16th Sound and Music Computing Conference SMC 2019 (28–31 May 2019, Malaga, Spain)

The 16th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2019) took place in Malaga, Spain, 28-31 May 2019 and it was organized by the Application of Information and Communication Technologies Research group (ATIC) of the University of Malaga (UMA). The SMC 2019 associated Summer School took place 25-28 May 2019. The First International Day of Women in Inclusive Engineering, Sound and Music Computing Research (WiSMC 2019) took place on 28 May 2019. The SMC 2019 TOPICS OF INTEREST included a wide selection of topics related to acoustics, psychoacoustics, music, technology for music, audio analysis, musicology, sonification, music games, machine learning, serious games, immersive audio, sound synthesis, etc

Harmony in Time: Memory, Consciousness, and Expectation in Beethoven\u27s Waldstein Sonata, Op. 53

Harmonic expectations in Western tonal music are formed throughout an individual\u27s lifetime, created by the encounter of commonly recurring patterns of relationships of chords within music. The recognition and identification of these patterns, particularly when the anticipated patterns are denied, are expressed on a conscious level. Although identified and articulated from the conscious experience, a listener\u27s attention may not be actively engaged in harmonic processing; moreover, the identification of deviations may arise from nonconscious processing of harmonic events. This paper identifies the processes in formulating and expressing harmonic expectation and its subsequent denial, as well as the nonconscious processing which influences this recognition. Additionally, this paper theorizes that expectations on a larger scale, beyond the chordal level, may be generated and fulfilled nonconsciously. This paper concludes with an analysis of Beethoven\u27s Waldstein Sonata, identifying moments of conflict between small-scale denials of expectations within the fulfillment of large-scale processes

Abstractions from Spectral Sonorities

In this analytical commentary and the accompanying portfolio of compositions, I deal primarily with issues relating to Spectral and Post- Spectral techniques in contemporary music. Potential limitations of Spectralism (as a genre) are taken into consideration, and several philosophical underpinnings of this compositional style are called into question as I consider the possibility of a music which is enhanced, but not constricted, by its technical innovations. Specifically, I examine various ways by which resonant harmonic colours of the natural overtone series might be abstracted from their Natural context(s), categorised, studied, understood, and finally deployed within a harmonic language which is to some extent musically functional rather than merely sonically colourful. The seven compositions included in the portfolio approach the problem from a variety of methodological angles: —Pitch structures, isolated from the world of acoustic phenomena, are studied and manipulated to create colourful musical objects with an inherent inner logic. —In some instances Spectral concepts and techniques are integrated (or juxtaposed) with principles borrowed or adapted from tonal, post- tonal and serialist approaches to composition. —Occasionally non-Spectral music is analysed from a Spectral perspective and repurposed within a hybridised harmonic language. The commentary also records my artistic and technical development as a composer during my time at Cambridge. It charts my progress towards the attainment of a harmonic/musical grammar unique to myself, and the pursuit of a technical facility appropriate to this ambition.Arts and Humanities Research Counci

An Exploration of Topical Interaction in Symphony for Wind Band

Symphony for Wind Band is a single-movement tonal piece for wind band. It features four overarching sections with numerous changes in key, meter, tempo, and mood. The juxtapositions and contrasts of mood reflect a narrative conflict between two music topics: the pastoral and the city. Each of these topics possess musical signifiers present in the piece as well as extra-musical associations that add levels of significance to a narrative interpretation. This paper will outline my reasons for composing for wind band and present a topical analysis of the piece. This analysis will include hermeneutic interpretations based on how the topics are sequenced and interact with each other, the latter phenomenon known as “troping.” While the piece is primarily through-composed with little thematic recurrence, exploring this conflict of topics helps elucidate the compositional logic of the piece and brings forth an interpretation best explained through a topic theory methodology. This exercise in self-analysis presents an opportunity to explore unique aspects of the compositional process

Desire and the drives: a new analytical approach to the harmonic language of Alexander Skryabin

The aims of this project are two-fold. Firstly, it aims to correlate the erotically charged philosophy of Alexander Skryabin with the progressive harmonic structures of his music. Secondly it proposes a new harmonic theory which is designed to offer a deeper understanding of the ways in which music can represent and embody the mechanisms of the human 'drive'. This involves unravelling the numerous strands of thought - both esoteric and mainstream ― that constructed Skryabin's idiosyncratic and highly eccentric world-view. To understand fully tills complex body of ideas it appeals to 20(^th) century psychoanalysis in the Freudian tradition. This vital link connects Skryabin's interest in psychology and philosophy to his compositional procedures whilst showing that certain of Freud's ideas were crystallised in writings on desire from the 1960ร which also brought the various contradictions betrayed in Skryabin's writings into the spotlight. In some cases, Skryabin's music itself offers safe paths out of his philosophical quagmire, where the formal propositions of his writings fail. Whilst the harmonic theory proposed is deeply rooted in the philosophy that Skryabin himself studied, it is equally grown from a correspondence between current trends of analytical thought in music and analytical trends that have been predominant in Russia. Whilst the first chapter outlays the philosophical basis of my theory, the following three chapters explore the intricacies of my analytical system in purely musical terms to present a line of inquiry termed drive analysis. The remaining three chapters pick up the philosophical thread and slowly draw my various strands together in a concluding analysis of Skryabin's Poem of Ecstasy