlit bodies
Stuttering pleasure
Without measure.

Animal Dance.
36
CHORUS
Said, said, said, said the Sun
Said-said, said he
SILENTLY
HEARTILY
AMBIDEXTROUSLY
DISTANTLY
OPENLY
WANTONLY
Ring Announcer seated with saw.
VOICE
Tum out the lights.
The party's over.
All good thing must end.
But, tomorrow
(chuckle)...
The game starts again.
Superimpose text:
WINDOWS WITHOUT PAINS
Couple gets into bed, falls asleep. MR then has nightmare about ideas held hostage
by one another. He sees himself as the "starchild" at crossroads. He then witnesses
himself as a primitive Adam. Finally, the faces of MR and MS dissolve into one another,
slowly.

Trading lines.
Graphic:
MR&MS
Witii stars
And space above
And time
And stars below
Watch us
Wiggle
Watch us
Glow.
THINK...
THINK...
THINK...
(cancellation sign)
SINK
37
Slow fade to black. Credits roll over black.

APPENDK B: OPENING REMARKS AT
THE PREMIERE PERFORMANCE
heartBEAT received its first public performance on March 24, 1988 in Hemmle
Recital Hall, Texas Tech University, Lubbock. A large laser projection system and stereo
sound reinforcement were installed for the presentation. The program featured two other
television artworks, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto's Vault, and Michael Smith's Go For
It. Mike!, which were produced in 1984 by TV on TV.
Introductory remarks were given by Edna Glenn and Sara Waters, both from the
Department of Art, Texas Tech University, and by Kim Smith and the author. The
following script was prepared by Kim Smith.
SARA
Good evening. I'm Sara Waters.
EDNA
And I'm Edna Glenn. We'd like to welcome you to the premiere of heartBEAT.
SARA
To begin the evening, we'd like to tell you a littie bit about the TV on TV series,
and to show two previous works that were produced as part of this series.
EDNA
TV on TV. originated four years ago as a project designed to explore a new area
that some were beginning to call "television art." Of course, for many, the two terms,
"television" and "art," have absolutely nothing to do with one another. We might keep in
mind, however, that neither photography nor film were considered proper art media when
they were first invented. Photography was merely the poor man's painting and film the
poor man's theatre. What transformed each of these so called "non-art" media into the
stuff out of which great art could be created, was the discovery that each of these media
had an expressive potential quite different from any other. Thus, photography found its
"voice" in something called "straight photography" while the invention of montage gave
birth to the art of film.
38

39
SARA
This brings us back to TV. Does it have a distinctive voice? When we watch a
classic ftim on TV, we view it in terms of the art of film. When we view an opera or a
theatrical production on TV, we view them in terms of the art of opera and theatre. Why
not, then, view TV in terms of its own expressive potential? Instead of ftim on TV, opera
on TV, or tiieatre on TV, why not...TV on TV?
EDNA
In answer to that question, in the spring of 1984, seven nationally known video
artists were invited to spend three weeks on the Tech campus. Here they were assisted by
faculty, students and members of the surrounding community, in the creation of six short
"made for television" works. The guidelines given these artists were quiet simple: the
work had to exploit and reveal the "televisioness" of television, and it had to do so while
employing the images and mythologies characteristic of Texas.
SARA
The seven artists were: Lynn Hershman from San Francisco, who produced
Loma.
EDNA
Jaime Davidovich, from New York City, who produced Saludos Amigos: Dr.
Videovich Goes to Texas.
SARA
Marcella Bienvenue from Calgary, Canada, who taped but did not complete.
Frustrations of a Rock Fan.
EDNA
Judith Barry from New York City, who produced Mirage.
SARA
Michael Smith from New York City, who produced Go For It. Mike!
EDNA
And Bruce and Norman Yonemoto from Los Angeles, who produced
Vault. We will see these last two works this evening.
SARA
The first work we will show is Vault. This work exploits the format of the TV
soap-opera to tell the story of a love affair between a male artist and a female pole-vaulter.
We follow this pair from their initial mutual attraction to their eventual separation. In so
doing, the story mixes melodrama and cliche with flat, philosophical statements.
Symptomatically, then, the title, Vault, contains several contradictory notions.
Hollywood mythology, as embodied in the history of film, is preserved in the safety of

40
tile "vault." A "vault" is also a sort of tomb or grave, such as the one into which you will
see the boy's mother placed-a kind of Freudian repository.
obstacle.
EDNA
And, of course, there is the act of "vaulting," as in vaulting over or past some
Ladies and gentlemen....Vault.
SARA
(Vault screened)
EDNA
A footnote. Among its many honors. Vault won the highest award among 246
American entries at the 7tii Annual Tokyo Video Festival. In fact, Vault has been so
successful that the Yonemoto brothers have been able to secure major financial backing
for a feature-length film to be called Made in Hollywood. Shooting is expected to begin
this summer in L.A.
SARA
Changing the pace qiute a bit, our next work is a "rock video"...Michael Smith's
Go For It Mike! In this work. Smith achieves a tone of what might be called "affirmative
irony," as he explores the sometimes silly, sometimes sublime pioneering spirit we
associate with the settling of the West. An example of such "affirmative irony" is found
in the soundtrack, which the artist describes as a cross between ZZ Top and Up With
People.
EDNA
Go For It Mike! has been well received, as indicated by its winning the
Video/Culture Canada award in 1985 for best independentiy produced music video.
Now. Go For It Mike!
(Go For It Mike! screened)
EDNA
And now, the featured work of the evening, tiie premiere of heartBEAT. And, to
intoduce it, the writer and producer of heartBEAT. Kim Smith...
SARA
and David Kneupper, who created the soundscore.
KIM
Thank you.

41
DAVID
Thank you.
KIM
As some of you know, heartBEAT began a little over two years ago, in Febmary of
'86, when David and I had agreed in principle to do a short, dramatic work linking music
and video. As I worked over the next several months on a script to present David with, a
number of ideas remained central. One was the simple phrase that served as the
cornerstone for this work: "Thoughts are cerebral gunshots." Another was the notion of
some kind of play or simple oscillation between opposites, such as between light and
dark, masculine and feminine, the commonplace and the extraordinary.
DAVID
Perhaps the most obvious central idea is a purely formal one. The flow of images
in heartBEAT is set within an overall structure that can best be described as musical.
There is a prelude, four movements (the "4 Thoughts"), a conclusion, and coda. Thus,
heartBEAT might be described as a "music drama," a "long-form" or "narrative-form
music video", a "mini-opera" or, since the look and feel of television is prominentiy
featured, a "television opera."
KIM
Anyway, I presented David with the script later that spring, and he agreed to
prepare the soundscore. In January of 1987, we taped heartBEAT in the watercolor
studio of the Art Building. We had temporarily transformed the room, between
semesters, into a television studio. It was there that some 50 of us spent 10 long
production days. And, in November of 1987,1 was able to present David with the final
edited version of heartBEAT for which he could, in earnest, begin to prepare a
soundscore. David, it is now your story.
DAVID
The soundscore to heartBEAT was prepared over a five month period at Broadway
Studios in Lubbock in a suite specifically designed for preparing audio for video. The
work is a pioneering effort in electronic synaesthesia, and attempts to engage the eyes and
ears simultaneously with a single aesthetic presentation.
KIM
Without making this sound too much like the academy awards, at least not just yet,
we'd like to thank a number of individuals who made this project possible. First of all,
I'd like to thank the Chairman of the Art Department, Terry Morrow, who provided
encouragement and the initial funding support of heartBEAT. We'd both like to thank the

Dean of the Graduate School, Clyde Hendrick for his early, consistent, and very
substantial support.
DAVID
We'd also like to thaiik the Dean of Arts & Sciences, Joe Goodin, and Associate
Dean Jane Winer for their very timely support, as well as the Fine Arts Doctoral
Committee, Chaired by Associate Graduate Dean Tom Langford. I'd like to express my
personal thanks to my partners, Craig Alderson, Bruce Alderson and Wally Moyers for
allowing me to work on the piece while our equipment busily depreciated. I wish to
thank Dr. Mary Jeanne van Appledom for seven years of unflagging enthusiasm and
gracious support. And last, I'd like to thank my wife Nancy, who, as well as being a
terrific artist's wife, was a highly-cooperative aesthetic guinea pig, spending many patient
hours in front of a microphone while I adjusted knobs and faders.
KIM
As you will see when the credits roll, there are many people deserving of thanks.
Some of these deserving of special thanks, however, are: Rudy Alvarado and Carol
Brannan for their excellent performances during long hours before the camera; Angela
Heath, my assistant producer, for her professionalism and longterm dedication to the
project; Duane Conder, for his unflagging assistance and creative input on the special
effects; Cherie Miner, Bob Mosier, and Jim Meek as "Assistant Assistant Producers"
who saw when things needed doing and saw to it that they got done; Dana Gloege, for
his super job organizing, designing, and overseeing the physical production; J.E.
Masters for his superb work as casting director and drama coach; Mark Fischer for his
thoroughly excellent camera work; David Underwood, station manager a KLBK-TV,
Channel 13, for allowing me to use the station's computer graphics equipment to produce
graphics for heartBEAT; Louise Underwood for making tonight's premiere possible on
tills scale; and, finally, Edna Glenn and Sara Waters for introducing the program tonight.
Now, at long last, heartBEAT.
42