Sainte-Chapelle is a Gothic chapel located in Paris. Built in the thirteenth century by Louis IX to hold relics, the chapel is home to one of the worldÕs largest collections of stained glass.
The chapel is built in two layers. The upper layer is luminescent and filled with sunlight. Walled with sheets of stained glass, this region of the chapel brims with heavenly radiance. The lower chambers, by contrast, have few chambers: they are earthly and dim, illuminated by candlelight.
On a rainy day, as clouds drift before the sun, the chapel is alternately illuminated and shrouded in shadow. The tendrils of light pouring through the windows and into the darkness beneath flicker and shift like otherworldly fingers.
I wrote a piece for organ entitled Rainy Morning, Sainte-Chapele. I chose organ for two reasons: it is a suitable instrument for a chapel, and it captures the grace and majesty of the structure. The piece itself is an alternatively brooding and exuberant reflection on the play of light through the chapelÕs architecture as clouds drift overhead. There are warm bass tones, depicting the structureÕs low and flickering depths, and rich soprano harmonies, capturing the illuminated rafters and buttresses.
I have run the audio for this composition through a ChucK file that plays ÒburstsÓ of audio between .15 and .6 seconds long. After each burst, playback advances between .25 and .7 seconds in the audio file. This allows us to listen to the entire composition in small pieces that iteratively advance. The .025 second breaks between the bursts evoke a sense of flickering light.
The quality of the light itself is changing, so I have therefore applied a filter to the audio stream. Before each burst of sound, the filter Q-value is randomized, thereby producing a variety of timbres. Just as each flicker of light has a unique color, each flicker of sound has a unique timbre. Because the values are randomized, no two performances are alike.
Enjoy Rainy Morning, Sainte-Chapelle, a sonic portrait of the famed building.
