Analysis of Granular Acousmatic Music: Representation of sound flux and emergence

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 205-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Rossetti ◽  
Jônatas Manzolli
Keyword(s):  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Technological Equipment ◽  
Analytical Methodology ◽  
Iannis Xenakis ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Acousmatic Music ◽  
Music Representation ◽  
Sound Spectrum

Analysing electroacoustic music is a challenging task that can be approached by different strategies. In the last few decades, newly emerging computer environments have enabled analysts to examine the sound spectrum content in greater detail. This has resulted in new graphical representation of features extracted from audio recordings. In this article, we propose the use of representations from complex dynamical systems such as phase space graphics in musical analysis to reveal emergent timbre features in granular technique-based acousmatic music. It is known that granular techniques applied to musical composition generate considerable sound flux, regardless of the adopted procedures and available technological equipment. We investigate points of convergence between different aesthetics of the so-called Granular Paradigm in electroacoustic music, and consider compositions employing different methods and techniques. We analyse three works: Concret PH (1958) by Iannis Xenakis, Riverrun (1986) by Barry Truax, and Schall (1996) by Horacio Vaggione. In our analytical methodology, we apply such concepts as volume and emergence, as well as their graphical representation to the pieces. In conclusion we compare our results and discuss how they relate to the three composers’ specific procedures creating sound flux as well as to their compositional epistemologies and ontologies.

Towards a Hybrid Temporal Paradigm for Musical Composition and Performance: The Case of Musical Interpretation

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myriam Desainte-Catherine ◽  
Antoine Allombert ◽  
Gérard Assayag
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Musical Interpretation ◽  
And Performance

In this article, we consider the possibility of mixing two main paradigms of electroacoustic music: the writing-oriented and the performance-oriented paradigms. We show that these two opposing paradigms are the consequence of two corresponding conceptions of time. In addition, we assume that the temporal aspects of a performer's interpretation of a musical composition can be linked to both paradigms. Based on this theoretical study, we propose a formalism for composing pieces of electroacoustic music that can be interpreted in performance.

Spatio-musical composition strategies

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Barrett
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Current Technology ◽  
Sound Reproduction ◽  
Musical Development ◽  
Active Elements ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Spatial Composition ◽  
Acousmatic Music

Spatial elements in acousmatic music are inherent to the art form, in composition and in the projection of the music to the listener. But is it possible for spatial elements to be as important carriers of musical structure as the other aspects of sound? For a parameter to serve the requirements of musical development, it is necessary for that parameter to cover a range of perceptually different states. For ‘space’ to be more than a setting within which the main active elements in the structure unfold, it needs to satisfy these requirements. This paper explains a number of important spatial composition strategies available to the acousmatic composer in light of current technology and sound reproduction situations. The analysis takes an aesthetical rather than a technical standpoint.

scholarly journals Graphical representation: an analytical and publication tool for electroacoustic music

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIERRE COUPRIE
Keyword(s):  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Music Analysis ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Music Research

When, in 1998, I began my research into the analysis of electroacoustic music, analysis and representation were two distinct disciplines. One was an integral part of music research and the other was just a possible option for publication.

scholarly journals Trautonium: peculiarities of compositions for the electronic musical instrument

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
Elena Nikolaevna Piryazeva
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Music ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Video And Audio ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
New Generation

The subject of this research is the electronic musical instrument trautonium and characteristic features of compositions written for this instrument. The advancement of electronic music and its instruments is substantiated by innovative transformation, constant emergence of new devices, their improvement and phasing out or transitions into a new generation of devices. One of such electronic musical instruments is trautonium, invented in the first half of the XX century. It did not gain much popularity, but gather its own repertoire and library of video and audio recordings. In the course of this research, the author applied the following methods: historical and systemic approaches; methods of integral, structural, stylistic, and comparative analysis. The novelty is defined consists in the subject of research, range of compositions attracted for musicological analysis, and the angle of their view. The author determines the common to compositions for trautonium concert character of performance reflected in the set of aesthetic and technological principles on various levels of musical composition.

Nine Modes of Listening to Music

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
Lucia Santaella
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Broad Sense ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Concrete Music ◽  
Historical Periods

Listening has become a major issue of musical composition from the middle of last century on, since Pierre Schaeffer inaugurated with concrete music one of the trends of what would be established under the name of electroacoustic music. The classification of the modes of listening to music that will be presented in this paper is not concerned with the chronological study of listening by means of musical examples from historical periods and their respective social context. As my classification aims at the processes of reception and in a broad sense, I found its foundation in the different interpretative levels formulated by Peirce in his classification of the interpretants.

Ecological Psychology and the Electroacoustic Concert Context

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Andean
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Psychology ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Acousmatic Music

An application of ecological psychology, based on the work of James J. Gibson, to electroacoustic music would consider the listener in relationship with both the work and the environment, in a dynamic and mutually informing relationship. This perspective is applied to various electroacoustic concert paradigms, demonstrating a wide range of listening experiences; the implications for electroacoustic music as a genre are examined. Several qualities of acousmatic music are used to explore some potential limitations of Gibson's theories. Finally, some relative strengths and weaknesses of ecological psychology are considered, as well as some potentially fruitful cooperations with other, somewhat divergent, theoretical approaches.

On Performing Electroacoustic Musics: a non-idiomatic case study for Adorno's theory of musical reproduction

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Sound File ◽  
Digital File ◽  
Acousmatic Music ◽  
Interpretive Strategies ◽  
Good Interpretation ◽  
Digital Sound

Adorno's theory of musical reproduction is unfinished, inconsistent and attuned only to score-based acoustic music – but it has relevance for electroacoustic performance as well. His theory prompts contemplation about what ‘good’ interpretation, and interpretation itself, means for fixed electroacoustic music. A digital sound file is frequently, if not typically, viewed as more rigid and precise than a score. This article uses Adorno's theory to compare ontologies of score and digital file realizations respectively, thus questioning the above assumption. Do electroacoustic works truly exist apart from their performed features, or is a given work only its performances? Different answers imply different work concepts and interpretive strategies. Toward the essay's goals, we examine three features often viewed as nonontological to an electroacoustic work, namely performed spatialisation, equalisation, and amplitude balance. We consider the impacts of these features when they are manipulated in real time, or performance to performance. As Adorno asks how choices of timing or dynamics dictate a notated work's aesthetic ‘clarity’, this paper asks how performed choices contribute to an electroacoustic work's clarity, and to the unique interpretive potential of electroacoustic music. Tape music and acousmatic music, with its diffusion tradition, are central to this paper's thesis; but multi-channel works are circumscribed by it as well.

scholarly journals TIMBRE IN MUSIC: PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (87) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmytro Reshetnik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Music ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Computer Study ◽  
Musical Acoustics ◽  
Powerful Stimulus ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Made In

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the possible approaches to the definition of the concept of "timbre", as well as to establish possible options for its definition, which were derived in modern musicology. It is established that timbre, timbre, as a key characteristic of sound, is one of the leading means of expression in the art of music. The dynamic development of the system of musical means of expression in the compositional practice of the twentieth century (both in electronic and acoustic music) has reduced the issue of timbre to a number of important topics in the creation of the theory of modern musical composition. The general spirit of experimentation and the active search for new approaches to sound have led to a significant change in the attitude of composers of the late XX – early XXI century to the sound organization of works. Therefore, the analysis and study of the basics of the specifics of musical timbres and the principles of their psychological perception has become an extremely important task for music science. It is established that today in science a huge amount of material has been accumulated, which indirectly or directly affects the properties and specifics of the musical timbre. A great contribution to the development of the problem of timbre was made in both musicology and musical acoustics. But the most intense advances in the study of timbre have taken place in musical psychoacoustics, especially in the field of electronic music. It was the search for electronic and then electroacoustic music that became a powerful stimulus for the computer study of the nature of the timbre. Practical tasks set by composers in the late 50's – early 60's in the field of electronic synthesis, raised the question of identifying objective and subjective parameters of sound, and therefore timbre, in a number of pressing issues of musical acoustics. Also with the help of the comparative method it was found that in music science it is permissible to complement "acoustic" and "musicological" definitions of the term "timbre", but "acoustic" will always be broader, and "musicological" – more accurate. Since musicological definitions of timbre (in addition to importance for timbre theory) are of great importance for the conceptual apparatus of music theory and professional generalization, ie allow to state the phonetic, phonological and articulatory side of a musical work and its performance.

Reflections on the analysis of artificial vocality: representations, tools and prospective

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
BRUNO BOSSIS
Keyword(s):  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Talking Heads ◽  
Sound Event ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
Vocal Quality ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Initially a result of talking heads, followed by the arrival of telephony and the gramophone, the use of artificial vocality within musical composition is becoming more and more common as different laboratories acquire devices enabling the manipulation of sound. Following Pierre Schaeffer's first experiments in Paris, many composers became interested in the expressive resources of the mechanical voice, the results of which are now present in a large corpus of electroacoustic works. By its very nature, artificial vocality establishes a new link between the vocal quality of a sound event (its vocality) and technology (its artificiality) within this type of music.How then, can the musicologist study artificial vocality and the works in which it is used? Which tools should be used? What makes the analysis of artificial vocality so specific? Is it possible to create new tools for the analysis of artificial vocality within electroacoustic music?In the search for answers to these questions, many difficulties present themselves. The first concerns the modes of representation and the methods used to analyse artificial vocality. On top of this, real reflection is needed concerning the disparity of technological tools used in analysis and the need for the application of a certain methodology in order to classify them. The starting point will be the establishment of a typology. Finally, the idea of being able to compare different representations of the same work using sophisticated tools will open the way to the discovery of new analytical approaches. Seeking freedom from the relative blindness caused by the over-specialisation and rigidity of technological tools is now an urgent necessity, particularly when considering artificial vocality.

Unsound Phenomenologies: Harrison, Schaeffer and the sound object

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Object A ◽  
Acousmatic Music ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of

As Jonty Harrison himself acknowledges, a significant body of acousmatic music exists which has, directly or indirectly, challenged aspects of the Schaefferian theory from which acousmatic music first developed (Harrison 1995). Few pieces, however, have so clearly and deliberately confronted Schaeffer’s notion of the ‘sound object’ as Harrison’sUnsound Objects. Harrison does more than merely reject Schaeffer’s definition of the sound object through the use of expanded compositional strategies. Rather, he both employs Schaeffer’s methodology and subverts it, systematically demonstrating the potential and the limitations of Schaeffer’s epoché and its product, the sound object. The result is what might be aptly termed the ‘unsound object’: a sonic entity which both demonstrates and defies Schaeffer’s ideals, and exemplifies the rich ambiguities which can arise from the compositional exploitation of referentiality and association, in addition to the intrinsic, morphological characteristics emphasised within Schaeffer’s reduced listening. Throughout his engagement with Schaefferian theory, however, Harrison never abandons the fundamental musical radicalism at the heart of Schaeffer’s project: positing ‘concrete sound material’, rather than ‘abstract concept’, as the basis for the language of electroacoustic music (Chion 1983: 37).

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