Musical Hyperrealism: Exploring Noah Creshevsky’s compositions through Jean Baudrillard’s ideas

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-412
Author(s):  
Maurice Windleburn

While a familiar term in art history, philosophy and cultural studies, ‘hyperrealism’ is rarely applied to music. This is despite Noah Creshevsky’s use of the term to describe his unique compositional process and aesthetic approach. A composer of electroacoustic music and founder of the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music, Creshevsky has described his musical hyperrealism as a ‘language constructed from sounds that are found in our shared environment (“realism”), handled in ways that are somehow exaggerated or excessive (“hyper”)’. In this article, I summarise the ideas behind Creshevsky’s hyperreal music and compare them to philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s theorisation of the hyperreal. Numerous similarities between Creshevsky and Baudrillard’s ideas will be made evident. The first half of this article focuses on Creshevsky’s sampling of sounds as ‘simulacra’ and how the interweaving textures and melodies that Creshevsky makes out of these samples are similar to ‘simulations’. In the article’s second half, Creshevsky’s creation of disembodied ‘superperformers’ is addressed and related to Baudrillard’s transhumanism. Towards the end of the article, Creshevsky’s aesthetic more broadly and what he calls ‘hyperdrama’ are linked to Baudrillard’s ‘transaesthetics’, before a concluding note addressing Baudrillard and Creshevsky’s different dispositions towards hyperrealism.

Author(s):  
Dmytro Malyi

Background, objectives and methodology of the research. The social and cultural paradigm of the 20th century has given rise to a type of composing thinking that did not exist before – a scientific one. Thus, the evolution of the composer’s writing can be defined as a path from thinking by perfect consonance, emancipated dissonance to thinking by deterministic sound and its parameters (height, duration, dynamics, timbre, and articulation). The term of the «composer’s writing technique» means a set of techniques and methods of working with the musical material as a result of the activity of thinking/awareness. Therefore, the aim of this article is an attempt to explore the relationship between the compositional process and writing techniques of the 20th – 21st centuries (pointillism, aleatorysonorous, algorithmic composition), as well as the specifics of polyphonic, homophonic writing in a new context. The methodology of the study includes references to the scientific works by P. Boulez (1971), K. Stockhausen (1963), V. Medushevsky (1984), M. Bonfeld (2006), I. Beckman (2010), I. Kuznetsov (2011), K. Maidenberg-Todorova (2013), M. Vysotska and G. Grigoryeva (2014). Presentation of research results. The phenomenon of writing techniques is very important in the study of the specifics of the compositional process, as it is the technique, for the most part, becomes the goal of creation for many composers of the 20th century. In addition to new techniques, polyphonic and homophonic writing have undergone some changes. The polyphonic one has specific features that are manifested in linearity, part-writing, etc. Examples can be found in the works by D. Ligeti (micro-polyphony), R. Shchedrin, V. Bibik, V. Ptushkin, V. Sylvestrov, and O. Shchetynsky. Regarding the homophonic writing, we shall note that, first of all, it is an indicator of style and conceptual thinking of a composer (works by A. Pyart, J. Tavener, and L. Sumera). In pointillism, the sound is thought of as a deterministic, isolated structure, which is expressed by its various parameters. Here are the examples from the creative work by A. Webern («The Variations for the Piano»; «The Variations for the Orchestra»), by E. Denysov «DSCH». The aleatory-sonorous technique is associated with the operation of timbre sonorities, according to their specific patterns, and developed in the 50–60s of the 20th century in the works by I. Xenakis, V. Lyutoslavsky, Ksh. Penderetsky, and D. Ligeti. The algorithmic composition is an indicator of scientific and mathematical thinking, and is divided into: fractal, stochastic, spectral, concrete and electroacoustic music. The first was formed within the framework of the works by C. Dodge, G. li Nelson, D. Ligeti, and others (I. Beckman, 2010). Stochastic music is associated with the name of I. Xenakis, and the ancestors of the spectral school are the French composers G. Grisey and T. Murray. Conclusions. The article considers the writing techniques of the 20th–21st centuries as components of the compositional process. It can be concluded that the studied techniques are fundamentally interconnected, revealing the nature of the composer’s thinking/consciousness from different positions. The presented techniques are: the objectification of sound forms, the method of creation; the fact of the composer’s consciousness; the consequence of the historical and cultural evolution of the musical language and communication.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Manuella Blackburn

This article specifically addresses electroacoustic music compositions that borrow from existing musical and sound resources. Investigating works that borrow and thrive upon existing sound sources presents an array of issues regarding terminology, authorship and creativity. Embedding borrowed elements into new electroacoustic music goes beyond the simplicity of ‘cut and paste’ as composers approach this practice with new and novel techniques. Musical borrowings have been widely studied in fields of popular and classical music, from cover songs to quotations and from pastiches to theme and variations; however, borrowings that take place within the field of electroacoustic music can be less clear or defined, and demand a closer look. Because the components and building blocks of electroacoustic music are often recorded sound, the categories of borrowing become vast; thus incidences of borrowing, in some shape or form, can appear inevitable or unavoidable when composing. The author takes on this issue and proposes a new framework for categorising borrowings as a helpful aid for others looking to sample in new compositional work, as well as for further musicological study. The article will consider the compositional process of integration and reworking of borrowed material, using a repertoire study to showcase the variety of techniques in play when sound materials change hands, composer to composer. Terminology already in use by others to describe sound borrowing in electroacoustic music will be investigated in an effort to show the multitude of considerations and components in action when borrowing takes place. Motivations for borrowing, borrowing types, borrowing durations, copying as imitation, and composers’ reflections upon borrowing will all be considered within the article, along with discussions on programmatic development and embedding techniques. At the heart of this article, the author aims to show how widespread and pervasive borrowing is within the electroacoustic repertoire by drawing attention to varieties of sound transplants, all considered as acts of borrowing.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARRY TRUAX

In some informal remarks I made at a conference in 1979, I expressed a reluctance to deal with the subject of aesthetics, which historically is a product of European philosophy and which remains a troublesome concept for contemporary music where an aesthetic term such as ‘beauty’ seems to be studiously ignored (Truax 1980). In a recent, also informal article (Truax 1999) addressed as a ‘letter to a twenty-five-year old electroacoustic composer’, I predicted that the term ‘computer music’ would probably disappear since in an age where the computer is involved in nearly all electroacoustic music production, this term, which once distinguished a type of music from that made with analogue, electronic equipment, seemed today to be impossible to define rigorously. Therefore, the concept of the ‘aesthetics of computer music’, proposed as a panel discussion topic, initially seemed to me to be doubly suspect as to its meaning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
Claudia Milian

At the core of this Cultural Dynamics special issue on “LatinX Studies: Variations and Velocities” are new conceptual approaches, epistemological workings, “keywords,” and modes of inquiry that enable us to theorize LatinX Studies and global LatinXness for the twenty-first century. Bringing together different research communities from art, art history, cultural anthropology, cultural studies, geography, history, journalism, and literature, this exploratory undertaking offers a working language on present-day LatinX preoccupations to seize what is happening contemporaneously in light of the field’s “X” and to disseminate it in a usable format like this journal. The volume’s contributors—Jill Anderson, Gloria Elizabeth Chacón, Nicholas De Genova, María DeGuzmán, Rene Galvan, Hilda Lloréns and Maritza Stanchich, Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, and Fredo Rivera—put forward new formulations and models for Latino/a Studies in considering LatinX geographies beyond the Americas; indigenous migrations and cultural production; Miami’s oceanic borderlands; environmental planetary problems and environmental knowledges; LatinX medical subjects; and deported exiles. The breadth of foci herein invites further problematization and dialogue with implications and relevance to other fields.


2021 ◽  
Vol 266 ◽  
pp. 05006
Author(s):  
D.V. Gladkova ◽  
D.Yu. Dorofeyev

The purpose of this work is to study the visual and acoustic relationship of painting and music in the Middle Ages. When writing the article the authors focused on modern sources and used such important for the socio-humanitarian sciences methods of research as comparative, phenomenological, semiotic, art history, cultural studies and visual anthropology, which determined the interdisciplinary nature of the study, which focuses of the aesthetic specificity of the perception of the phenomenal image. The significance of the study lies in the fact that the results obtained allow to better understand the cultural foundations of the non-verbal way of perception, the peculiarities of medieval culture and aesthetics of Western Europe and its semiotic and symbolic forms, primarily in the perspective of the interaction of painting and music in the sacred and everyday spaces of the existence of medieval man.


Author(s):  
Julia Sabadash ◽  
Liubov Dablo ◽  
Josef Nikolchenko

The purpose of the article is to analyze the conditions and stages in the formation of the conceptual-categorical framework of cultural sciences. The methodology is based on general scientific approaches such as terminological and systematic. The purpose and objectives of the publication define the use of such research methods as analysis, synthesis, generalization, which made it possible to clarify the meaning of a number of concepts and terms. Scientific Novelty. The degree of scientific research of the topic is concentrated in identifying the problems of interaction between the conceptual and categorical frameworks in various scientific fields, namely, history, philosophy, philology, aesthetics, ethics, art history, and logic, to shape up the research space. We conceptualize the idea of "formal logical structures": that is not a mechanical combination of concepts or categories, but developing a new system adapted to solving theoretical problems of cultural studies. The question about the validity of the ―borrowing‖ process that allows cultural studies to analyze theoretical problems related to other humanitarian fields is also touched upon. Conclusion. So, among the other Ukrainian human sciences, cultural studies are developing quite actively and dynamically, constantly expanding its research space; its activity and dynamism of the cultural knowledge ―accumulation‖ determine those problems requiring special attention of modern scientists; in particular, the identification of the structural layering of the conceptual and categorical framework of cultural sciences.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Pedrotti Coradini ◽  
Edson Zampronha

O presente trabalho apresenta um mapa das principais tendências de composição musical pós-1980 que utilizam meios tecnológicos, seja como recurso auxiliar à composição, seja para a criação do resultado final da obra, ou seja, como um suporte para diferentes formas de interação musical. Para a realização deste mapa foram analisados todos os artigos dedicados ao tema publicados entre 1980 e 2001 em sete periódicos dedicados à música comtenporanêa: Perspectives of New Music, Ars Sonora, Comtemporary Music Review, Computer Music Journal, Journal of New Music Research. Organised Sound, e Journal of Electroacoustic Music. Os artigos selecionados foram divididos em três tendências principais. Cada tendência é apresentada individualmente, indicando suas características mais destacadas. Uma característica comum a todas elas é uma reação a métodos de composição centrados em combinatórias de parâmetros ou de eventos sonoros presentes em certas propostas anteriores a 1980. O resultado desta reação, no entanto, não se limita a uma superação dos problemas que detectam. As respostas que oferecem terminam, efetivamente, por introduzir novas perspectivas e princípios composicionais.


Author(s):  
Pınar Aslan

This chapter intends to take a look at the concept of iconology with a focus on how it evolved into today's iconicity within the framework of cultural studies, media studies, and women's studies. The relation of icons to popularity and popular culture is paid special attention since icons are the best symbols of the zeitgeist of the era they belong to. The main theory of the literature study is taken from art history, that is Erwin Panofsky's study of iconology, and it is implemented into popular culture which can be summarized as a process of reading contemporary icons as works of art.


Author(s):  
Екатерина Владимировна Асалханова

В статье исследуется буддийская коллекция Национального музея Усть-Ордынского Бурятского округа, включающую иконы-танка, скульптуру, ритуальные предметы, музыкальные инструменты. Целью исследования является изучение экспонатов и составление каталога этой коллекции. С помощью метода сравнительного анализа отечественных и зарубежных коллекций проводится атрибуция экспонатов. Автор представил междисциплинарное исследование с применением методов музееведения, истории, искусствоведения, этнологии, культурологии. Результатом проведенной работы стал аннотированный и иллюстрированный каталог буддийской коллекции Национального музея Усть-Ордынского Бурятского округа. Область применения результатов: музееведение, искусствоведение, образование. The article is about the buddhist collection of The National Museum of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug (included Thangka, sculpture, ritual objects, musical instruments). The aim of the research is to study the exhibits and compile a catalog of this collection. Using the method of comparative analysis of domestic and foreign collections, the author carries out the attribution of exhibits. The author presented an interdisciplinary study using the methods of museology, history, art history, ethnology, cultural studies. The result of the work was an annotated and illustrated catalog of the Buddhist collection of The National Museum of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug. The scope of the results: museology, art history, education.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Patton

AbstractInteractive electroacoustic music that alters or extends instrumental timbre, samples it, or generates sound based upon data generated in real time by the performer presents a new set of challenges for the performing musician. Unlike tape music, interactive music can continuously vary its response and, frequently, performers are unable are to predict how the computer will react. Many, if not most, scores include no visual representation of how the computer may affect the sound of the instrument.Providing performers with a readily accessible visual representation of the sonic possibilities of interactive computer music will provide a conceptual framework within which performers can understand a piece of music. Interpretation of this type of notation by the performer will provide a perspective on how his or her acoustic instrument relates to the digital instrument. This can be especially useful when improvised or aleatoric methods are called for.This paper outlines a system of interactive computer-music descriptive notation that links pictographic representations to the system of spectromorphologies suggested by Dennis Smalley. The morphological notation (MN) uses these morphologies and adds a z-plane to the well-established time-vs-pitch schema. Ideally, MN will not only represent the sound data of the moment, but also will be an intuitive picture of the musical possibilities of a composition's electronic component.


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