Mediating elements. Structure
One of the main elements I used to mediate between the food and the music in the experiments was structure. This was partly inspired by the commentary Pierre Boulez made about the paintings that Paul Klee made using musical elements, namely “that the two worlds have unique characteristics and that parallels between them can only be drawn on a structural level” (as cited in Mulder, 2015, p. 67).
Experiment 1
For the first experiment, I used crossmodal correspondences between basic tastes and different musical parameters to match the music and the food (this is explained in greater detail in the section Mediating elements. Crossmodal correspondences). It was important for me to have clear contrasts in both the music and between the taste of the different dishes that would be served. For this reason, I made the food considering that each dish would show a distinct balance between the four different basic tastes (umami was only considered as a balancing element when cooking these dishes, but not in the matching with the music, since it was not taken into account in the different studies on crossmodal correspondences I used as a source). A schematic representation of the approximate degree of presence of each basic taste in each dish is shown below in the graphic. The values in this graphic are depicted as continuous instead of discrete to represent how the music was meant to gradually transition from one dish to the next.
This allowed me to outline certain characteristics of the music that should accompany each dish. For instance, the first dish had a very pronounced acidic element, whereas the third one was predominantly sweet. Therefore, I organised the musical material so that the material corresponding to acidity would be very present during the first dish, and would then progressively leave more space for the material corresponding to sweetness. Inversely, the material corresponding to sweetness would become increasingly present from the first dish to the third. The second dish functioned in this sense as a transition between the first and third, with a higher degree of sweetness and a much lower degree of acidity in it than the first. The materials corresponding to bitterness and saltiness were treated in a similar way. Between the different dishes, a musical interlude would anticipate the gradual disappearance of certain basic tastes and the increase of others. (More information on the music composed for this experiment can be found in the section The music.)
From a technical perspective, the proportion between the different musical materials was managed in a very simple way. For each of the dishes, each of the instruments was assigned certain musical gestures corresponding to each basic taste. Following the order presented in the tables below, the performers would have to repeat the materials as many times as needed until the audience had finished eating. (These tables are taken from the score for Experiment 1, which can be found in Appendix 2.)
When taking into account the length of each of these materials, their relative presence in terms of dynamic, and the number of times they were repeated over the time span during which the audience ate the corresponding dish, the proportion between them roughly corresponded to the proportion between the different basic tastes in each of the dishes.
Experiment 2
For the second experiment, I decided to try a different approach. In the feedback from the first experiment, several participants had mentioned that they found the first dish very puzzling, and that drawing parallels between the food and the music became easier as the experiment continued. This made me think that the learning curve could be reduced by offering very simple dishes and music that would gradually become more complex. Since I had decided that my focus for the second experiment would be on texture, I decided to make one complex dish featuring three texturally distinctive elements. These elements would be eaten by the audience one by one, while the two performers played music that would match each of them, consisting of a very clear musical texture. Between the different eating moments, the music would gradually melt into the new texture, anticipating the culinary texture the audience would experience next. After introducing the third textural element by itself, the first two musical textures would gradually be layered on top of the first, creating a complex musical object which, when established, would remain more or less stable while the audience ate the three culinary textures together in one dish.
On a different level, each of the simple textures represented an increase in chewiness from the previous. The first dish was a foam, which required no chewing; the second was a chip, the crunchiness of which would require a little, but not too much, chewing; the third was a flatbread, which required quite a lot of chewing. This progression occurred in the music as well, in the sense that each musical texture presented an increased sense of a stable pulse. The music corresponding to the foam had no stable pulse at all; that corresponding to the chip established brief moments in a stable pulse for each of the instruments; finally, the music corresponding to the flatbread established a regular pulse in the violin part, which would dominate over the stable but different pulse of the flute part in this section.
While this approach was interesting and appreciated by some audience members because it created an overall tension curve that was judged as being quite effective, the impact of each dish was lessened by the fact that it was not a complete and balanced dish, but just one element of a complete dish. It could therefore be said that it was successful as an artistic experience of sensory exploration, but not so much as a meal.
Four Bites of Autumn
During the performance Four Bites of Autumn, the approach was again somewhat different. Firstly, the music was not continuous throughout the performance, but consisted for each of the four dishes of a short prelude I composed, followed by the musical cue for the audience to start eating, followed by a chorale-like prelude that established the key of the 18th-century piece that I chose for each dish, and finally followed by that 18th-century piece. After the end of each of these, the plates were taken away, and I verbally introduced the next dish and music.
The preludes I wrote for each dish did not only introduce the affect of the 18th-century piece (and the food) that would follow, but also served as tonal transitions from one piece to the next, inspired by 18th-century modulating preludes.
