In music, an "étude" is an instrumental study undertaken by a performer or composer to practice and develop their musical technique.

In Manhattan, this concept is applied to studies of music as { pattern + process } - that is, a work recomposed as a combination of notes and code: both sequencing and programming. These exercises are designed to develop not only a student's musical knowledge and listening skills, but analytical, critical, and computational thinking skills.

The collection presented here (under Help > Etudes) showcases a small selection of some of the work by first year music technology students at UWE Bristol, exhibiting a variety of musical and coding techniques.

For more details on the associated degree courses, see the websites for the AMT and CMT programmes. If you are an educator wishing to integrate a similar exercise with your own programme or class, please contact Dr Chris Nash (chris.nash@uwe.ac.uk).

(click an entry for details - * new additions)

• 
  Classical / Soundtrack

• * Una Mattina

  arr. Pablo Valverde de la Fuente Ludovico Einaudi

  The minimal composer's arpeggios and broken chords effortlessly and elegantly captured in code, creatively and colourfully recomposed into its non-linear harmonic building blocks.

• * The Ecstasy of Gold (from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)

  arr. Owain Bestley Ennio Morricone

  Beautiful music, beautiful code. Exceptional production and programming technique combine to capture every detail of Morricone's atmospheric film soundtrack from the spaghetti western.

• Music for a Found Harmonium

  arr. Philip Swan Penguin Cafe Orchestra

  An authentic sounding and faithful recreation of the entire original song, making highly effective use of counters, block copying, and channel toggling.

• * Different Trains

  arr. Greta Murmaite Steve Reich

  Exquisite attention to detail in the capturing of one of the great process-based pieces from minimalist music, combining both exceptional production and programming technique. You can almost hear the destinations.

• Electric Counterpoint III: Fast

  arr. Patrick Gammack Steve Reich

  An incredible application of counters, parallel playback threads, conditional branching, and block copies to recreate the entire final movement of Reich's seminal work, using a coding approach mirroring the original performance process.

• * Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (from Dark Souls II)

  arr. Rowan Jeffree Matui Sakuraba

  A wonderful synthesis of programming and sequencing to capture an epic piano arrangement that develops extensively over time - and, like in the game, loops seamlessly.

• Nerevar Rising (from Elder Scrolls: Morrowind)

  arr. Thomas Hall Jeremy Soule

  An atmospheric and detailed recreation of the opening parts of the games soundtrack, making highly effective use of counters, block copying, and channel toggling.

• Comptine D'un Autre Ete (from Amelie)

  arr. Maria Nerkowska Yann Tiersen

  A beautiful and faithful rendition of the film's iconic theme, arranged for piano, making highly effective use of conditions, counters, channel toggling, and a lambda function.

• * Rue des Cascades

  arr. Oliver Clarke Yann Tiersen

  Minimalism's heritage as process-based music shines in this beautiful piano reduction of patterns and processes.

• * Theme from Jurassic Park

  arr. Kayla Slabbert John Williams

  An epic sounding rendition of the main theme from Spielberg's classic monster romp, making effective use of both linear and non-linear arrangement techniques using code to capture the relationships between members of the orchestra.

• * Dancing Mad (from Final Fantasy VI)

  arr. Ronan Lane Nobuo Uematsu

  An exceptional example of extracting processes from changing musical patterns, capturing the highly complex middle section of this game soundtrack.

• * Aquatic Ambience (from Donkey Kong Country)

  arr. William Howard David Wise

  An exquisitely produced rendition of the remastered game soundtrack, making excellent use of loops and arrays. Listen for the delicate portamentos and vibrato in the electric guitar parts after the intro.

• No Time for Caution (from Interstellar)

  arr. Jake Worley Hans Zimmer

  A sophisticated and elegant application of many coding techniques - including conditions, playback threads, counters, and arpeggiation - to faithfully recreate the atmospheric minimalist score from a tense scene in the film.

• 
  Rock / Pop / Metal

• Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

  arr. Jessica Gollmert ABBA

  A detailed and faithful reproduction of the entire original song, making effective use of counters, block operations (copy, clear, transpose), and conditional statements.

• * Close to Me

  arr. Bradley Fish The Cure

  A faithful and musical recreation using simple programming to marshal a detailed sequencing approach.

• * Give It Up

  arr. Ieuan Lucas KC and the Sunshine Band

  A well thought-out arrangement using counters and channel-switching to exploit the patterns, harmonies and rhythms in this authentic sounding encoding of the classic 80's post-disco track.

• * Only

  arr. Nathanael Walker Nine Inch Nails

  Conditional loops are the key to capturing the extensive musical development and progressive processes in this classic NiN track.

• * Marigold

  arr. Harry Borthen Periphery

  An insightful treatment of this progressive metal track, using advanced code techniques to abstract process from the band's musical patterns.

• Message in a Bottle

  arr. Thomas Ballantyne The Police

  A great application of multiple code techniques to reproduce all the key elements of the original song in single repeating bar, making effective use of counters, block operations (copy, clear, transpose), arpeggios, and conditional statements.

• * In Limbo

  arr. Nathan Kelly Radiohead

  Clever applications of looped verse and chorus sections, using counters and conditions to capture Radiohead's experimentations with musical time in this polymetric masterpiece.

• Karma Police

  arr. Declan McGoran Radiohead

  A sophisticated and elegant application of many coding techniques - including condition-controlled playback threads, counters, and randomised elements to add humanisation.

• * You Can Call Me Al

  arr. John Kirby Paul Simon

  Some excellent sequencing and instrumentation backed by a simple but effective application of counters and channel-switching.

• Ghost Town

  arr. Eleanor Wright The Specials

  An atmospheric recreation of key elements from the popular 80's reggae hit, making simple but effective use of conditions and channel toggling.

• * Dancing in the Dark

  arr. Yolande Hekt Bruce Springsteen

  An authentic rendition of the classic 80's hit, using simple but highly effective loops and conditional statements for verse and chorus respectively.

• * This Must be the Place

  arr. Felix Rubens Talking Heads

  A wonderful instrumental treatment of the 80's new wave classic, coupling conditions, counters and copy commands with detailed sequencing.

• * Everybody Wants to Rule the World

  arr. Louis Nutt-Wilson Tears for Fears

  A variety of advanced coding techniques, including loops and parallel threads, are combined with detailed sound production in an faithful homage to the 80's classic.

• Invincible

  arr. Benjamin Kenyon Tool

  Despite the song's minimal guitar instrumentation, this study showcases a variety of advanced code techniques - including counters, conditionals, block copies, and address arithmetic - to evolve a complex melodic part and faithfully recreate the opening minutes of this rock guitar piece.

• Lateralus

  arr. Rowan Cahill Tool

  A sophisticated and meticulous application of many advanced coding techniques - including conditions, block copies, counters, arpeggiation, and lambda functions - to faithfully and almost entirely recreate Tool's Fibonacci-inspired rock anthem.

• * Hold the Line

  arr. Daniel Roberts Toto

  An authentic recreation of the classic track, using loops, counters, channel switching and non-linear sequencing (branching).

• 
  Synth / Electronica

• Africa

  arr. Joshua Cann Toto

  A wide variety of advanced code techniques - notably including multi-line conditional statements, block copies, playback threads, and counters - are effectively applied to faithfully recreate this unstoppable 80's synth hit. As is increasingly the modern way, this version will run on a constant loop.

• Avril 14th

  arr. Aidan Lewis Aphex Twin

  A faithful rendition of Aphex Twin's least electronic-sound work for piano, accurately recreating the key phrases using simple but effective counter-controlled channel switching, with help from lambda functions.

• Polynomial in C

  arr. Laurence Andrews Aphex Twin

  An economical but highly effective application of counters and array copies underpins this authentic-sounding study of Aphex Twin's evolving arpeggiated patterns, harmonies, and rhythms.

• * Strobe

  arr. Ioan Davies Deadmau5

  Brilliance in breadth and depth - both fine low-level details and high-level structure are captured using a variety of programming and sequencing techniques expertly applied.

• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

  arr. George Baynes Eurythmics

  A simple but effective application of counters, channel switching, and block copying deliver an authentic-sounding recreation of the instantly-recognisable melodic, harmonic, and percussive patterns in this 80's synth pop classic.

• * What is Love?

  arr. Stanley Manning Haddaway

  Counters and channel switching with some pitch arithmetic and well-judged sequencing choices serve to recreate this 90's dance classic.

• * In For Kill

  arr. Calin Olari La Roux

  A great-sounding recreation of the 2009 synth pop hit, cleverly using counters, conditional statements and block copying to live arrange the song on-the-fly - showing extensive development over time.

• * Elegia

  arr. Laura Sandy New Order

  Counters and channel switching are coupled with delicate dynamics and synth programming to capture the patterns and processes of this atmospheric synth masterpiece.

• * Breathe

  arr. Lawrence Moore The Prodigy

  An effective combination of sequencing and programming, exploiting the key role of patterns in The Prodigy's work. Recently remastered to take advantage of some of the new instruments and effects in Manhattan.

• Rhythm is a Dancer

  arr. Emil Ivanov Snap!

  An impressive, 100% complete, and faithful sounding arrangement of this 90's dance classic, using a simple but highly effective mix of counter-controlled channel switching and detailed MIDI sequencing.

• 
  Jazz / Funk / Soul

• * Windy and Warm

  arr. Jakub Berezecki Chet Atkins

  A lateral-thinking approach to sequencing patterns with code used to recreate this guitar-slinging country classic.

• * Blue Rondo Al La Turk

  arr. Felix Canalejo Gomez Dave Brubeck

  The jazz standard's additive rhythm is elegantly reduced to patterns and processes, controlled by loops, layers, and counters.

• * Redbone

  arr. James Crew Childish Gambino

  A simple but effective use of code effortlessly captures the patterns and progressions of Glover's laidback psychedelic funk offering.

• * Cumbia Sobre El Mar

  arr. Solomon Moulang Lewis Quantic / R. Mejia

  A complex and delicate arrangement of Rafael Mejia's cumbia soul classic, making great use of counters, conditions, scales, and looped sections.

• * Fugue State

  arr. Maisie Palmer Vulfpeck

  Exquisite in its attention to detail, this étude captures both the creativity and complexity of Vulfpeck's fantastic fusion of funk and fugue. Numerous advanced code techniques are deftly applied, but the author's efforts are no more apparent than in the fugue section's battery of conditionals.