Dr. Andrew Schloss
Office: MacLaurin A177 Local: 721-7931
Office hours: Tues 4:30-5:30 pm or by appointment (email to confirm in either case)
email: aschloss at uvic dot ca

----NOTE: All emails to me pertaining to this class must have "MUS 207" in the title----

TA: Katie Sly
Office hours: TBA or by app't (email for appointment in any case)
email: kaitiesly at gmail dot com

Classes: MacLaurin Building A169: Tues, Weds, Fri 11:30 am

Text: The Science of Musical Sound, by John Pierce, coursepack (in bookstore)
(also includes "Communicating with Meaningless Numbers by David Zicarelli)

The Physics of Waves An optional primer on the physics of sound. Assumes knowledge of calculus and some differential equations.

Related courses at UVic in music and technology (not an exhaustive list)

Grading:
papers (1) 20%
quiz (1) 10%
mid-term exam 35%
final project 35%

Policy on Academic Integrity
Undergraduate Grading Scale

This course blends Musical Acoustics, History of Science, an introduction to computer music, and (for some students) an introduction to 20th century music and non-Western music. Issues involving the relationships among technology, culture and society are examined and are important to discussions. There are no prerequisites for this class, but some knowledge of music and/or computers is extremely useful. Note: students enrolled in MU207 are entitled to use the facilities in the Studios for Integrated Media (SIM), in the Fine Arts building across the ring road. In addition, the Media Centre in the library also has music/audio software and hardware.
 

On reserve or available in the library:
The Science of Musical Sound, by John Pierce
Wave Tutorial, by Peter Wolfenden (manuscript)
Current Directions in Computer Music Research, Mathews and Pierce
The Technology of Computer Music, Mathews
Computer Music Journal (CMJ) Strawn, et alia (in stacks, not on reserve)
The Music Machine Curtis Roads
Electric Sound, The Past and Promise of Electronic Music Joel Chadabe (may also be on reserve for MU307)
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn
Spectrum Analysis Tutorial, Jaffe (from Computer Music Journal)
Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones/book & CD Bart Hopkin Ellipsis Arts CD 3530 (pending acquistion by the library)

Schedule (please note that these entries are subject to slight variations):

Week 1 Sept 6            Reading: Chapt. 1
Introduction and Overview; what to expect. An informal survey of the class to find relative backgrounds of students in
Music, Mathematics, Computer Science, etc. What are digital media? Digitization as an approximation of reality–what are the advantages? The first music produced on a computer (at AT&T's Bell Labs). The divestiture of AT&T. What does human evolution have to do with music?

Week 2 Sept 12          Reading: Chapt. 2
Introduction to acoustics. Sinusoids, Hooke's law, SHM (simple harmonic motion)
sinusoids uniquely determined by amplitude, frequency/period and phase, phase cancellation: mathematical (in the computer) vs physical (in the room), phasors/complex sinusoids
SHM: Simulation of multiple masses

Week 3 Sept 19           Reading: Chapt. 3
Acoustics cont'd. The vibrating string, harmonics, harmonics vs partials, the harmonic series, Fourier Theory, additive synthesis, recipe for constructing complex waveform, time domain vs. frequency domain (square wave example), sndpeek demo, Fourier demo (java applet)

Week 4 Sept 26            Reading: Chapt. 4
Acoustics cont'd: v=fλ, Resonance, constructive and destructive interference, beats. Slinky demo of traveling waves and standing waves. Harmonic series demo with spinning tube vs Max/MSP simulation. Wave behavior (Light vs. Sound): reflection, linear superposition, refraction, diffraction, doppler shift. Nodes, modes, normal modes.

Week 5 Oct 3          Reading: Appendices A-F
The physics and mathematics of intervals, tuning systems and cents: Just, pythagorean, meantone, and equal temperament. Beats of mistuned consonances.
OPTIONAL MUSIC THEORY CLASS Oct 3

Week 6 Oct 10         Reading: Chapt. 5, 6
Information Theory, Digital Audio, Sampling, Nyquist and Shannon's Theory. Aliasing (discrete time) and quantization (discrete amplitude). The wheels of the stagecoach in cowboy movies--what exactly happens? The "ideal" lowpass (anti-aliasing filter). A/D and D/A converters. Lossy vs. lossless compression. Perceptual coding. How does a computer make music?

Digital audio -- zooming into a time-domain signal:

Week 7 Oct 17           Reading: Chapt. 7
Psychoacoustics: anatomy of the auditory system, the recording chain vs. the ear as a transducer
video: Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey

Week 8 Oct 24          Reading: Chapt. 8, 9, 10
Listening session: A brief overview of the 20th century.
Psychoacoustics cont'd: pitch perception, jnd, localization of sound, critical bands, missing fundamental, Seebeck's siren, JASA CD
ANIMATION: Auditory Transduction
QUIZ October 25 (practice for midterm)

Week 10 Nov 7         Reading: Appendices G, H
HW1 due Nov 10: Contributions and interactions in music, science and technology
(skipped:  The Twentieth Century (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, et alia)

Week 11 Nov 14         Reading: Chapt. 12
READING BREAK

Week 12 Nov 21         Reading: Chapt. 11, 14
MIDTERM NOVEMBER 21
Recording technology, MIDI and computer music systems, Pro Tools, etc.
"Intelligent" musical instruments. Software synthesis. Gesture detection. Algorithmic music. Max/MSP/jitter. The radiodrum, the LEAP controller.
Visualization of music, sonification

Week 13 Nov 28         Reading: Appendix I
FINAL PROJECTS, in-class demos, posters, through December 1
NOTE: NO CLASS ON DEC 1—National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Optional class: Basic Music Theory Musical intervals, scales, musical notation, the keyboard.

Studios for Integrated Media All students in MUS 207 have full access to this lab (across the Ring Road in the Fine Arts Bldg).

Demos:
sndpeek http://www.gewang.com/software/sndpeek/
Standing waves, resonance, reflected pulses, beats (monaural and binaural), sympathetic vibrations, etc.
Examples: Tacoma Narrow Bridge, singing in the shower, spilled coffee
Harmonics demo: whirling toy in conjuction w/ MSP patch that matches harmonics (and contrasts w/ ET approx of harmonics)
Music software: Max/MSP/Jitter, Pro Tools
Auditory Demonstrations CD (Acoustical Society), Video: International Computer Music Society ICMA
The radiodrum and physical modelling: Demo

Listening examples (some played in class):

Max Mathews: Bicycle Built for Two 1961 Wergo/ Computer Music Currents Vol 13
Tuvan throat singing (harmonic singing), Inuit throat singing (totally different from Tuva)
Digital Domain Elektra/Asylum Records. Contains Towers of Hanoi, Love in the Asylum, etc.
Any Resemblance is Purely Coincidental, Charles Dodge 1980 Wergo/CMC 11
Flora, Tod Machover 1989 Bridge BCD 9020
Wildlife CDCM/ Centaur
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Well-Tempered Productions
just-more-idle-chatter Paul Lansky CDCM/Centaur CD
wasting (same CD)
Rite of Spring, Stravinsky
Ionization, Varese
Oraison (1937) performed by Ensemble d'Ondes de Montreal -- played on Ondes Martenot (nearly a sine wave)
Quartet for the End of Time, Messiaen
Laurie Anderson
Steve Reich, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians
David Jaffe, Racing Against Time, Underground Economy
Radiohead/Paul Lansky/guitarist uses Max/MSP and now jitter for live video feeds

Videos (selection from list below):

CalTech Resonance documentary
Theremin documentary
NOVA documentaries
Forbidden Planet: the first all-electronic music sound track
Modulations documentary
Moog documentary
Wildlife performance at Stanford with David Jaffe (Theremin also performed at this concert)
Suite from Seven Wonders at Western Front
MSNBC video at CCRMA
UNI live performance in Cuba
NYU Interactive Arts Performance Series concert with Hilario Durán
DVD of Rhythmic Light, Fred Collopy
Seattle City Hall fiber-optic installation 2005
International Computer Music Association (ICMA) videos
Public Art video: Seattle Public Library
NIME 2005 DVD excerpts