Musical Representation of Sound in Computer-Aided Composition: A Visual Programming Framework

International audienceThis article addresses the problem of the representation and creation of sound by synthesis in the context of music composition, as seen from the computer-aided composition (CAC) perspective. An important theoretical basis of this work is the concept of computer modelling, discussed in relation to the notions of sound representation and music composition. Modelling sound as a signal is extended to the musical domain by considering as an alternative modelling composition as an activity that aims to produce sounds. The visual programming paradigm is adopted for the representation and conception of the composition models, and therefore for the musical representation of sounds. A composition framework dedicated to electro-acoustic music and sound synthesis integrated in the OpenMusic CAC environment is presented. Temporal issues are also discussed and are the object of specific developments

Listening and remembering: networked off-line improvisation for four commuters

This paper analyses the experience of the networked off-line improvisation 'Listening and Remembering', a performance for four commuters using voices and sounds from the Mexico City and Paris metros. It addresses the question: how can an act of collective remembering, inspired by listening to metro soundscapes, lead to the creation of networked voice- and sound-based narratives about the urban commuting experience? The networked experience is seen here from the structural perspective (telematic setting), the sonic underground context, the ethnographic process that led to the performance, the narratives that are created in the electro-acoustic setting, the shared acoustic environments that those creations suggest, and the technical features and participants' responses that prevent or facilitate interaction. Emphasis is placed on the participants' status as non-performers, and on their familiarity with the sonic environment, as a context that allows the participation of non-musicians in the making of music through telematically shared interfaces, using soundscape and real-time voice. Participants re-enact their routine experience through a dialogical relation- ship with the sounds, the other participants, themselves, and the experience of sharing: a collective memory

Applications of system dynamics modelling to computer music

Based on a composer's psycho-acoustic imagination or response to music, system dynamics modelling and simulation tools can be used as a scoring device to map the structural dynamic shape of interest of computer music compositions. The tools can also be used as a generator of compositional ideas reflecting thematic juxtaposition and emotional flux in musical narratives. These techniques allow the modelling of everyday narratives to provide a structural/metaphorical means of music composition based on archetypes that are shared with wider audiences. The methods are outlined using two examples

Beyond pitch/duration scoring: Towards a system dynamics model of electroacoustic music

Based on a hierarchy of discrete pitches and metrically sub-divisible duration, Western tonal art music is usually modelled through printed music scores. Scoring acoustic musical events beyond this paradigm has resulted in non-standard graphs in two dimensions. New digitally generated ‘soundscape’ forms are often not conceived or understandable within traditional musical paradigms or notation models, and often explore attributes of music such as spatial processing that fall outside two- dimensional graphic scoring. To date there is not a commonly accepted model that approximates the structural dynamics of electroacoustic music; providing a conceptual framework independent of the music to the degree of standard music notation. Based on recent work in spectro-morphology as a way of explaining sound shapes, a systems dynamics model is proposed through mapping a dynamic taxonomy for structural listening as an aid to composition. This approach captures formal but not semiotic discourse

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

Planar Refrains

My practice explores phenomenal poetic truths that exist in fissures between the sensual and physical qualities of material constructs. Magnifying this confounding interspace, my work activates specific instruments within mutable, relational systems of installation, movement, and documentation. The tools I fabricate function within variable orientations and are implemented as both physical barriers and thresholds into alternate, virtual domains. Intersecting fragments of sound and moving image build a nexus of superimposed spatialities, while material constructions are enveloped in ephemeral intensities. Within this compounded environment, both mind and body are charged as active sites through which durational, contemplative experiences can pass. Reverberation, the ghostly refrain of a sound calling back to our ears from a distant plane, can intensify our emotional experience of place. My project Planar Refrains utilizes four electro-mechanical reverb plates, analog audio filters designed to simulate expansive acoustic arenas. Historically these devices have provided emotive voicings to popular studio recordings, dislocating the performer from the commercial studio and into a simulated reverberant territory of mythic proportions. The material resonance of steel is used to filter a recorded signal, shaping the sound of a human performance into something more transformative, a sound embodying otherworldly dynamics. In subverting the designed utility of reverb plates, I am exploring their value as active surfaces extending across different spatial realities. The background of ephemeral sonic residue is collapsed into the foreground, a filter becomes sculpture, and this sculpture becomes an instrument in an evolving soundscape

A microtonal wind controller building on Yamaha’s technology to facilitate the performance of music based on the “19-EDO” scale

We describe a project in which several collaborators adapted an existing instrument to make it capable of playing expressively in music based on the microtonal scale characterised by equal divsion of the octave into 19 tones (“19-EDO”). Our objective was not just to build this instrument, however, but also to produce a well-formed piece of music which would exploit it idiomatically, in a performance which would provide listeners with a pleasurable and satisfying musical experience. Hence, consideration of the extent and limits of the playing-techniques of the resulting instrument (a “Wind-Controller”) and of appropriate approaches to the composition of music for it were an integral part of the project from the start. Moreover, the intention was also that the piece, though grounded in the musical characteristics of the 19-EDO scale, would nevertheless have a recognisable relationship with what Dimitri Tymoczko (2010) has called the “Extended Common Practice” of the last millennium. So the article goes on to consider these matters, and to present a score of the resulting new piece, annotated with comments documenting some of the performance issues which it raises. Thus, bringing the project to fruition involved elements of composition, performance, engineering and computing, and the article describes how such an inter-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary collaboration was co-ordinated in a unified manner to achieve the envisaged outcome. Finally, we consider why the building of microtonal instruments is such a problematic issue in a contemporary (“high-tech”) society like ours

The relationship between electro-acoustic music and instrumental/vocal composition in Europe in the period 1948-1970.

The study seeks to establish how theories and concepts derived from electro-acoustic practice can inform musicians about the'nature of instrumental thought. Instrumental/vocal musical languages are particular representations of a wide framework of fundamental musical laws. The most successful expression of these laws is through concepts of electro-acoustic music. As a result many points of contact between hitherto unconnected areas of music are revealed. Three principal'subJect-areas are investigated: 1) The'development of Pierre Schaeffer's musical researches: The researches under consideration are those conducted from 1948 up to-the publication of the revised edition or the “Traite des Objets Musicaux" in 1977. The importance of new musical-concepts and Schaeffer’s Programme de la Recherche Musicale are discussed. There has been no-extensive examination of these in English. Consequently, neither Schaeffer's position, nor French electro-acoustic music's role in the development ofcontemporary music has been efficiently assessed. 2) The Cologne studio's development during the period 1953-70: Particular emphasis is given to a discussion'of the studio's relationship with the evolution of serial thought. This relationship is identified as the main stimulus for many of the studio's musical concepts in addition'to its preoccupation with electronic sound generation. Furthermore, the conflict between Paris and Cologne regarding musical-languages is examined and the theory or eventual convergence of views is contested. 3) The, nature of Schaefferian music theory: The concepts of valeur/caractere, permanence/variation and Schaeffer's concept of the "instrument" are discussed. It is proposed that Schaefferian concepts offer & significant methodology for the study of contemporary music. They assist, therefore our understanding not just of electro-acoustic music but contemporary music in general