Music 307
Introduction to Computer Music
FALL 2012
Dr. W. Andrew Schloss
Office: MacLaurin A177
Local: x7931 Office Hours: Weds 4:30-5:30 pm or by appointment
email: aschloss at uvic dot ca
TA: Darren Miller
Office:
Office Hours: TBA
email: emaildfm at gmail dot com
Classes: MacLaurin A168, B008, and the Laboratory for Extended Media
(LEM)
(default location: A168)
Tues 2:30-4:20 and Fri 2:30-3:20
TEXT: Coursepack, available in the bookstore. It contains:
1. Jean-Claude Risset, foreward to Electroacoustic Music: Analytical Perspectives, Thomas Licata, editor
2. K. Stockhausen, Four Criteria of Electronic Music, from Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews
3. Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse, Computer Music: Chapter 2, pp 25-61
4. John Chowning, The Synthesis of Complex Audio Spectra by Means of Frequency Modulation, Computer Music Journal 1977
5. David Jaffe, Ten Criteria for Evaluating Synthesis Techniques, Computer Music Journal 1995
6. Gareth Loy, Musicians Make a Standard: The MIDI Phenomenon, Computer Music Journal 1985
Supplementary texts availabe in the library:
Electric Sound by Joel Chadabe
Foundations of Computer Music edited by Curtis Roads and John
Strawn
The Music Machine edited by Curtis Roads
Twentieth Century Music by H.H. Stuckenschmidt
Computer Music by Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse: Chapter 2 and pp 80-85, 322-329
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Grove: Serialism
Articles on reserve in the library
A Tutorial on Digital Sound Synthesis Techniques by Giovanni De Poli
The Dysfunctions of MIDI Computer Music Journal 12(1): 19-28.
1988 by F. R. Moore
Communicating with Meaningless Numbers Computer Music Journal
15(4): 74-77 by David Zicarelli
Grading:
| Labs (5) | 40% |
| Midterm | 30% |
| Final Project | 30% |
Schedule (please note that these entries are subject to slight variations):
Week 1 Introduction, goals, expectations. A brief history of the
Twentieth Century.
Technology vs. aesthetics in computer music and
contemporary music in general. What is music? What is computer music?
The distinctions have as much to do with aesthetics as with technology/tools. Art vs. Technology: as old as the human race.
Music synthesis/analysis. CCRMA and IRCAM. Access to tools. Cahill, Theremin, Moog,
Buchla, Mathews, Boulez, Cage, et alia.
Sept 7 A brief history of Musique concrete. Henry, Schaffer,
et alia. Electronic vs. Electroacoustic vs. Computer Music.
LISTENING: Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time, Oraison Pour Quartout D'Ondes
READING: Risset's foreward to Electroacoustic Music
Week 2 Electronic/Electroacoustic/Computer Music. Aesthetics vs. technology. Non-destructive editing, EDL, what does real-time really mean? The "psychic" editor.
Sept 11
Musical examples of analog vs. digital synthesis.
LISTENING: Cage, Second Construction ("electronic aesthetic" but entirely acoustic music)
Week 3 Multitrack digital recording/editing using Pro Tools and other audio editors.
Field recording with portable flash recording and transfer to disk.
Sept 18 Lab 1 Electroacoustic
presentations (continue for next several classes). [Due: Ongoing,
beginning on Sept 18]
LISTENING: Schaeffer/Henry, Symphonie pour un homme seul; Beatles, Revolution 9; Koonce, Walkabout
READING: Chapter 2 of Computer Music (pp 25-61) by Charles Dodge
Week 4 Introduction to Max/MSP/jitter. MIDI protocol, binary
and hexadecimalumber number systems, polyphonic vs polytimbral
Sept 25 Lab 2 Musique Concrete using digital techniques [Due: Oct 2].
Analog synthesis, the Buchla synthesizer, VCA, VCO, Ring modulation, how to record session directly to disk.
Composition/aesthetics: Too many ideas vs. not enough ideas...
READING:
Loy's article on MIDI
Week 5 Digital recording chain, Nyquest theory, Aliasing, Compositional
Techniques
Oct 2 Musique Concrete Rostrum
Week 6 Synthesis techniiques: additive, subractive, non-linear, concatenative/granular.
Oct 9 Lab 3 Buchla
synthesizer [Due: Oct 19]
READING: Stockhausen's article on electronic music techniques
Buchla Rostrum
Week 7 Additive Synthesis, more MSP demos. Chowning's FM article.
Oct 16 Overview of synthesis Techniques, Fixed-waveform synthesis, additive, subtractive, non-linear (FM)
Waveshaping, Physical Modeling.
Week 8 Synthesis, cont'd
Oct 23 READING: Jaffe's synthesis article
Week 9 MAX vs MSP (sychronous vs asynchronous).
Oct 30 Computer Music performance videos (Suite from the Seven
Wonders, UNI, etc)
Lab 4 FM synthesis, Fourier Analysis, 3D spectra [Due Nov 9]
Week 10 More Max, reading from and writing to tables, creating your own sequencer
using the seq and multi objects.
Nov 6 Using tables to produce gaussian or specified-shape random generators
READING: Chowning's FM article
Week 11 READING BREAK (Monday-Weds)
MIDTERM: Friday, November 16 , TIMELINE of Music Technology
Week 12 Example: turning EEG data into sound and image, piano roll notation, score
following.
November 20
Week 13
November 27 Lab 5 Programming MIDI
using Max, creating your own MIDI environments. [Due Nov 23]
Max/MSP continued, using OSC (Open Sound Control) with arbitrary devices
Final
Projects [Due: December 14]
Listening materials (in addition to class presentations regarding Lab 1):
Paul Koonce: Walkabout
Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry: Symphonie pour un homme seul
Cage: Second Construction
Messaiaen: Oraison Pour Quartout D'Ondes and Louange a l'Eternite de Jesus
Final project due Friday, December 14 by 5 pm
Note: for all lab assignments, you must HAND IN A WRITTEN PAGE(s)
DESCRIBING YOUR WORK
(Musical materials, tracks, problems (if any), strategy, etc.)
You won't get a grade if there is no writeup!