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.

Mitterer, Wolfgang (1958--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Cassidy
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Live Electronics ◽  
Performance Events ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Orchestra Music ◽  
And Function ◽  
Granular Layers ◽  
The University

Wolfgang Mitterer (1958--) is an Austrian composer and organist noted for his work with live electronics and improvisation. Born on 6 June, 1958 in Lienz, East Tyrol, Mitterer studied organ and composition at the University of Music and the Performing Arts Vienna, followed by a year-long residency at the studio for electroacoustic music (EMS) in Stockholm. An exceptionally prolific composer, Mitterer’s output spans a staggeringly broad range of approaches to music making, including works for tape, chamber music of various formations, experimental pop songs (Sopop), works for large orchestra, music for theatre and opera, music for film, and sprawling site-specific installations and performance events (turmbau zu babel, for example, is scored for 4,200 singers, 22 drums, 48 brass players, and 8-channel tape). His works list includes over 200 entries and demonstrates a particularly catholic, pluralistic, non-dogmatic approach to instrumentation, duration, venue, scale, and function. Despite this diversity, Mitterer’s work maintains several important central tendencies: stylistically, the music is often characterized by layers of crackles, twitches, clicks, and pops (both electronic and acoustic), with a rustling, flickering, chirping, gestural energy. These more fragmented, granular layers are quite often combined with gradual, elongated, atmospheric, and lyrical material, though generally a sense of instability and unpredictability remains.

Sonic Sovereignty: Performing Hopi Authority in Öngtupqa

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-530
Author(s):  
TREVOR G. REED
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
Indigenous Territories ◽  
Traditional Songs ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Many

AbstractIn this article, I explore the ways territorial authority or sovereignty emerges from within a particular mode of Indigenous creativity—the creation and performance of Hopi taatawi (traditional songs)—despite the appropriation of Hopi traditional lands by the American settler-state. Hopi territories within Öngtupqa (Grand Canyon) are just a sample of the many places where Indigenous authority, as expressed through sound-based performances, continues to resonate despite the imposition of settler-colonial structures that have either silenced Indigenous performances of authority or severed these places from Indigenous territories. Drawing on the work of Hopi composers and intellectuals, I explore how Hopi musical composition and performance are deeply intertwined with Hopi political philosophy and governance, resulting in a form of sovereignty that is inherently sonic rather than strictly literary or textual in nature. Recognizing that this interconnection between territorial authority and sound production is common across many Indigenous communities, I propose listening to contemporary Indigenous creativity not just as an aesthetic form but as a source of sonic sovereignty.

A Study on Bandwidth and Performance Limitations of Array Vibration Harvester Configurations

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noha Aboulfotoh ◽  
Jens Twiefel
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Lower Limit ◽  
Output Power ◽  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Single Element ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Resonance Frequencies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Power Capability

Abstract Many researchers introduced an array of generators for broadband energy harvesting. The array has been studied in comparison to a single element from this array, but never compared to a single reference harvester with same volume as the whole array. This paper presents a theoretical study of evaluating the performance of the array harvester in comparison to the reference harvester. Power from the reference harvester as well as from the array is analytically calculated. The array is compared to the reference harvester when loaded by their optimal resistances which provide maximum power capability. The comparison is divided into two sections: firstly when the elements of the array are tuned to resonate at matching frequencies and secondly when they are tuned to non-matching resonance frequencies. The comparisons lead to two significant limits of the working bandwidth of the array: the lower and the upper limit. Between the two limits, the power produced from the array is less than the reference harvester, but with a small additional bandwidth. Below the lower limit, the array has no advantage over the reference harvester. Above the upper limit, output power of the array is inconsistent. Hence, design guidelines for the array are provided.

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.

Neurons Tune to the Earliest Spikes Through STDP

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudy Guyonneau ◽  
Rufin VanRullen ◽  
Simon J. Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Background Noise ◽  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Learning Rule ◽  
Spike Timing ◽  
Spike Pattern ◽  
Single Wave ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Temporal Aspects ◽  
Input Spike

Spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a learning rule that modifies the strength of a neuron's synapses as a function of the precise temporal relations between input and output spikes. In many brains areas, temporal aspects of spike trains have been found to be highly reproducible. How will STDP affect a neuron's behavior when it is repeatedly presented with the same input spike pattern? We show in this theoretical study that repeated inputs systematically lead to a shaping of the neuron's selectivity, emphasizing its very first input spikes, while steadily decreasing the postsynaptic response latency. This was obtained under various conditions of background noise, and even under conditions where spiking latencies and firing rates, or synchrony, provided conflicting informations. The key role of first spikes demonstrated here provides further support for models using a single wave of spikes to implement rapid neural processing.

Choirboys and Choirgirls in the Victorian Church of England

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 447-460
Author(s):  
Walter Hillsman
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Conspicuous Feature ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Middle Ages

Although the roles played by children in recent centuries in English church music have varied enormously, it is probably fair to say that choirs with at least some boys’ or girls’ voices have proven more important in musical, ecclesiastical, and social developments than those with none. The most obvious example of this is the choir of men and boys, which has constituted a conspicuous feature of cathedral and some collegiate music since the Middle Ages, except, of course, during the Commonwealth. As women and girls have until very recently been regarded as inappropriate in such music, it is difficult to imagine that the breadth of achievement in musical composition and performance standards associated with these choirs would have been possible if they had contained only men and no boys.

Making the Archive and Archiving the Making: insights and outcomes from a major research project

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON WATERS
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Performance Practice ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Technical Level ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
And Performance

This paper seeks to address some of the problems faced by those archiving an area of musical practice – electroacoustic music and the sonic arts – which is, by definition, involved with technologies which change and develop, and which unsurprisingly is itself in a state of flux and transformation. Drawing on the experience gained from two linked research projects – one looking at the development of the practice, the other seeking to archive it – it is suggested that the two apparently disparate areas of activity can be fruitfully regarded as overlapping in many respects. Both activities involve selection and aesthetic judgement, both strive for an elusive ‘completeness’ while acknowledging its impossibility, and at a technical level the strategies now emerging for searching and collating information from ‘separate’ archives look increasingly like the strategies used in some areas of ‘real-time’ composition and performance practice. It is argued that archivists of material from such a disparate and rapidly developing practice, rather than aiming for spurious ‘coverage’ of the field, should acknowledge and celebrate their difference from each other, while conforming to simple principles which will allow their archived content to be searched and collated dynamically by individual users, each querying and configuring the material optimally for their own purposes.

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