Spectral tourist: joystick operated sound production software for Macintosh computers (OS 9.1 & .2) (documentation and CD recording of performances)

SPECTRAL TOURIST September 2002 -June 2003 Software documentation • • THE SPECTRAL TOURIST Audio CD Duration 29.10 The eight tracks on this short CD represent some of the possibilities for performing solos with the Spectral Tourist. Each track was recorded in one take travelling through spectrograms that were generated from sound files stored on my laptop hard disk. Of course, the Spectral Tourist is not limited to solos and it is just as possible to work with a live musician. • • Hell's Angles [sic] Generative software for Macintosh computer running 0S9.1 or .2 Martin Parker January 2003 • • HAZE ver.1 for computer with Clarinet in Bb, Tenor Trombone and Cello Duration ca 5 minutes Martin Parker October 2002 • • Environment for Stone Violin and Computer duration max. 15minutes Martin Parker September 2002 • • THE VIEW DVD VIDEO duration 12.18 Martin Parker February 2002 • • Shonky Music for Tracker action Organs Duration ca 6 minutes Martin Parker February 2001 • • Sounds of Line - Melody Sounds of Line - Rhythm For 4 prepared French horns duration ca. 7 minutes Martin Parker September 2000 • • In formation II For Treble recorder (doubling descant and tenor) and CD Martin Parker, April 2000 • • Antiorp 2 Clarinets in Bb Bassoon Contrabass Recorder 7 string Viola da gamba (scordatura) Large Bass Drum Duration ca 15 minutes Martin Parker November 1999 • • In formation I For bass recorder, CD and Digital Delay Martin Parker and Laurie Crump, September 199

Real-time bowed string feature extraction for performance applications

Although the physics of the bowed violin string are well understood, most audio feature extraction algorithms for violin still rely on general-purpose signal processing methods with latencies and accuracy rates that are unsuitable for real-time professional-calibre performance. Starting from a pickup which cleanly captures the motion of the bowed string with minimal colouration from the bridge and body, we present a lightweight time-domain method for modelling string motion using segmented linear regression. The algorithm leverages knowledge of the patterns of Helmholtz motion to produce a set of features which can be used for control of real-time synthesis processes. The goal of the paper is not a back-extraction of physical ground truth, but a responsive, low-latency feature space suitable for performance applications

Exploring Hybridity: An investigation into the integration of instrumental and acousmatic structural strategies

The aim of this commentary, which accompanies a folio of electroacoustic/acousmatic, instrumental and mixed compositions, is to investigate the relationship of instrumental and acousmatic compositional practices and to find common integrating structural strategies. These practices are also related to the handling and organization of disparate and large amounts of sound information in both media. Multi-dimensional aural spaces are very common in both instrumental and acousmatic media when timbre becomes a dynamic and form shaping parameter. The listener may perceive the musical discourse in multi-dimensional musical spaces through multiple perceptional modes. A musical syntax of those - usually indeterminate and ambiguous - aural spaces may be achieved through a hybridization of interconnected temporal concepts, connected to motion, gesture and shape, and spatial concepts, connected to sound source and timbre. The narrative structure of the musical discourse is linked to conceptualizations of physical and conceptual musical spaces through cognitive schemas and patterns and can be approached through visual and spatial metaphors that resemble film and TV montage structures. A sound montage theory provides a basic framework for the organization of narrative structure in sound composition

Audio-haptic relationships as compositional and performance strategies

As a performer of firstly acoustic and latterly electronic and electro-instrumental music, I constantly seek to improve my mode of interaction with the digital realm: that is, to achieve a high level of sensitivity and expression. This thesis illustrates reasons why making use of haptic interfaces—which offer physical feedback and resistance to the performer—may be viewed as an important approach in addressing the shortcomings of some the standard systems used to mediate the performer’s engagement with various sorts of digital musical information. By examining the links between sound and touch, and the performer-instrument relationship, various new compositional and performance strategies start to emerge. I explore these through a portfolio of original musical works, which span the continuum of composition and improvisation, largely based around performance paradigms for piano and live electronics. I implement new haptic technologies, using vibrotactile feedback and resistant interfaces, as well as exploring more metaphorical connections between sound and touch. I demonstrate the impact that the research brings to the creative musical outcomes, along with the implications that these techniques have on the wider field of live electronic musical performance

Performance cartography, performance cartology: Musical networks for computational musicological analysis

This research seeks to track the creative processes of a group of musicians who were commissioned to make music with a set of digital tools created by the FluCoMa project. These tools offer many solutions for dealing with digital audio, notably large collections of sounds. The varied and multidisciplinary natures of the case studies mean that traditional forms of analysis would miss essential parts of these practices. Subscribing to contemporary approaches, this research proposes a methodology for analysis articulated around the idea of musical networks. Here, musical practice is conceived of as the configuration of, and existence within, networks of entities where musicking occurs. The methodology is proposed in two parts: a cartographical, descriptive analysis that seeks to map these networks; and a cartological, interpretative analysis that seeks to inspect the nature of these networks. The methods are illustrated and developed by the case studies, grounding them in real musical practice. With these methods, this research looks to address three primary questions: how can a network-oriented analytical stance account for temporality in musicking? Can we consider the network as constituting a materialised form of musical thought? And what are the ways in which entities of networks are configured

Cubaneo In Latin Piano: A Parametric Approach To Gesture, Texture, And Motivic Variation

ABSTRACT CUBANEO IN LATIN PIANO: A PARAMETRIC APPROACH TO GESTURE, TEXTURE, AND MOTIVIC VARIATION COPYRIGHT Orlando Enrique Fiol 2018 Dr. Carol A. Muller Over the past century of recorded evidence, Cuban popular music has undergone great stylistic changes, especially regarding the piano tumbao. Hybridity in the Cuban/Latin context has taken place on different levels to varying extents involving instruments, genres, melody, harmony, rhythm, and musical structures. This hybridity has involved melding, fusing, borrowing, repurposing, adopting, adapting, and substituting. But quantifying and pinpointing these processes has been difficult because each variable or parameter embodies a history and a walking archive of sonic aesthetics. In an attempt to classify and quantify precise parameters involved in hybridity, this dissertation presents a paradigmatic model, organizing music into vocabularies, repertories, and abstract procedures. Cuba\u27s pianistic vocabularies are used very interactively, depending on genre, composite ensemble texture, vocal timbre, performing venue, and personal taste. These vocabularies include: melodic phrases, harmonic progressions, rhythmic cells and variation schemes to replace repetition with methodical elaboration of the piano tumbao as a main theme. These pianistic vocabularies comprise what we actually hear. Repertories, such as pre-composed songs, ensemble arrangements, and open- ended montuno and solo sections, situate and contextualize what we hear in real life musical performances. Abstract procedures are the thoughts, aesthetics, intentions, and parametric rules governing what Cuban/Latin pianists consider possible. Abstract procedures alter vocabularies by displacing, expanding, contracting, recombining, permuting, and layering them. As Cuba\u27s popular musics find homes in its musical diaspora (the United States, Latin America and Europe), Cuban pianists have sought to differentiate their craft from global salsa and Latin jazz pianists. Expanding the piano\u27s gestural/textural vocabulary beyond pre-Revolutionary traditions and performance practices, the timba piano tumbao is a powerful marker of Cuban identity and musical pride, transcending national borders and cultural boundaries

Structure out of sound

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1993.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-170).Michael Jerome Hawley.Ph.D