Tempo Visualization
2018
Tempo defines the performing speed of a work and appears as instruction at its beginning (or at the beginning of a section within). It is measured in beats per minute (bpm) and is usually accompanied by a term prescribing the art and speed of execution (e.g. allegro, largo, etc.).
> Precedent / Inspirational work #1
Found in OpenProcessing.
> Precedent / Inspirational work #2
Stills and legend from Wind Map, © Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg.
Visual material used with permission.
First experiment
Getting inspired from the example “Wind is blowing” above, I used the pattern of parallel wavy lines in an experiment to compare different speeds between different music sections. I brought the thin lines closer to each other and I assumed each one represented an instrument or voice. On this basis I produced the following animations, which showcase different tempos of three 5-instrument sections (there are 5 lines in each animation). The animations are arranged from fast to slow:
Second experiment
Based on the Wind Map by F. Viegas and M. Wattenberg, I came up with a Processing sketch, which listed 9 hypothetical works of different tempos (s. animation below). In this hypothesis some works had multiple tempos in their course (creating different sections, as depicted by the vertical white lines). The sketch was finalized in an interactive way (GUI), so that one could create different speeds / sections, in order to get a better idea of how a tempo browsing interface would look like.