Soloists of ALEA III: Works of Leonard Bernstein, November 22, 1991

This is the concert program of the Soloists of ALEA III: Works of Leonard Bernstein performance on Friday, November 22, 1991 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were the following by Leonard Bernstein: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Touches, Two Love Songs, Afterthough, Silhouette, Fanfare for Bima, and A Medley of Bernstein's Musical Theater Works: "A Little Bit in Love" from "Wonderful Town," "Who am I" from "Peter Pan," and Selections from "West Side Story." Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Introduction to Gestural Similarity in Music. An Application of Category Theory to the Orchestra

Mathematics, and more generally computational sciences, intervene in several aspects of music. Mathematics describes the acoustics of the sounds giving formal tools to physics, and the matter of music itself in terms of compositional structures and strategies. Mathematics can also be applied to the entire making of music, from the score to the performance, connecting compositional structures to acoustical reality of sounds. Moreover, the precise concept of gesture has a decisive role in understanding musical performance. In this paper, we apply some concepts of category theory to compare gestures of orchestral musicians, and to investigate the relationship between orchestra and conductor, as well as between listeners and conductor/orchestra. To this aim, we will introduce the concept of gestural similarity. The mathematical tools used can be applied to gesture classification, and to interdisciplinary comparisons between music and visual arts.Comment: The final version of this paper has been published by the Journal of Mathematics and Musi

Affordance of vibrational excitation for music composition and performance

Mechanical vibrations have typically been used in the performance domain within feedback systems to inform musicians of system states or as communication channels between performers. In this paper, we propose the addi- tional taxonomic category of vibrational excitation of mu- sical instruments for sound generation. To explore the va- riety of possibilities associated with this extended taxon- omy, we present the Oktopus, a multi-purpose wireless sys- tem capable of motorised vibrational excitation. The sys- tem can receive up to eight inputs and generates vibrations as outputs through eight motors that can be positioned ac- cordingly to produce a wide range of sounds from an ex- cited instrument. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed system and extended taxonomy through the de- velopment and performance of Live Mechanics, a compo- sition for piano and interactive electronics

Towards a theory of experimental music theatre: 'showing doing', 'non-matrixed performance' and 'metaxis'

Although recent years have seen the emergence of sustained research on experimental music theater, most of this is of a largely descriptive nature. To address the shortcomings of such approaches, this essay outlines a theory of experimental music theater based on a clear definition and a number of constitutive features. A number of theoretical terms from the fields of performance theory and theater practice are introduced, namely “showing doing” (Richard Schechner), “non-matrixed performance” and “non-matrixed representation” (Michael Kirby), and “metaxis” (Augusto Boal). The analytical effectiveness of this theoretical framework is demonstrated by discussion of case studies drawn both from the “classics” of experimental music theater (John Cage, Mauricio Kagel) and from recent work (Christopher Fox, David Bithell, Trond Reinholdtsen)

The classification of musical transformation: a conceptual approach to the knowledge organization of musical arrangements

Introduction. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual analysis of the knowledge organization of musical arrangements found in notated Western art music. Analysis. Four areas of arrangements are analysed. Inter-medium arrangements are explored, which are arrangements that transform one musical medium into another. Arrangements which involve changes of difficulty or pitch are discussed, as well as transformations between notation and performance. Arrangements of forms and genres are analysed, including sub-genres such as literal transcriptions, fantasies, virtuosic arrangements and pot-pourris. The function of arrangements is also discussed. Results. This study introduces additional facets, foci and types of information. These include the development of musical themes as a classification principle, the concept of a performancearrangement, and the idea of functions specifically associated with transformation. A categorisation is proposed for the various types of form/genre arrangements, which shows blurred boundaries between types. The impact of time on arrangements is demonstrated, and that there is a non-binary division between the original and the arranged. Conclusion. Two models demonstrate the complexities of musical arrangement, and how information specific to arrangements needs to be considered within music knowledge organization. Furthermore, the results suggest novel ideas about classifying change and transformation more generally

Off the edge

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.Work which takes from elsewhere forms an important thread in European art music. There is a long tradition of music which variously borrows, thieves, pastiches, plagiarises, ironically ‘retakes’, hoaxes, impersonates and appropriates. The music I have written for Off the edge, while seeking to honour and add to this thread, also attempts to zoom in upon and make explicit the idea of an ultimate and irreversible composerly self-annihilation, a kind of one-way exit-gate from the world of authored musical works itself made of pieces of music, which so much of this tradition, I feel, points towards. (Of my nine pieces, it is perhaps Time to go—only, with its ‘à la suicide note’ texts and its music that seems to slide in from far beyond the frame that is ‘composer Luke Stoneham’, which manages to get closest to this.) I have chosen the title Off the edge, because all of my music tries to capture a sense of nocturnal peripheral vision: be content with catching glimpses of the composer Luke Stoneham, because as soon as you turn to look at him face-on, he disappears