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Interdisciplinary research on musical timbre. Bringing together sciences, humanities and musical practice Richard Parncutt University of Graz. Invited presentation at the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Montreal, Canada, March 2005. Objectives of presentation.
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Interdisciplinary research on musical timbre Bringing together sciences, humanities and musical practice Richard Parncutt University of Graz Invited presentation at the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Montreal, Canada, March 2005
Objectives of presentation • examine research frameworks • apply CIM concept to timbre • guide future research • questions not answers
Structure of presentation • Definition of “musicology” • Structure of musicology • Interdisciplinarity • Timbre • Relevance • CIM05
Part 1 Definition of “musicology”
“Musicology” in theory • (all) scholarship about (all) music • cf. Grove, MGG
“Musicology” in practice • music history of western cultural elites • sources: historical documents • associated methods and techniques • tradition since 19th century
“Musicology” journals • Acta musicologica • Archiv für Musikwissenschaft • Current Musicology • Journal of the American Musicological Society • Journal of Musicological Research • Journal of Musicology • Musikforschung • Revue de Musicologie • Studien zur Musikwissenschaft ... plus many musicology journals of smaller countries
Tacit assumptions of “musicology” (Obviously) (more) important: • history • western culture and music • music of cultural elites Eurocentricity? 19th-century colonialism?
Solutions: Journals • Acknowledge problem in preface • Change name, e.g. Western Music Western Artificial Music History of Notated Western Music • Change scope of journal
Part 2 Structure of musicology
Repertoire-based musicologies: Trends Source: Jonathan Stock , Current Musicology, 1998
Tripartite model: USA “musicology” / theory / ethnomusicology Problems: • “musical sciences” are not “musicology” • too little communication between musicology/theory and ethnomusicology
A personal apology • I love the “western bourgeous canon” • History is not less important • Aim: new balance
Evolution of disciplinary structures • top-down attempts to categorize • bottom-up quasi-random expansion
Part 3 Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity • boundaries of disciplines are fuzzy • disciplines are more or less established • disciplines are more or less distant • not whether ID, but how much • degree of ID is a matter of opinion • role of collaboration • motivation, flexibility, curiosity, daring
Interdisciplinarity within musicology Interdisciplinary challenges: • content and method boundaries • content-method combinations
Part 4 Timbre
Philosophy of reality • physical, experiential, abstract (Popper) • equally valid • exist in parallel • clearly distinguish
Description • in humanities and sciences • in music, art, literature • role of language and linguistics • sciences: same semantic differential can describe completely unrelated multidimensional objects • psychology: description of other sensations
Specific issues in timbre research • brainstorming • questions not answers
Phylogenetic: prehuman hominids Ontogenetic: everyday modern life Nature and origins of timbre Function: source recognition • Evolution and ecology • interaction between organisms • and sound sources: • perceptible sound structures • affordances of sound sources
Aural sensitivity • Useful sound parameters carry reliable information about the source. • Phase information is lost when direct and reflected sound are superposed • So ear is insensitive to phase except in attack portion
Other senses and blending • sight (colour), smell, taste, (tactile) feel • what “goes together” or blends? • analogies and differences between blended timbres, colors, smells etc?
Synaesthesia and timbre • interactions between senses • investigate with Stroop paradigm • nature-nurture question
Categorical perception Two aspects: • mapping of continuum to labels • better discriminability at boundaries Interdisciplinary question: • cultural functions and implications?
Timbre and harmony What is timbre of a fused chord? • timbral similarity of chords • similarity of pitch-class sets
Visual vs. auditory aesthetics Commonalities • scene, gestalt • holistic vs analytic • foreground vs background Why so little interaction between… • IAEA vs ICMPC? • schools of art and music?
Timbre and the body • physiology: skin and basilar membrane • ethnomusicology: ritual • culture: gender, sexuality, class, race • hedonism and quality of life
Music as a virtual person • social functions of music • philosophy: persona theory • music as virtual discourse or theatre • human qualities of music (Watt & Ash) • strong experiences; loneliness • prenatal cog. representation of mother • infant timbral acquisition via body
Timbral aesthetics • evolutionary psychology: attractiveness = ability to reproduce • Is there an absolute timbral aesthetic? • Is “attractive” timbre smooth, voice-like, energetic, original?
History of timbral fashion • typical timbres of styles and periods • sociology of musical preference • timbre and rapid music recognition • survival value: language, dialect, group • timbre and personal musical identity
Audiation of timbre • empirical exploration? • accuracy, stability? • behavioral, experiential, neurological... • relation to culture and repertoire
Piano “touch” and “tone” • mechanics of action • physical descriptions of real tones • timbre perception • physiology, cognition, motor control • gestural and timbral ideals
Part 5 Relevance
Practical relevance • help performers understand communication • give composers theories and tools • audiology: timbre of phonemes • room acoustics: timbre of performance space • artificial speech and robotics • recording • commercial, e.g. corporate identity
Social relevance • public interest • understanding art and culture • market value
Political relevance • Do world events have timbre? Example: Penderecki's Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima • Can public awareness of political issues by raised by means of timbre? Example: multimedia advertising logos
Part 6 CIM05
Timbre of CIM05 • diverse, open • explorative, creative • risky, radical • constructive, critical
Success of CIM05 BALANCE: • two main disciplines of presentation • sciences, humanities, practice • history vs. other disciplines • western vs. non-western music • elite music vs. pop/folk
Contribution to musicology • unity, identity • academic quality • relevance
Last CIM order abstract book at reception • Tallin, Estonia 2007: Singing • ??? Next CIM(s)
Thanks to: • Caroline Traube • Serge Lacasse • Michel Duchesneau ...for promoting the concept of interdisciplinary musicology