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Baroque.me (2011) by Alexander Chen. Video capture. baroque.me visualizes the first Prelude from Bach's Cello Suites. Using the math behind string length and pitch, it came from a simple idea: what if all the notes were drawn as strings? Instead of a stream of classical notation on a page, this interactive project highlights the music's underlying structure and subtle shifts.

Grab and interact: baroque.me
More details at: blog.chenalexander.com/2011/baroque-bach-cello/

Built in: HTML5 Canvas, Javascript, SoundManager
Made while a resident at Eyebeam (eyebeam.org)

chenalexander.com
twitter.com/alexanderchen

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  • Kyle McDonald plus 3 months ago
    nice! is there any reason you went for the four points on two discs, rather than four points on a single disc, or just two points?

    i feel like the string length changes do a great job at demonstrating the direction of the change from bar to bar, but not necessarily the character of the change. what if you used two colors A/B for the strings: A if the interval relative to the last bar is major, B if it's minor? or maybe some other feature could reveal this...
  • Alexander Chen plus 3 months ago
    Thanks Kyle. I chose to use two discs because I liked how it felt like a call-and-response between the two discs, for the beginning, when it's repeating the same phrase. Good thoughts about adding other variables to draw out some other aspects of the music, definitely worth thinking about.
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  • Jami Hewitt plus 3 months ago
    so great! thanks for sharing.
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  • vap 3 months ago
    really nice idea! and what for duration?
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  • Lutz Benke 3 months ago
    Very nice. I'd love to see BWV565 that way...
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  • Paul Eccles 3 months ago
    Fascinating, however the tempo shifts bother me, resulting from the circular trajectories? It speeds up in the middle of each phrase.
  • Alexander Chen plus 3 months ago
    Yes, good point. It's due to the circular trajectories. I was torn on that. In the end I liked just letting it play it naturally with that mid-bar swell, instead of forcing 8th note accuracy like most sequencer software.
  • Filios 3 months ago
    I think a good solution to that issue, would be putting the lines closer as they get far from the vertical center.

    I really like how the line adjusts its length depending on the tone.
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  • Asier Bueno 3 months ago
    Love it!
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  • artnau 3 months ago
    Awesome! Fantastic job. Its up at artnau.com
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  • Kasper Nyman plus 3 months ago
    Amazing! Love the idea and the visuals!
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  • lasal 3 months ago
    Inspiring!
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  • J-Scott plus 3 months ago
    Wonderful! Posted at icecreamhater.tumblr.com/
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  • Andres Barrientos 3 months ago
    yeah, inspired me too!
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  • NEEKOE plus 3 months ago
    Ohsum!
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  • SOILSOUND 3 months ago
    Great idea. Definitely a cool way of visualizing expression.
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  • elisa azzali 3 months ago
    this is absolutely amazing! it should be taught at school!
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  • eun hye, Cho 3 months ago
    really nice idea! lovely so good
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  • Paul Clemens 3 months ago
    great!
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  • Martin Ramshaw 3 months ago
    Wonderful to see the theme and variations expressed visually.

    Following in the footsteps of "Godel, Escher, Bach" I was aware of the mathematical purity of Bach (no real surprise given his musical standardization of the Well-tempered Klavier) but wasn't expecting it to appear as visually simple and accessible as this.

    Very nice, great work.
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  • Sonic Bling 3 months ago
    It's a very good idea but on the guitar you skip strings, so it does not represent how you play it on guitar very well. For example on guitar the first six notes are on strings 6,3,1,1,1,3,1, but it does represent the music well
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  • manishamarch plus 3 months ago
    great! it makes me feels that classics are well, always timeless, no matter wht the current representative aesthetics are..and u represent it beautifully in a minimalist aesthetic..great work, something beautifully simple about it!
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  • Thora 3 months ago
    That was cool. I've always wondered if musicians think in patterns as they play . . . this seems to have shown, probably . . yes!
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  • Bob Perigo 3 months ago
    Baroque.me shows genius but I’d love to see added spectral response to volume change. Perhaps one should show the shift inversely to actual color energy level by making red the strings which are played louder and blue the strings more softly plucked. Perhaps only the color of the plucking dot needs to change color but a colored vibrating string would be more spectacular.
    Is Chen’s code released to the public such that one could play with it?
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  • Shaun Bradley 3 months ago
    Really nice visualisation.
    Pupils in my school like this, too, especially the music animation machine:
    musanim.com/index.html
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  • JACONNI 3 months ago
    AWESOME. Love the simplicity in the visuals, but the music and the math that went behind it contrasts as complex. Too bad we don't get to see the math side!
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  • Ab0 3 months ago
    Geez! Like it!
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  • Geyser plus 2 months ago
    Hypnotic!
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  • John R Dallas Jr 2 months ago
    Outstanding. Love it!
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  • Peter Harris 2 months ago
    Absolutely fascinating!
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  • Marlonauta 1 month ago
    i love how simple it is. i can enjoy it without being distracted. well done.
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  • Punto y Raya Festival - dot&line 1 month ago
    Lovely work, Alexander, congratulations :). Pure Dot & Line. We're now sharing it on our Facebook page. Best from Spain!
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  • Artur Nowak 1 month ago
    Beautifull! Thank you for creating this video!
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  • JUNAID 4 weeks ago
    love!
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  • This comment has been deleted.


  • Paul Eccles 3 months ago
    Well it still works really well. And it's a great idea, gave me some ideas too.
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  • Uploaded Wed October 26, 2011
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