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A collection that goes beyond the canon to analyze influential yet under-examined works of electronic music. This collection of writings on electronic music goes outside the canon to analyze influential works by under-recognized musicians. The contributors, many of whom are composers and performers themselves, offer their unsung musical heroes the sort of in-depth examinations usually reserved for more well-known composers and works. They analyze music from around the world and across genders, race, nationality, and age, discussing works that range from soundscapes of rushing water and resonating pipes to compositions by algorithm. Subjects include the collaboration of performer and composer, as seen in the work of Anne La Berge, Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian, and others; the choice by Asian composers Zhang Xiaofu and Unsuk Chin to embrace (or not) Eastern themes and styles; and how technologies used by composers created the sound of the works, as exemplified by Bülent Arel's use of voltage-control components as compositional tools and Charles Dodge's resynthesizing of the human voice. Contributors Taylor Ackley, Marc Battier, Valentina Bertolani, Kerry L. Hagan, Yvette Janine Jackson, Leigh Landy, Pamela Madsen, Miller Puckette, David Rosenboom, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Anne Schedel, Juliana Snapper, Laura Zattra Composers Bülent Arel, Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio, Anne La Berge, Unsuk Chin, Charles Dodge, Jacqueline George, Salvatore Martirano, Teresa Rampazzi, Hildegard Westerkamp, Knut Wiggen, Gayle Young, Zhang Xiaofu

AAVV, Musica/Tecnologia, XIII (2019)

International audience

International audience

International audience

The work of Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) has been influenced by computer technology since 1969 at Princeton University, and later during a short course on Musys at the private Ems (Electronic Music Studios) of Peter Zinovieff. However, it was at Ircam (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) in Paris that he could finally fully explore his aesthetic vision, a passion for electronic music that lasted for twenty-eight years and resulted in eight pieces realised at the French Institute: among them the renowned tape piece Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980) and Ritual Melodies (1990), but also mixed pieces like Bhakti (1982), String Quartet No. 4 (2003), or Speakings (2008). This article focuses on Harvey’s collaborations with Ircam computer music designers Stanley Haynes, Jean-Baptiste Barriere, Denis Lorrain, Jan Vandenheede, Cort Lippe, Carl Faia, Gilbert Nouno, and Arshia Cont. This research, grounded on published and unpublished materials, and oral communications, does not focus on technical aspects, but rather on what Harvey and his collaborators did to create and organize smoothly their work, their modes of collaboration, their everyday workflow. Although relatively weak at the beginning, the evidence of collaboration and above all its recognition through available sources grows over time, since it is highly dependent on the awareness computer music designers have built up of their profession along the years. Moreover, the British composer is one of the few who always recognize, in statements, texts, articles or interviews, the important role of the assistants.

This paper bears on Agostino Di Scipio's work from the years 1987–2000. Early computer-generated pieces like Punti di tempo (1987) and Estensioni (1988) seem to reflect a kind of double artistic individuality. In the first piece, the musical structure is fragmented and the sound micro-structure is split in random particles. In the second (the only piece Di Scipio made with digital additive synthesis methods) both sound and the overall musical structure are worked out in a deeply deterministic way. This dualism returns frequently in Di Scipio's early career: the qualitative exploration of infinitesimal sonic units with related concepts of ‘granular’ sound, and a formalized approach to the musical macrostructure (algorithmic composition) seem to complement each other. In the winter of 1994–1995, Di Scipio started working with real-time signal processing and live electronics. He started investigating space-related phenomena, and to address himself to composing the instruments (i.e. designing the overall perf...

During his last decade (1980–90), Luigi Nono invested considerable time and effort exploring and studying sound produced by acoustic instruments and modified using ‘live electronic’ techniques. To ...

International audience

In the realm of electronic music institutes, CSC’s activity goes back to digital prehistory and marks the birth of computer music production in Italy. This article briefly summarizes an historical overview of the centre showing technological advances and diverse musical works. Section 2 presents the status of preservation following a scheme which goes from general projects (cataloguing, re-recording), passing through the description of some material realised at the centre (musical pieces, software for performance) and finally describes specific research or projects in audio, software and instrument preservation and/or restoration. Section 3 is a consideration of the role of the CSC in the history of electronic music centres.

cote interne IRCAM: Zattra13a; None / None; International audience; Les origines du nom de RIM (Réalisateur en informatique musicale)

An electroacoustic musical work is a complex network of processes and elements: technical, musical, human, etc.; therefore, while the aesthetic perception is unified, its definition is fragmentary. This observation compels us to intensify our study of a taxonomy of agents and processes, with the aim of clarifying the identity of this music.The discussion is positioned according to two different vantage points: (i) analysis of works, and (ii) the writings devoted to the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. Musicological analysis is simultaneously the means, the goal and the motivation for getting to know this arborescent reality. It allows us to arrive at the identification of six agents and four processes associated with the work, whose main properties we will describe. These elements are used as a methodological and theoretical grid for organising the discussion about the works. The question centres on a paradigm which is created from the analysis and returns to it, as an essential link between hermeneutic knowledge and the knowledge of the internal logic of an electroacoustic work.

Throughout the history of electroacoustic music, creative collaboration has been a constant feature due to the complexity of the technology. All laboratories and electronic music studios involved the presence of different individuals with diverse, intertwined competencies. In particular, the embedding of technological tools into the process of musical creation prompted the rise of a new “agent” called the Computer Music Designer (CMD), who can work in writing, creating new instruments, recording and/or performance. Audiences as well as the academia have long been unaware of this emerging profession and its crucial role in the creative process of electroacoustic, electronic and computer music. This study sheds light on the socio-professional profile and expertise of the CMD in order to better understand how computer music design contributes to shaping electronic music as we know it. We present the methodology and outcomes of a questionnaire submitted to several CMDs. The purpose was to investigate this emerging community by means of an instrument permitting anonymity. Findings help to understand how the CMDs perceive their profession; trace common paths and habits among CMDs; and study this community from the point of view of their age, training, tasks, legal status, recognition, skills, professional identity and involvement in technological migration. The questionnaire instrument is appended.

International audience

International audience; Performers face unconventional situations when preparing real-time mixed music works. Specifically, the technological context (computer and audio setups) as well as the social context (computer sound designers, musical assistants or sound engineers) extends the performance environment. In this chapter, we investigate instrumentalists’ expertise as it relates to acts of apperception, appropriation, and interaction with live electronics in case of solo works. We conducted semi structured interviews with twelve instrumentalists and analysed the data according to grounded theory. This study revealed, notably, a broad range of work strategies, departing from those in instrumental music, that performers implement in their appropriation of this repertoire. Both the technological and the human requirements, specific to this repertoire, critically transform the production context. We argue that solo works with live electronics are developing a new paradigm for chamber music and participates in a critical transformation of chamber music's definition.