My Physical Approach to Musique Concrete Composition Portfolio of Studio Works

My recent practice-based research explores the creative potential of physical manipulation of sound in the composition of sound-based electronic music. Focusing on the poietic aspect of my music making, this commentary discusses the composition process of three musical works: Comme si la foudre pouvait durer, Igaluk - To Scare the Moon with its own Shadow and desert. It also examines the development of a software instrument, fXfD, along with its resulting musical production. Finally, it discusses the recent musical production of an improvisation duet in which I take part, Tout Croche. In the creative process of this portfolio, the appreciation for sound is the catalyst of the musical decisions. In other words, the term \musique concrete" applies to my practice, as sound is the central concern that triggers the composition act. In addition to anecdotal, typo-morphological and functional concerns, the presence of a \trace of physicality" in a sound is, more than ever, what convinces me of its musical potential. In order to compose such sounds, a back-and-forth process between theoretical knowledge and sound manipulations will be defined and developed under the concept of \sonic empiricism." In a desire to break with the cumbersome nature of studio-based composition work, approaches to sound-based electronic music playing were researched. Through the diferent musical projects, various digital instruments were conceived. In a case study, the text reviews them through their sound generation, gestural control and mapping components. I will also state personal preferences in the ways sound manipulations are performed. In the light of the observations made, the studio emerges as the central instrument upon which my research focuses. The variety of resources it provides for the production and control of sound confers the status of polymorphic instrument on the studio. The text concludes by reflecting on the possibilities of improvisation and performance that the studio offers when it is considered as an embodied polymorphic instrument. A concluding statement on the specific ear training needed for such a studio practice bridges the concepts of sound selection and digital instruments herein exposed

Musical pathways through the no-input mixer

This paper examines the use of the no-input mixing desk—or feedback mixer—across a range of musical practices. The research draws on twenty two artist interviews conducted by the authors, and on magazine and forum archives. We focus particularly on how the properties of the no-input mixer connect with the musical, aesthetic and practical concerns of these practices. The affordability, accessibility, and non-hierarchical nature of the instrument are examined as factors that help the idea spread, and that can be important political dimensions for artists.The material, social and cultural aspects are brought together to provide a detailed picture of the instrument that goes beyond technical description. This provides a useful case study for NIME in thinking through these intercon- nections, particularly in looking outwards to how musical instruments and associated musical ideas travel, and how they can effect change and be changed themselves in their encounters with real-world musical contexts

An experiment in mnemonic imagery in adult basic education science instruction

136 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-118).This study was designed to investigate the effects of instructor provided mnemonic imagery on the learning of science content and problem solving. The experiment was conducted with adult basic education students (N = 40). A number of visual anagrams were constructed which provided both the content and application of science rules. Mnemonic imagery instruction resulted in significantly higher performance on both formula recognition and multi-step problem solving tests

Three essays on "New New" trade theory

This dissertation consists of three essays on "new new" trade theory, which sheds more light on firm-level empirical facts in international trade. In particular, l develop simple models that focus on both the positive and normative aspects of vertical specialization where upstream and downstream firms bargain over contracts for intermediate inputs. The first essay explores the positive features of international trade by questioning why the fraction of firms that export varies with countries' comparative advantage. To answer this question, I develop a general-equilibrium Ricardian model of North-South trade in which both institutional quality and firm heterogeneity play an important role in determining trade patterns. Because of contractual frictions that vary across countries and sectors, North with better institutions produces relatively more in the sectors where production is more institutionally dependent. In addition, institution‐induced comparative advantage makes it relatively easier for Northern heterogeneous firms to incur export costs in the more contract-dependent sectors, thereby leading to the higher exporters' percentage. The second essay investigates the normative and policy implications of offshoring by addressing how the bargaining power of firms affects trade policy. We show that, if the number of firms is fixed, the welfare-maximizing Home tariff rate is strictly decreasing in the bargaining power of Home firms, and that an increase in Home firms' bargaining power can raise Foreign profits. In an endogenous market structure setting with free entry and matching, the relationship between the tariff and bargaining power is U-shaped (inverted U-shaped) if the demand function is strictly concave (convex), whereas free trade is optimal irrespective of the bargaining power if the demand function is linear. The third essay returns to the positive side of international trade, developing a North-South trade model in which the firm's organizational form for input acquisition in global sourcing is endogenously determined by sectoral characteristics. We show that industries in the economy are divided into seven classes of sectors in terms of the prevalence of organizational forms, Specifically, the coexistence of different organizational forms is less likely as the sectoral input intensity is more extreme, thereby letting intra-industry heterogeneity be less relevant to organizational choices

Le projet MissTake : entre composition et improvisation ; entre abstraction et matière sensible

Thèse en recherche-création Cette version de la thèse a été tronquée des éléments de composition originale. Une version plus complète est disponible en ligne pour les membres de la communauté de l’Université de Montréal et peut aussi être consultée dans une des bibliothèques UdeM.Cette recherche-création est issue de ce questionnement : qu’est-ce qui est en jeu dès lors qu’il s’agit d’intégrer et d’imbriquer l’improvisation (l’écoute active, corps agissant et réagissant au son en devenir) et la composition (écoute répétée, traitements fins, auscultation de la matière) dans une pratique électroacoustique ? Pour y répondre, j’ai développé un dispositif d’improvisation multipiste — intitulé le projet MissTake — axé sur des technologies hybrides (analogiques et numériques), l’instabilité et la non-linéarité dans une approche morphologique et ondulatoire des flux sonores. Trois compositions sont issues de ce questionnement. Mes pièces Volt_#1, Volt_#3 et Dancing on the Edge of Darkness, créées avec les matériaux sonores du dispositif, ont généré un processus de délestage dans les gestes compositionnels et les mouvements de spatialisation. L’analyse de ces œuvres utilise les concepts puisés dans le nouveau matérialisme et la philosophie de Deleuze et Guattari. Le projet MissTake, conçu autour d’un magnétophone à cassettes quatre pistes configurées en sans-entrée, est l’aboutissement de cette recherche-création. Le choix du multipiste, des sonorités bruiteuses et de l’improvisation libre a apporté un changement de visée fondamental dans ma pratique et donné lieu à un processus de décélération sur le plan temporel. En me concentrant sur le matériau sonore évacué du signifié, dans la perception et l’abstraction, j’ai pu développer une pensée de la musique comme ouverture sur l’indéfini, dans le sensible et l’inachèvement de la forme.This research-creation begins with this questioning : what is at stake when it comes to integrating and coalescing improvisation (active listening, embodied gestures, acting and reacting to the sound in the making) and composition (repeated listening, refine and detailed treatments, auscultation of the material) to an electroacoustic practice? To answer this, I developed a multichannel improvisation device – called the MissTake project – focused on hybrid technologies (analogue and digital), instability and non-linearity in a morphological and undulatory approach to sound flows. Three compositions come from this questioning and device. My pieces Volt_#1, Volt_#3 and Dancing on the Edge of Darkness have generated a process of step-down compositional gestures and spatialization movements. The analysis of the works is based on concepts drawn from the new materialism and philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari. The MissTake performance, designed around a four-track cassette recorder configured in no-input is the culmination of this research-creation. The choice of the multichannel, noise aesthetics and free improvisation brought a fundamental change of focus in my practice and gave rise to a deceleration process at the temporal level of sound. By focusing on the sound material evacuated from any meaning, in perception and abstraction, I was able to develop a thought of music as an opening on the indefinite, in the sensible and the incompleteness of the form

Non-integer order derivatives

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Mathematics, Izmir, 2007Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 53-57)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishvii, 85 leavesThis thesis is devoted to integrals and derivatives of arbitrary order and applications of the described methods in various fields. This study intends to increase the accessibility of fractional calculus by combining an introduction to the mathematics with a review of selected recent applications in physics. It is described general definitions of fractional derivatives. This definitions are compared with their advantages and disadvantages. Fractional calculus concerns the generalization of differentiation and integration to non-integer (fractional) orders. The subject has a long mathematical history being discussed for the first time already in the correspondence of G. W. Leibnitz around 1690. Over the centuries many mathematicians have built up a large body of mathematical knowledge on fractional integrals and derivatives. Although fractional calculus is a natural generalization of calculus, and although its mathematical history is equally long, it has, until recently, played a negligible role in physics. In the first chapter, Grünwald-Letnikov approache to generalization of the notion of the differentation and integration are considered. In the second chapter, the Riemann Liouville definition is given and it is compared with Grünwald-Letnikov definition. The last chapter, Caputo.s definition is given. In appendices, two applications are given including tomography and solution of Bessel equation

Casco Bay Weekly : 16 April 1998

https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/cbw_1998/1017/thumbnail.jp

« Toucher les sons » : la manipulation expérimentale des sons électroniques, de l'apprentissage à la transmission dans les pratiques improvisées contemporaines - enquête de terrain à Montréal auprès de musiciens improvisateurs (2013-2016)

Les images n'ayant pas reçu d'autorisation ont été retirées de la version déposée sur papyrus. Une version complète a été déposée sur le site de la Faculté de Musique.Dans le domaine musical, l'époque contemporaine se caractérise par la dissémination de la scene, la démultiplication des genres musicaux et l’omniprésence des techniques audionumériques dans les processus de fabrication et de diffusion des enregistrements, reproductibles à l'infini par un nombre toujours croissant d'utilisateurs de matériel informatique. Nous choisissons d'extraire d'un tel contexte les pratiques improvisées d'inspiration libre usant d'une lutherie électronique. Comment les artistes parviennent-ils à se repérer dans un environnement aussi fluctuant et problématique, puis à transmettre leur savoir musical ? Pour sortir de la compilation des données temporellement circonscrites, nous tâcherons de comprendre ce qui est en train de se passer au sein des pratiques improvisées contemporaines dans une localité précise. Le cadre théorique, hérité du jazz, montrera qu'il existe au XXeme siecle un lien entre l'enregistrement sonore et l'improvisation à travers trois types d'instrumentation : mécanique, analogique et numérique. À l'aide de deux exemples historiques, nous essayerons de comprendre comment un improvisateur apprend à jouer du clavier tout en étant confronté, dans le même temps, à un dispositif technique de production et de reproduction sonore. La méthode introduira ensuite l'enquête de terrain effectuée à Montréal en 2013-2014 dans l'atelier de six musiciens. Les monographies mettront en évidence les filiations et la mémoire sonore de chaque artiste, constitutives d'un imaginaire musical l'autorisant à performer le moment venu. Les pratiques improvisées étudiées ne représentent aucun genre ni aucune tradition musicale identifiable, car elles s'inspirent indifféremment des musiques expérimentales, de l'électroacoustique, de l'improvisation libre, du free jazz et du rock. En revanche, elles demeurent indissociables du contexte qui les a vu naître, celui de la musique actuelle au Québec et de la topographie montréalaise. Grâce au concept d'« audiotactilité », ces pratiques seront analysées du point de vue des usages que les artistes font des circuits électroniques, c'est-à-dire le rapport physique à la matérialité des outils et des sons produits par le biais de l'ouïe et de la fonction haptique. L'improvisation procède-t-elle d'une construction réfléchie, telle une architecture ou une ingénierie, et l'électronique influence-t-il l'élaboration du discours improvisé ? Existe-il une structure sous-jacente dans l'élaboration d'un discours improvisé utilisant des outils électroniques en adéquation avec un processus musical vivant ? Par le réemploi de morceaux préexistants et par la pratique de l’échantillonnage, l'improvisation peut être pensée comme un processus hypertextuel. Ainsi, nous verrons si les techniques numériques se placent dans la continuité de l'enregistrement mécanique et analogique ou si elles constituent un élément de rupture.In the field of music, our contemporary age is characterised by a scattered scene, an increasing number of musical genres and ubiquitous audio-digital techniques used in the process of production as well as in the broadcasting of recordings, themselves infinitely reproducible by an ever-growing number of computer-users. In the midst of this constellation we have chosen to highlight the art of free improvisation using electronic stringed-instruments. How do artists manage to find their way in such a fluctuating and problematical environment, and then convey their musical know-how? Rather than compiling data limited in time, we will attempt to understand what is being happening among contemporary improvisation in a specific context. The theoretical framework, inherited from jazz, points to a connection in the 20th century between recording and improvisation and operates on three levels: mechanical, analogue and digital. With the aid of two historical examples we try to understand how an improviser learns to play the keyboard while being at the same time confronted with a technical device of sound production and reproduction. The methodology / approach then presents a field investigation carried out in Montreal in 2013-2014 during a workshop involving six musicians. The monographs highlight the origins and sound memory of each artist which make up his musical individuality and allow him to perform when required. The improvised sessions under investigation do not represent a genre or identifiable musical tradition, as they derive indiscriminately from experimental music, electro-acoustics, free improvisation, free jazz and rock. However they cannot be dissociated from the context in which they emerged, i.e. the modern music scene in Quebec and the wider Montreal environment. Thanks to the concept of "audio-tactility", these practices are analysed focussing on how the artists use electronic circuits, i.e. what is the connexion between the material aspect of the devices and the sounds produced by listening and haptics. Does the improvisation stem from a mental construct, a building plan or engineered map and do the electronics have a bearing on the elaboration of the improvised discourse? Is there an underlying structure in the elaboration of an improvised discourse using electronic devices in combination with a live musical process? By feeding preexisting pieces through a sampler, improvisation can be thought of as a hypertext process. In this way we can observe whether digital techniques are an extension of mechanical and analogue recording techniques or whether indeed they break with them

GVSU Press Releases, 1995

A compilation of press releases for the year 1995 submitted by University Communications (formerly News & Information Services) to news agencies concerning the people, places, and events related to Grand Valley State University