Artistic research in music: performance, innovation and career at research universities

Successful careers at research universities pose some fundamental challenges to performing artists: merit is traditionally measured through academic publication, the transformation of practice through research is seldom at odds with empirical transmission of musical knowledge, and artistic research, while potentially bridging practice and investigation, is insufficiently theorised in its definition, scope, and objectives. Drawing on Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses (HASGS) as a case- study of artistic research, this paper is aimed at discussing the construction of the professional identity of a music university teacher. HASGS was developed by Henrique Portovedo as an academic project aimed at optimising performance by electronically controlling parameters in mixed music performed in the mechanical instrument, thus reducing the recourse to external control devices for electronic purposes. In its current form, HASGS consists of of anESP32 card integrated in a conventional saxophone providing Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, a ribbon sensor, a four button keypad, a trigger button, two pressure sensors, up and down selectors, and an accelerometer. Emerging as a response to existing works to saxophone and electronics, the system has been progressively developed in a collaboration with composers which resulted in the production of new repertoire for this hybrid instrument. In order to stimulate musical creation, a complete outline of the system’s possibilities is now available to composers. Based on HASGS as case-study, this paper shows, firstly, that research may transform the creative process, and, secondly, that the development of the system itself results from the integration of the performance in a research university, a context marginal to market logic in which experimentation is not only allowed but sought for in career development – overall, how artistic research may pursue the goals of research universities.publishe

The performer as a sound-based composition method

The equation of musical performance has been reformulated, not only because of the pandemic situation as a contribution for the fasten general interest on technological mediums associated with artistic and musical creation, but as well because electronic and mixed music has never been so proliferous, at the same time erudite contents on sound and timbre are arriving from different under- ground and experimental cultures, non-exclusive of formal education institu- tions. Technology is moving faster than musical practices and we are taking some snapshots of techniques applied in musical composition and performance, tech- niques whose materialities will be quickly replaced with new ones, but whose embodied structures continue and become re-implemented in later technical objects as a recycling of skills. understanding how emerging digital musical tech- nologies trace their concepts, design and functionality to practices in the current cultural epoch will bring to light a study of new-media archaeology, conceptual epistles and performative paradigms, directed, in other words, to the study of how the new technologies of mixed music-making trace their design to the prac- tices of material, symbolic, signal inscription and how practice is transforming and leading to creation. Drawing on the development and technical possibilities of Hybrid Augmented saxophone of Gestural symbioses (HAsGs) as a case study, this paper aims at discussing the optimization of augment instruments and the role of the performance in creating a new repertoire. in the context of a perform- ance practice in which the interpreter is required to be a creative agent within a multidimensional context of sonic manipulation, improvisation and expressive extension and augmentation, HAsGs is shown both as a contribute to the optimisation of this new virtuosity and as a result of its repertoire.publishe

Structural parameters for the non-place in Hermes, nove da noite

Hermes, nove da noite is a piece for tenor saxophone with live spatialisation and video by composer João Quinteiro. The piece was written in 2017, in collaboration with the saxophone player and, due to its level of technical exploration of the instrument, has been object of a work in progress, also with the collaboration of the saxophone player between 2017 and 2019, having reached its final version with video only in the beginning of 2022. This piece integrates a group of ten satellites, tangential to the opera Returning, and takes the homonymous poem by José Mário Silva as starting point for its compositional structure through several processes of deterritorialisation that position the character Hermes in the non-place of an ambulance, after an accident. As a depurated piece from an opera, Hermes, nove da noite keeps its autonomy by establishing a direct relationship with the original poetic text and its meta-layers of signification, more than with the scenic action of the libretto. The affirmation of the non-place happens in this piece through a compositional, visual and performative signification of limit states of the body by rupturing the possibility of projecting the assured past in the creation of a predictable future. In this scenario, the common function of the present as mediating element between the “from where to where”, transforms into a vortex that disrupts the linear perception of continuum and creates an absolute present At the structural level, the piece articulates three distinct typologies of approaching the treatment of sound materials, having as its nuclear vectors: A) continuity and discontinuity / contemplative resistance to fixation - the absolute present - composed by the articulation between abstract and absolute durations, both with long notes / multiphonics and through long eight tone melismata that achieve their final contour through a continuous dislocation across the sound space. This typology also integrates vocal sounds by the performer that result from a phonetical depuration of the original text, focused on emphasising guttural elements that portray the characters’ present state; B) continuous sound flow of short and percussive sounds on an absolute pitch is of secondary order - the interrupted past - composed by an exploration of materials with and without the mouthpiece (tongue rams, key clicks, air against the neck, slaps, alla tromba, etc.). These materials occupy the space in a contrasting manner with A, placing in evidence a pointillist and contrapuntal contour between several points of the sound space. The saxophone player disappears as sound source, playing these materials behind a fibreglass structure. The sounding body is absolutely deterritorialized of its origins and is presented only as a “spatial synapses”; C) a profane melody, built upon a Greek tonoi with origin in the Peloponnese region of Mount Kyllini (birthplace of Hermes), which spreads eight tones along a two octave register. The rhythm of these sections is completely fixated and is a direct depuration of readings from the original poem, creating an interstice between the place of the melody and the place of the text. The materials in sections C are the only ones that are not spatialized, having as its singular sound source the saxophone player - the crystallisation of the future that will not become. From a structural standpoint, the five A sections are fixated pillars of return, between which the performer defines the sequence of events by articulating six B material sections and six C material sections. Despite its apparent univocity, materialised by the saxophone as a single sound source, Hermes, nove da noite is a chamber object, fundamental for the fluidity and character of the sound materials, both regarding the place they occupy in space with the live spatialisation and the articulation with the video, not in a co- dependent relation, but as simultaneously inferring elements in a shared performatic space. The present deprived of continuity was, at the same time, a determinant agent in the process of relating Hermes with migrant communities, through collected statements and interviews, and a determining formal element for the conception of both the piece and the video. Hermes, nove da noite acquires its artistic and expressive significance by simultaneously exploring the limits of the body and the mechanisms that resist the crystallisation of perception, both of the audience and the interpreter[s].publishe

Slippery singularity studies: multidimensional performance as creation

The intertwining of computation with artistic environments leads to a state of permanent articulation and supports the development of artistic creation. We are immersed in computation, living in a post- humanistic and post-digital world, in which it becomes fundamental to artistic practice, to artworks, and the aesthetic experience. Since the close of the twentieth century, there has been an outbreak of musical genres and musical expressions according to two principles: the integration of tradition and technological means; and the rupture of all the contexts that cannot be seen as directly deriving from the computer and digital technology. This means that the creation process trajectory goes from concrete realities towards an external space, based upon an understanding of the adaptation of the technical and technological realities to the needs of creation, while the creation process relies on an awareness of the technological potentialities as a means to attain an artistic result. Slippery Singularity Studies belongs to a series of pieces for multiple saxophones. These pieces were developed over the specialized algorithmic composition software named Slippery Chicken, which is written in and functions on the principles of the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS), the Common Lisp facility for object-oriented programming. These pieces for saxophone and electronics explore microtonal relations of tone pitches and layers of multiphonics permutations. The multiphonics were organised into layers of tremoli, producing timbral changes, and were selected through a process that uses two different methods and software. The first method was implemented through a patch named SaxMultis and allows the recording of all multiphonic timbral permutations and its cataloguing. It provides, as well, the possibility of random positions of key combinations for saxophone sounds. This software is organized in the following order: Selection of Key Position, Position of Tremolo, Indication of Dynamics, Creation of Buffer with positions code, Recording. The second method, Multi2Chord, is a software as well, which analyses the spectrum of each multiphonic permutation and translates it to musical notation using ZSA and BACH Max/MSP Libraries. Technology is moving faster than musical practices and we are taking some snapshots of techniques applied in musical composition and performance, techniques whose materialities will be quickly replaced by new ones, but whose embodied structures continue and become re-implemented in later technical objects as a recycling of skills. Understanding how emerging digital musical technologies trace their concepts, design and functionality to practices in the current cultural context will bring to light a study of new-media archaeology, conceptual epistles and performative paradigms, directed, in other words, to the study of how the new technologies of mixed music-making trace their design to the practices of material, symbolic, signal inscription and how practice is transforming and leading to creation.publishe

Design process of augmented instruments

Augmented instruments (instruments expanded through their placement in a sound chain, the use of sensors and software tools) use advances in electronic and computational technology to develop new forms of expressiveness in musical performance, sonic possibilities, and compositional languages, widening the frontiers of musical art and its staging. This article focuses on describing the design process behind a series of case studies of hyper instruments: The augmented violin developed at IRCAM (Frédéric et al. 2006), the Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Control (HASGS) (Portovedo, Lopes, and Mendes 2018), the augmented concert harp (Sullivan et al. 2018) and the sets used by Yaron Deutsch for the performance of contemporary electric guitar works. One of the aims pursued by studying these examples is to categorize the augmented instruments according to several parameters: types of sensors and hardware, mapping, need for computers and kind of software, type of gesture control (Newton and Marshall 2011), graphical user interface (Portovedo, Lopes, and Mendes 2018) and need for a musical assistant (Perrotta, Menezes, and Martins 2014). These parameters can be defined as present or absent (mapping, graphical interface, musical assistance, use of computers), specific data (sensor name, software name) or two values parameters (applicable to gesture) (Jansenius, Wanderley, and Godøy 2009). The data is analyzed for each case study and plotted in tables. Another aim is to characterize non-measurable aspects such as the importance of the performer and his involvement in the design of the instrument considering the relationship of the new instrument with the base instrument and the connection among the composition, the performance of the instrument and its theoretical and technological design. Finally, the flexibility of augmentation, that is, the possible appearance of new uses for which the instrument was not originally conceived, is also discussed. The case studies range from Deutsch's proposal, where the performer designs the different hardware connections, no software is used and each set is defined based on the work to be performed, to the concert harp, where technological analysis prevails, the performers test the operation, mathematical and mapping models are of utmost importance and there is a graphical software interface for the user. Like this case is the augmented violin of IRCAM, without a graphical interface in its description, but with a much closer collaboration of the composers. Finally, the HASGS approaches the versatility of the Deutsch sets and is designed from the interpretation and its needs, but places special emphasis on the composition of several specific works for the instrument and on the importance of the graphical user interface. From the analysis of collected data, criteria are established to describe the augmentation process and the different organological typologies, making it possible to organize the family of augmented instruments under a logical classification that allows delving deeper into their repercussion and possibilities. The additional description about the “non-mensurable” offers an image of the background and artistic framework in which the instrument is inscribed.publishe

Composition models for augmented instruments: HASGS as case study

This paper presents the concept of HASGS regarding the augmentation procedures applied to an acoustic instrument, at the same time that it is analyzed how composers applied technology prototyped to the composition of works. The development of HASGS has been driven by the compositional aspects of the original music created for this specific electronic augmented instrumental system. Instruments are characterized not only by their sound and acoustical properties but also by their performative interface and evolutionary repertoire. This last aspect has the potential to establish a practice among performers at the same time as creating the ideal of community contributing to the past, present and future of that instrument. Augmenting an acoustic instrument places some limitations on the designer ́s palette of feasible gestures because of those intrinsic performance gestures, and the existing mechanical interface, which have been developed over years, sometimes, centuries of acoustic practice. We conclude that acoustic instruments and digital technology, are able to influence and interact mutually creating Augmented Musical Performance environments based on the aesthetics of the repertoire being developed. This work is, as well, a resource of compositional methods to composers and programmers.publishe

Towards a non-computercentric performance: an augmented e-guitar proposal

Due to the potential of gestural, parametric, and interactive control of the computer as a sound medium, various interfaces have been created that externalize software and give it a more useful instrumental form for the performers, namely keyboards, pads, pedals, etc. (Bongers 2000). In the practice of an augmented instrument, herein the electric guitar, the need of gestural independence while using a computer is multiplied since most of the time the hands are playing the instrument, and the performer is focused on the musical discourse. Several obstacles occur in performances that integrate a DAW (in this case Ableton live) and electric guitar (Berweck 2012), specifically in adjusting the live mix and the levels of certain effects. Given the closed nature of many sets and effects, these, once configured, are difficult to modify during live performance (Lähdeoja and Navarret 2010). Technical issues increase when the performer tries to control all the parameters of the augmentation with the feet, since they lack the sensitivity of the hands. In addition, the hands already have an integrated gesture because of the performer's embodied knowledge (Portovedo 2020). To achieve this desired flexibility and expressivity, both in improvisation and in the interpretation of contemporary music for electric guitar and electronic media, a midi keyboard has been converted into a new interface adapted to the electric guitar, which allows a more organic control of the parameters. In the interface, one part is handled with the feet and another part is integrated into the guitar. In this way, processes such as live looping, change of set, or sequencing of pre-recorded material are controlled with the feet, and other more delicate controls, such as adjusting levels on tracks and effects, with the hand, using the knobs installed on the guitar. This presentation provides a theoretical framework for the intervention and flexibility of electronic devices (Diegert and Artacho 2018), applying a design perspective based on performance needs, trying to explain and extrapolate the process to provide DIY (Do-It- Yourself) information for building similar devices based on the same underlying principles. For example, to increase and modify the augmented e-guitar device, the functionalities designed for other performers (pianists, DJs, or electronic musicians) are used, employing its circuits in a modular way, and spatially relocating the components. Part of the interest of the process is its relationship to a cultural perspective of reuse, the customization of components adapted to specific needs and the simplification of the technical / technological process (Keller, Schiavoni, and Lazzarini 2019). Finally, three reflections will address the issues that constitute the central axes of the project. The first analyses the factors that determine the instrumental specificity of an electronic device. The second addresses performance with the computer and an augmented instrument on stage, and how to prevent the computer from becoming the performer’s focus of attention. Finally, a brief digression on the Do It Yourself counterculture (McKay 2017) and its ability to generate social value in the field of electronic music creation and augmented instruments is proposed.publishe

Performance musical aumentada : prática multidimensional enquanto co-criação e hybrid augmented saxophone of gestural symbiosis

Este trabalho de investigação é um dos múltiplos elementos que constituem este projeto, o qual me acompanha na minha prática quotidiana, nas minhas preocupações e reflexões estético-teóricas há mais de cinco anos. O documento aqui apresentado debruça-se na prática aumentada relativa à performance e técnicas instrumentais da nova música. As alterações de paradigma no que toca à performance musical contemporânea permitem desenvolver novos modelos de virtuosismo, bem como elevar a própria performance ao estatuto de elemento criativo. Os objetivos deste trabalho passam por identificar os vários processos de expressão musical no campo na nova música, incluindo meios acústicos e eletrónicos, bem como a exploração de possibilidades performativas mediadas por sistemas de computação interativa. Os novos mediums são vistos como possíveis extensões da prática instrumental e disponíveis para propósitos criativos durante os processos composicionais e performativos. Neste sentido, a relação entre compositor e intérprete é um processo fundamental, sendo que esta comunicação dinâmica afeta a forma como a música é concebida e desenvolvida, o que contribui para a afirmação de novas práticas performativas assentes no conceito de multidimensionalidade. É também discutida a relação entre Sistemas Aumentados e Modelos Performativos impostos pelos novos Interfaces de Expressão Musical. Instrumentos musicais acústicos e tecnologia digital, incluindo novos Interfaces de Expressão Musical, são capazes de interagir e se influenciar mutuamente originando ambientes de Performance Aumentada. É aqui apresentado um enquadramento assente no Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbiosis. Este sistema tem como objetivo manter as qualidades performativas do instrumento acústico, preservando gestos da prática instrumental, reduzindo o uso de periféricos externos no controlo de parâmetros eletrónicos em obras mistas. O HASGS foi desenvolvido com uma perspetiva de Aumentação Reduzida em relação com a evolução do seu repertório original, evitando a incorporação de artefactos que contribuíssem para uma sobrecarga performativa, ou mesmo que, apenas se vocacionasse para a improvisação. São discutidos conceitos de composição, notação e prática afetados por este tipo de interface. Esta tese apresenta-se como um estudo empírico que serve tanto de modelo de análise performativa, como de recurso, fornecendo a compositores e interpretes, estratégias criativas sob a condição multidimensional.This research work is one of the multiple elements that belong to the research being carried in my daily practice, in my concerns and aesthetic-theoretical reflections for more than five years. This document, as part of the project, reports some of the augmented practices related to the performance and instrumental techniques of new music. The changing paradigm of performance practice is creating not only new virtuosity but leading performance as the status of creative tool. The aim of this work is to identify the various processes of musical expression in the field of new music including acoustic and electronic means, including the exploration of performative possibilities using computer-mediation interaction. New mediums are currently seen as possible extensions of instrumental practice and available for creative purposes during the compositional and performative processes. In these processes the relation between composer and performer is a fundamental topic and this dynamic communication is not only affecting the way music is created and developed but as well performed, contributing to new performative practices based on the concept of multidimensionality. At the same time, it discusses the relation between Augmented Instruments and Performative Models imposed by new interfaces for musical expression. Acoustic music instruments and digital technology, including new interfaces for music expression, are able to influence and interact mutually creating Augmented Performance environments. The framework presented here is based on HASGS, Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses. The system was intended to retain the focus on the performance of the acoustic instrument, keeping gestures centralized into the habitual practice of that instrument, reducing the use of external devices to control electronic parameters in mixed music. Taking a reduced approach, the technology chosen to prototype HASGS was developed in order to serve the aesthetic intention of the pieces being that have been written for it, avoiding the overload of solutions that could bring artefacts and superficial use of the augmentation processes which sometimes occur on augmented instruments prototyped just for improvisational intentionality. In this scope, we discuss how notation and composition can be affected by this type of interfaces. I understand this thesis as an empirically-based study which can both serve as a model for analysis, as well provide composers and performers with pathways and creative strategies under the multidimensional condition

Sistemas musicais interativos no ensino especializado da música

Mestrado em Ensino de MúsicaO presente trabalho descreve todo o processo de elaboração de um projeto na área da tecnologia musical e dos sistemas musicais interativos como ferramentas de apoio ao estudo da música e sua performance. Engloba noções e exemplos básicos de programação em Max/ Msp ao mesmo tempo que sugere uma lista de ferramentas a serem usadas no âmbito deste projeto. É apresentada uma contextualização do estado da arte em relação à estética musical de caráter tecnológico e abordado o seu enquadramento no contexto educativo do Conservatório de Música. Realizada a análise dos resultados, com base na observação do autor, em questionários e entrevistas efetuadas aos alunos e também a uma série de profissionais da indústria musical, conclui-se que a prática tecnológica e o uso de sistemas musicais interativos é fundamental ao enquadramento no mercado e atividade musical atual. 6This work describes the entire process of developing a project in the area of music technology and interactive music systems, as a tool to support the study of music principles and its performance. Examples and basic concepts are given by programming Custom Software thru Max/Msp. At the same time we suggest a list of tools to be used under this theme. It presents a contextualization of the state of art in relation to the technological musical aesthetics and discussed their utility in Music Conservatories. The analysis of results, based on the author´s observation, questionnaires and interviews conducted to students and music industry professionals, concludes that, the practice of music technology and interactive music systems is crucial for the actual music market and activity

Os processos composicional e colaborativo e o papel do multifónico em Orgias do agora

A comunicação expõe o processo de catalogação de multifónicos, uma reflexão sobre o papel deste tipo de técnica e a colaboração entre o compositor e o intérprete em Orgias do agora para saxofone barítono e eletrónica. Em peças de Luís Neto da Costa e outras dos séculos XX e XXI, o multifónico é um dos objetos sonoros mais utilizados e é normalmente contextualizado como um elemento exótico, de distorção tímbrica, devido à acumulação de tensão, ou mera ressonância estática. No entanto, nesta obra, este material é a linguagem principal, sendo um exemplo raro na literatura por ser composta por 90% de multifónicos. Para além desta sonoridade, apenas existem escalas microtonais com um timbre abafado, resultantes das posições de multifónicos. A eletrónica consiste na sintetização das harmonias dos multifónicos e funciona como um segundo instrumento. Funciona como contraponto e acompanhamento do solista, estabelecendo, por vezes, certos acordes como pontos de referência. A nível formal, tem um peso relevante na separação de secções e adquire protagonismo em algumas partes. O saxofone aumenta os seus silêncios com a evolução da obra, apresentando uma lógica mais ou menos linear. Num trabalho prévio, Henrique Portovedo realizou um estudo extensivo das possibilidades de permutação de multifónicos a partir de uma posição pivot. Este estudo teve como objetivo a produção de sonoridades e texturas contínuas que, pela natureza das dedilhações dos multifónicos, não estava devidamente documentada. As aplicações desenvolvidas serviram de auxílio para esse trabalho. Para além de concretizarem o material sonoro e notacional da obra, têm sido usadas no desenvolvimento de obras de outros compositores. Os dois patchs foram elaborados em Max/MSP com recurso às bibliotecas BACH e Zsa.Descriptors. O primeiro gera dedilhações aleatórias e permite a gravação in loco dos multifónicos; o segundo analisa os seus espectros sonoros. O resultado, de cerca de uma centena, foi inventariado e serviu de material-base para Orgias do agora. O catálogo está dividido em grupos de uma dedilhação-base e ordenados de acordo com a nota mais grave, à semelhança de escalas. De forma a tornar a notação mais eficaz, a partitura apenas exibe dedilhações e ritmo, sem mostrar qualquer nota escrita, para facilitar a leitura. Na comunicação, serão descritos momentos colaborativos durante as várias etapas de conceção até à fase de edição da obra e alguns aspetos relevantes do método composicional como, por exemplo, o ritmo, que foi baseado numa série de 5 números. Esta sequência foi manipulada livremente através de permutações, apresentações parciais e operações aritméticas simples, ficando tudo registado numa tabela. Para as alturas, uma série obtida a partir de primos gémeos, técnica serial comum noutras peças de Neto da Costa, é utilizada na divisão estrutural e na escolha de multifónicos.publishe