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Compositional Languages Fall 2012

Compositional Languages Fall 2012. Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN Tuesday 13:00-15:00 Lecture XII (LAST LECTURE!). End-of-Semester Schedule. 12/04: Musical “ Timbre ” 12/11: Final Project Presentations; Study Guide distributed 12/18: FINAL EXAM ( 시험 ). Assignment III. DUE TODAY! ( 오늘 ).

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Compositional Languages Fall 2012

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  1. Compositional LanguagesFall 2012 Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN Tuesday 13:00-15:00 Lecture XII (LAST LECTURE!)

  2. End-of-Semester Schedule • 12/04: Musical “Timbre” • 12/11: Final Project Presentations; Study Guide distributed • 12/18: FINAL EXAM (시험)

  3. Assignment III • DUE TODAY! (오늘)

  4. Topics • I. Musical Timbre Defined (?) • II. Musical Timbre Structured: Klangfarbenmelodie • III. Musical Timbre Classified: Musique concrète • IV. Musical Timbre Analysed I: Melody-Harmony-Timbre-Orchestration • V. Musical Timbre Analysed II: Cross-Synthesis • VI. Noise

  5. I. Musical Timbre (음색) Defined

  6. A. Dictionary Definition • “the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from pitch and intensity” • Origin: French (timbre); Greek (tumpanon) = “drum”

  7. What does this mean? Timbre is: • NOT pitch/harmony (but related) • NOT rhythm • NOT intensity • NOT register • So what is it?

  8. (Imprecise) Timbre descriptors • Rough/smooth • Rich/poor • Thick/thin • Complex/simple • Nasal • Flute-ish, Violin-ish, etc. • Stable/unstable • Attack-oriented/resonant • ???

  9. B. Classical Definition: Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone (1863)

  10. Helmholtz/Fourier Definition • Complex tone = sum of sinusoids

  11. Problem with Helmholtz’ Theory • Timbre defined as time-constant (or “steady-state”) spectrum • Most sounds are time-varying (change in time)

  12. C. Time-Varying Timbral Parameters

  13. 1. Amplitude Envelope Components

  14. 2. Spectral Envelope • Unfolding of a sound’s spectrum over time e.g., brass instruments: high harmonics rise later than lower ones

  15. 3. Other Sources of Time Variation • Vibrato (frequency variation) and tremolo (amplitude variation) • Crescendo: gradual shift in spectral energy, tuning, resonance, pitch-to-noise ratio

  16. D. J.K. Randall, “Three lectures to scientists” (1967) “It seems to me that any psycho‐acoustician who forges ahead blithely out of touch with current concerns in musical analysis and musical composition is putting himself in an excellent position to produce silly science, silly music, or silly both.”

  17. E. Composer Definitions • 1) timbre as distinct and mobile “parameter”? • 2) as reducible to quantifiable, atomic parameters? • 3) timbre-harmony-pitch (+ rhythm) continuum/ambiguity/fusion? In Ravel, Wagner, Scelsi, spectral music… • 4) as determined by human “modes of production” and/or anatomy of the instrument (e.g., scordatura) • 5) as multi-dimensional and constantly in flux

  18. II. Timbre Structured: Klangfarbenmelodie

  19. A. Klangfarbenmelodie • “The evaluation of tone color, the second dimension of tone, is in a much less cultivated, much less organized state than is the aesthetic evaluation of pitch…Now, if it is possible to create patterns out of pitches, patterns we call ‘melodies,’ progressions, whose coherence evokes an effect analogous to thought processes, then it must be also possible to make progressions out of…tone color, progressions whose relations to one another work with a kind of logic entirely equivalent to that logic which satisfies us in the melody of pitches.” –Schönberg, Harmonielehre, 1911

  20. Summary • “tone colour” progressions = structured like chord progressions and melodies • Tone colour = “the second dimension of tone”

  21. B. A.Schönberg, “Farben” • 5 Orchestra Pieces, op. 16, no. 3 (1909) • Use of Klangfarbenmelodie • Process: harmony changes slowly • Canon between 2 groups of instruments • Tone colour “progression” as second layer to harmonic progression

  22. Score/Analysis/Recording • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFT6NIYMF1I

  23. III. Timbre Classified: Pierre Schaeffer

  24. A. Musique concrète • 1940s: Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry experiment with transforming recorded sounds using analog equipment in Radio France studios • Sources: sounds from the outside world • Processes: Classical forms and phrase structure applied

  25. Musique concrète example: Etude aux chemins de fer (1948) • Sources: train (railroad) sounds • “Unnatural” ordering and repetition • Source sounds -> SOUND OBJECTS (objets sonores), separated from their original CONTEXT • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFTo4UVYG8

  26. B. Pierre Schaeffer, Traité des objets musicaux (1968) • “Treatise on musical objects” • Treatise on the classification (분류하기)of all timbres into a solfège

  27. 1. “Reduced Hearing” • Separation of objet sonore (sound object) from its source • Elimination of source-bonding (pairing of source with sound object) • Reduction of universe of sounds to sound-object categories • Psychological, rather than acoustic classification system

  28. 2. Schaeffer’s sound classification scheme • 2 main criteria: mass and treatment

  29. Mass • M1 = pure tones • M2 = complex pitched sounds • M3 = complex, non-variable sounds • M4 = slightly varying sounds • M5 = highly varying sounds

  30. Treatment (facture): • F1-F3: Continuous • F4: Impulsive • F5-F7: Discontinuous

  31. [Chart]

  32. Schaeffer and the Objet musical • Musical contexts for sound objects • Class: musical morphology • Genus: musical character • Species: musical character, intensity, etc. • This classification system encourages analytic and intimate listening experience of sounds

  33. Schaeffer Introduction: Solfège de l’objet sonore (1967) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWMA_iRQSFg

  34. Objections • Can the sound really be separated from its source? Does the sound not contain its source? • As sounds change in time, are they best described as objects?

  35. IV. Timbre Analysed I: Melody-Harmony-Timbre-Orchestration

  36. Example: Jean-Claude Risset, Mutations (1969) • For electronics • Melody-> harmony-> bell timbre • Steady-state (time-constant) timbre • Inharmonic partials • Similar to harmonies and orchestration based upon trombone spectrum in Grisey’s Partiels

  37. Score and Recording Excerpt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRxTGLp8AY

  38. V. Timbre Analysed II: Cross-Synthesis

  39. A. Cross-Synthesis Defined • Creation of hybrid sound by combining spectral or temporal properties of time-constant OR time-varying sounds • E.g.: a violin with a trumpet amplitude envelope • E.g.: A bell with a voice spectral envelope • https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/SpecEnv/Application_Example_Cross_Synthesis.html

  40. B. Jonathan Harvey (b. 1939): Mortuous plango, vivos voco (1980) • What’s going on here? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdRzDx1_J4

  41. VI. Noise

  42. A. Definitions • 1) loud, unpleasant disturbance • 2) confusion • 3) irregular fluctations (변동) in a signal

  43. B. Acoustic Reality • Random amplitude fluctuations • No regular integer harmonics: all frequencies present

  44. C. Types of Noise • White • Pink • Brown

  45. D. Noise-Tone Continuum • There is no place where tone ends and noise begins • Therefore: tone and noise fall along a continuum

  46. E. Peter Ablinger: Der Regen, das Glas, das Lachen (1992) • Explores continuum between pure tone and white noise • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuf0IcZ0dVc

  47. 너무 감사합니다! • Next week: PRESENTATIONS! 

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