Music 307
Introduction to Computer Music
SPRING 2014

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: "Perspective" and Artistic Control.
January 7 Brief review of acoustics, signals, sampling. A very brief history of the Twentieth Century.
Technology vs. aesthetics in computer music and contemporary music in general.

Computer/Electronic/Electroacoustic Music—the distinctions have as much to do with aesthetics as with technology/tools. Art and 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.
LISTENING: Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time, Oraison Pour Quartout D'Ondes
READING: Risset's foreward to Electroacoustic Music

Week 2 A brief history of Musique concrete. Henry, Schaffer, et alia.
Jan 14 Non-destructive editing, EDL, what does real-time really mean? The "psychic" editor.
Musical examples of analog vs. digital synthesis.
LISTENING: Cage, Second Construction ("electronic aesthetic" but entirely acoustic music)
Lab 1 Electroacoustic presentations (continue for next several classes). [Due: Ongoing, beginning on Jan 14]

Week 3 Multitrack digital recording/editing using Pro Tools, Audacity, and other audio editors.
Jan 21 Field recording with portable flash recording and transfer to disk.
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.
Jan 28 Lab 2 Musique Concrete using digital techniques [Due: Feb 4].
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

READING: MAX/MSP digital audio tutorial
February 4 Musique Concrete Rostrum

Week 6 READING BREAK
Feb 11

Week 7 Synthesis techniiques: additive, subractive, non-linear, concatenative/granular.Aalto synthesizer
Feb 18 Lab 3 Buchla synthesizer [Due: February 21]
READING: Stockhausen's article on electronic music techniques
Buchla Rostrum

Week 8 Additive Synthesis, more MSP demos. Chowning's FM article.
Feb 25 Overview of synthesis Techniques, Fixed-waveform synthesis, additive, subtractive, non-linear (FM), Waveshaping, Physical Modeling.

Week 9 Synthesis, cont'd
March 4 READING: Jaffe's synthesis article

Week 10 MAX vs MSP (sychronous vs asynchronous).
March 11 Lab 4 FM synthesis, Fourier Analysis, 3D spectra [Due March 14]
READING: Chowning's FM article

Week 11 More Max, reading from/writing to tables, creating your own sequencer using the seq or detonate and multi objects.
March 18 MIDTERM: MARCH 18 , TIMELINE of Music Technology
Using tables to produce gaussian or specified-shape random generators

Week 12 Examples: turning EEG data into sound and image using the coll data structure, piano roll notation, score following.
March 25 Computer Music performance videos (Suite from the Seven Wonders, UNI, etc)

Week 13
April 1 Lab 5 Programming MIDI using Max, creating your own MIDI environments. [Due April 4]
Demos, Max/MSP continued, using OSC (Open Sound Control) with arbitrary devices, Aalto and Kaivo virtual synthesizers.
Final Projects [Due: April 18]

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, April 18 by 5 pm





Note: for all lab assignments, you must HAND IN A BRIEF WRITEUP DESCRIBING YOUR WORK
(Musical materials, tracks, problems (if any), strategy, etc.)
You won't get a grade if there is no writeup!