ABOUT
Maia Francisco was educated as a classical pianist, undergoing a rigorous and structured training that adhered strictly to the established canon of piano literature. Her education required her to practice within rigid harmonic and melodic frameworks, while meticulously training her physical posture, with a primary focus on the precise positioning of her hands in relation to the piano keys. The repertoire she mastered during this period included works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, Webern, and Schönberg.
Despite her extensive training, improvisation was notably absent from her curriculum. However, an inner drive to create something unique and new in music led her to explore improvisation as a means of self-expression. Breaking away from the constraints of her classical training, Maia began to view improvisation as a powerful tool to liberate herself from deeply ingrained musical dogmas.
Through this process, she started deconstructing the classical repertoire that had been deeply embedded in her artistic identity. Her journey into improvisation also brought her to integrate electronics into her music in a deeply personal and transformative way, allowing her to forge a distinct and innovative artistic voice.
BACKGROUND
Over the years, Maia Francisco’s artistic focus has shifted toward an exploration of the phenomenon of sound itself. Fascinated by the intrinsic qualities of the sine wave—particularly its ability to amplify the essence of sound—Maia has chosen pure sound as the primary tool for developing her sonic works.
The use of sine waves in music has a rich history, with groundbreaking research and compositions by figures such as Maryanne Amacher (1938–2009), Alvin Lucier (1931–2021), and La Monte Young (1935–). These composers explored sine waves in unique ways, uncovering psychoacoustic phenomena and redefining the role of sound in musical composition.
Maryanne Amacher’s work, for instance, delved into psychoacoustic effects such as beating tones—perceptual phenomena that arise alongside given acoustic tones and become an integral part of the musical experience. She highlighted the importance of technology in generating sine tones, explaining:
Amacher contrasted the piano—an instrument that allows composers to select intervals—with the sine generator, which enables precise frequency selection, representing a technological leap in the evolution of music composition tools.
Similarly, Alvin Lucier utilized sine waves to create beating patterns, a phenomenon where two sine tones close in frequency produce pulsations in the listener’s ear. This pulsation rate equals the difference between the two frequencies. La Monte Young, on the other hand, focused on spatiality, treating space as an instrument and employing sine waves as a means of tuning it precisely.
Maia’s own work draws inspiration from this lineage, particularly Alvin Lucier’s explorations of beating patterns. In her composition A Piece for Piano, Tenor Recorder, and Sine Waves (2017), she combines acoustic instruments with sine waves to generate emergent beating patterns with fluctuating beat frequencies. The irregularity of these fluctuations becomes a central feature of the composition. Additionally, the piece incorporates spectral analysis of the frequencies and harmonics produced by the piano and tenor recorder, offering a layered exploration of sound and resonance.
Inspired by this philosophy, Maia continues to center her research on the exploration of pure sound—specifically, the sine wave—as the main material for her music compositions.
Despite her extensive training, improvisation was notably absent from her curriculum. However, an inner drive to create something unique and new in music led her to explore improvisation as a means of self-expression. Breaking away from the constraints of her classical training, Maia began to view improvisation as a powerful tool to liberate herself from deeply ingrained musical dogmas.
Through this process, she started deconstructing the classical repertoire that had been deeply embedded in her artistic identity. Her journey into improvisation also brought her to integrate electronics into her music in a deeply personal and transformative way, allowing her to forge a distinct and innovative artistic voice.
BACKGROUND
Over the years, Maia Francisco’s artistic focus has shifted toward an exploration of the phenomenon of sound itself. Fascinated by the intrinsic qualities of the sine wave—particularly its ability to amplify the essence of sound—Maia has chosen pure sound as the primary tool for developing her sonic works.
The use of sine waves in music has a rich history, with groundbreaking research and compositions by figures such as Maryanne Amacher (1938–2009), Alvin Lucier (1931–2021), and La Monte Young (1935–). These composers explored sine waves in unique ways, uncovering psychoacoustic phenomena and redefining the role of sound in musical composition.
Maryanne Amacher’s work, for instance, delved into psychoacoustic effects such as beating tones—perceptual phenomena that arise alongside given acoustic tones and become an integral part of the musical experience. She highlighted the importance of technology in generating sine tones, explaining:
“Ordinary instruments have very complicated spectral energy distributions… [but] sine tones are capable of concentrating energy at certain specific frequencies.”
(Amacher, Maryanne. 1977. Psychoacoustic phenomena in musical composition; Some Features of a "Perceptual Geography")
Amacher contrasted the piano—an instrument that allows composers to select intervals—with the sine generator, which enables precise frequency selection, representing a technological leap in the evolution of music composition tools.
Similarly, Alvin Lucier utilized sine waves to create beating patterns, a phenomenon where two sine tones close in frequency produce pulsations in the listener’s ear. This pulsation rate equals the difference between the two frequencies. La Monte Young, on the other hand, focused on spatiality, treating space as an instrument and employing sine waves as a means of tuning it precisely.
Maia’s own work draws inspiration from this lineage, particularly Alvin Lucier’s explorations of beating patterns. In her composition A Piece for Piano, Tenor Recorder, and Sine Waves (2017), she combines acoustic instruments with sine waves to generate emergent beating patterns with fluctuating beat frequencies. The irregularity of these fluctuations becomes a central feature of the composition. Additionally, the piece incorporates spectral analysis of the frequencies and harmonics produced by the piano and tenor recorder, offering a layered exploration of sound and resonance.
Maia also reflects deeply on the concept of “pure sound.” While sine waves can only be generated in their pure form digitally (within the computer), once projected into space via a loudspeaker, additional spectra are introduced, rendering the sine wave impure. This notion of purity resonates with Japanese philosophy, as described in Kenya Hara’s essay White. Hara draws a poignant analogy between the purity of white and the purity of sound:
“White can never be made manifest in the real world… We may feel that we have come into contact with white, but that is just an illusion. In the real world, white is always contaminated and impure. Yet, all the more because of this, it stands out clearly in our consciousness.”
(Hara, Kenya. 2010. White, Lars Müller Publishers)
Inspired by this philosophy, Maia continues to center her research on the exploration of pure sound—specifically, the sine wave—as the main material for her music compositions.