Music, Sound, Performance
Listening test Wednesday, October 3, 12
What is sound? An oscillation of pressure composed of frequencies with the hearing range Oscillation e.g. pendulum, spring Hertz (Hz): Frequency, cycles per second Period = 1/f (100 Hz = 1/100 = 0.01s = 10ms) H. Helmholtz Every (complex) sound can be broken down to a simple sine wave - The basis for FFT Wednesday, October 3, 12
What is sound? How the brain processes and perceives sound Psychoacoustics: Human hearing range 20 Hz - 22,000 Hz MP3 compression Music Psychology: Sound illusions, absolute pitch Harmonics, Overtones, Timbre Wednesday, October 3, 12
What is music? Wednesday, October 3, 12
Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring (1913) Arnold Schoenberg, Serialism (1920 s ~) Conlon Nancarroway, Studies for player piano (1948-1992) Wednesday, October 3, 12
Edgard Varése I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm (1917) Wednesday, October 3, 12
And here are the advantages I anticipate from such a machine;...unsuspected range in low and high registers... the possibility of obtaining any differentiation of timbre, of sound-combinations; new dynamics far beyond the present human-powered orchestra...cross-rhythms unrelated to each other...since the machine would be able to beat any number of desired notes, any subdivision of them, omission or fraction of them-all these in a given unit of measure or time that is humanly impossible to attain. (1939) Wednesday, October 3, 12
Electronic Sounds / Sound Synthesis
Karlheinz Stockhausen Kontakte (1958-1960) Wednesday, October 3, 12
John Cage (1912-1992) Indeterminate Music Prepared Piano Chance Operation Multi-media theater / performance Silence Imaginary Landscapes Cartridge Music Music for Modern Dance Mycologist 4 33 Wednesday, October 3, 12
John Cage 4 33 (1952)
When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings or about his ideas, of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic here on sixth avenue for instance, I don t have the feeling that anyone is talking, I have the feeling that a sound is acting, and I love the activity of sound. What it does, is it gets louder and quieter, and it gets higher and lower. And it gets longer and shorter. I m completely satisfied with that, I don t need sound to talk to me. Wednesday, October 3, 12
John Cage Variations VII
Music Concréte, Acousmatic Music, Tape Music
Pierre Schaeffer Traditional music begins as an abstraction (musical notation) that is later produced as audible music. Musique concrète, by contrast, strives to start with the "concrete" sounds that emanate from base phenomena and then abstracts them into a composition. The term musique concrète is then, in essence, the breaking down of the structured production of traditional instruments, harmony, rhythm, and even music theory itself, in an attempt to reconstruct music from the bottom up. Wednesday, October 3, 12
Dick Raaijmakers Pianoforte (1959) Wednesday, October 3, 12
Trevor Wishart Red Bird (1978) Wednesday, October 3, 12
Amplification & Feedback
Jimi Hendrix Wednesday, October 3, 12
Resonance & Infrasound
David Tudor Rainforest (1968, 1973) The basic notion, which is a technical one, was the idea that the loudspeaker should have a voice which was unique and not just an instrument of reproduction, but as an instrument unto itself. Wednesday, October 3, 12
Ultrasound
Alvin Lucier Vespers (1968) Each performer is supplied with a Sondol (sonar-dolphin), a hand-held echolocation device which emits a fast, sharp, narrow-beamed click whose repetition rate can be varied manually, and is given the task of orienting himself in the dark by means of scanning the environment and monitoring the relationship between the outgoing and returning pulses. When the pulse repetition rate is adjusted so that the returning echo is half-way between the outgoing pulses, an object appears to emit sound, the quality of which depends upon the material of the object itself. Moving from place to place the performer discovers clear pathways, avoids obstacles and takes slow sound photographs of his surroundings. Wednesday, October 3, 12
Phasing & Beating
Steve Reich Clapping Music (1972) Wednesday, October 3, 12
Steve Reich Clapping Music Wednesday, October 3, 12
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (1978)
Sampling, Cut-up, Mash-up
Dub, Versions, Remixing
Wednesday, October 3, 12
20th Century: The liberation of sound New instruments, new sounds, new music Sound phenomena & perception as musical inspiration Theremin - sound synthesis, electronic sounds Electric guitar - amplification, feedback, distortion Turntable - sampling, dance music Wednesday, October 3, 12
21th Century:? The Laptop -? Wednesday, October 3, 12
Deadmau5 We all hit play...its no secret. when it comes to live performance of EDM that s about the most it seems you can do anyway. It s not about performance art, its not about talent either I think given about 1 hour of instruction, anyone with minimal knowledge of ableton and music tech in general could DO what im doing at a deadmau5 concert. i just roll up with a laptop and a midi controller and select tracks n hit a spacebar. Wednesday, October 3, 12
2. Max/MSP http://cycling74.com/ 3. Oscillation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oscillation H. Helmholtz, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hermann_von_helmholtz#acoustics_and_aesthetics 4. A frontal section of the human ear, http://www.medtrng.com/anatomy%20lesson/bhp14.htm 5. Bat's echolocation http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/mystery_detectives/learn/bathymetry/index.html 6. Music Psychology http://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=101 7. Audio illusions http://listverse.com/2008/02/29/top-10-incredible-sound-illusions/ 8. Tuvan Throat singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy1pcethi_w 9. Pacôme Béru & Yann Leguay, The tune the old cow died of (2009) https://vimeo.com/28262820 10. Chromatic scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/chromatic_scale 11. Try listening to Nancorrow's Study for Player Piano http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ubepzlkacco 12,13. E, Varése, The liberation of sound http://helios.hampshire.edu/~hacu123/papers/varese.html 14. E. Varese, Ionisation (1929-31) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4khqrpw 16. Leon Theremin, Theremin (1928) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9o6c20o 17. Karlheinz Stockhausen 1964 at WDR 18. K Stockhausen Kontakte (1958-60) part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ant6a5xfone part 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-k1p92azk8&feature=relmfu 21. John Cage, 4 33 (1960) Tacet Tacet Tacet version 22. John Cage on Silence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pchnl7as64y 25. Pierre Shaeffer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pierre_schaeffer 26. Dick Raaijmakers, Pianoforte (1959) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uxfm8cl47u 27. Trevor Wishart, Red Bird (1978) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lekll7o8yrc Wednesday, October 3, 12
29. Jimi Hendrix, Feedback 31. David Tudor, Rainforest (1973) 32. Mark Bain Archisonic (Maritime Edition, 2008) https://vimeo.com/2366864 34. Alvin Lucier, Vespers (1968) http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review/2008/02/20/net_music_weekly-vespers-by-alvinlucier/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irh3njjt9y0 35. Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Sonolevetation (2009) http://www.portablepalace.com/ 37. Clapping Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhhvgdqs_h4 38. Animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu-trxgordg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Clapping_Music 40. DJ Total Eclipse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=133vrl7qnqg 42.John Oswald, Oh Hell (1991) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbznpairdza 43. Danger Mouse, The grey Album (2003) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_grey_album http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erdta-c8djy&feature=bf_prev&list=pl4fe810a8e43a5d3d 45. Lee Scratch Perry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lee_%22scratch%22_perry 48. Aphex Twin, Boy/Girl Song (1996) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycsrmesanam 49. Ryuichi Sakamoto & Christian Fennez (2007) 50. Deadmau5, http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/25690507284/we-all-hit-play 51. Edison at STEIM Patterns + Pleasure Festival (2011) https://vimeo.com/33593893 52. Michel Waisvisz, http://crackle.org/ 53. Michel Waisvisz, STEIM Archive (2003) 54. Yao, Chung Han, LLSP (2011) 56. Nicolas Collins, Trombone Propelled Electronics (1994) http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=89jbl0zuah4 57. Nicolas Collins, STEIM Archive (1994) Wednesday, October 3, 12