Music 307
Introduction to Computer Music
FALL 2016
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
NOTE: All emails pertaining to this class must have "MUS 307" in the title.
TA: Colin Malloy
Office Hours: TBA
email: TBA
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:
Electronic Music and Sound Design - Theory and Practice with Max and Msp - Volume 1 (Second Edition, Upd. for Max 6 Edition), by Alessandro Cipriani and Maurizio Giri
There is also a much less expensive iBook/iPad/iPhone version: Electronic Music and Sound Design
If you already have the book, designed for Max 5, you can download the addenda; we are now up to Max 7.3.
Articles online:
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
LIVE version of Stockhausen lecture
3. John Chowning, The Synthesis of Complex Audio Spectra by Means of Frequency Modulation, Computer Music Journal 1977
4. 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
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Grove: Serialism
Supplementary Articles:
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: To gain"perspective" and artistic control
September 9 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 vs Electronic vs Electroacoustic Music--the distinctions have as much to do with aesthetics as with technology/tools
Art and Technology: as old as the human race (well, not quite)
Music synthesis/analysis. CCRMA and IRCAM. Access to tools. Cahill, Theremin, Moog,
Buchla, Mathews, Boulez, Cage, et alia.
LISTENING: Paul Koonce: Walkabout
READING: Risset's foreward to Electroacoustic Music and (optional): MAX/MSP digital audio tutorial
Week 2 A brief history of Musique concrete. Henry, Schaffer,
et alia
Introduction to Max/MSP/jitter, MIDI protocol, binary
and hexadecimal number
systems, polyphonic vs polytimbral. Max vs MSP (sychronous vs asynchronous). <option> click for live help in Max
LISTENING:
Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time, Oraison Pour Quartout D'Onde
Sept 13 Non-destructive editing, EDL, what does real-time really mean? The "psychic" editor, the futility of processing speed in the context of normalization.
Musical examples of analog vs. digital synthesis
LISTENING: Cage, Second Construction ("electronic aesthetic" but entirely acoustic music)
Interlude: aleatoric (Cage) vs stochastic (Xenakis) approaches to chance operations in music
Lab 1 Electroacoustic
presentations (continue for next several classes). [Ongoing,
beginning on Sept 20]
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 1T / section 1.3 (page 25)
Week 3 Multitrack digital recording/editing using Pro Tools, Audacity, and other audio editors.
Sept 20 Field recording of source materials for the musique concrete project
Lab 2 Musique Concrete using digital techniques [Due: Oct 4].
LISTENING: Schaeffer/Henry, Symphonie pour un homme seul; Beatles, Revolution 9
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 1P section 1 (page 50)
Pierre Henry: ou l'art des sons (or the art of sounds 52 mins)
Pierre Henry: Danse Electromatic 5 mins)
Pierre Schaeffer & Pierre Henry: Orphee 53
Week 4 Analog synthesis, the Buchla synthesizer, VCA, VCO, Ring modulation, how to record session directly to disk. Bipolar vs unipolar waveforms; band-limited (or anti-aliased) vs non-band-limited generators.
Sept 27 Composition/aesthetics: Too many ideas vs. not enough ideas...
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 1P/section 1.2 (page 70)
Week 5 Digital recording chain, Nyquest theory, Aliasing, Compositional
Techniques
Oct 4 READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 1P/section 1.4 (page 98).
How to set up the Buchla in the studio. Please be gentle! This Buchla is an antique, a relic...
How to use Max in the studio.
Week 6
Oct 11 READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 1P/section 1.6 (page 110) Buchla sessions in the studio
Week 7 Synthesis techniques: additive, subractive, non-linear, concatenative/granular, envelopes, LFO's
Oct 18 Musique Concrete Rostrum
READING: Stockhausen's lecture on electronic music techniques
Week 8 Additive Synthesis, more MSP demos.
Oct 25 Overview of synthesis techniques, Fixed-waveform synthesis, additive, subtractive, non-linear (FM), Waveshaping, Physical Modeling.
Lab 3 Buchla
synthesizer [Due: Oct 28th]
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Interlude A (page 141)
Week 9 Synthesis, cont'd
Nov 1 ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Interlude 1A7 (page 176)
Buchla Rostrum
Week 10 READING BREAK
Nov 8 Lab 4 FM synthesis, Fourier Analysis, 3D spectra [Due Nov 18]
READING: Chowning's FM article, ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 2T (page 208)
Week 11 More Max, reading from/writing to tables, creating your own sequencer
using the seq or detonate and multi objects
MIDTERM: NOVEMBER 15, 1950-1980 Composers, TIMELINE of Music Technology
Using tables to produce gaussian or specified-shape random generators
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 2T / section 2.3 (page 244)
REMINDER: ORION LECTURES ON THURSDAY/FRIDAY NOV 17/18
Week 12 Examples: turning EEG data into sound and image using the coll data structure, piano roll notation, score
following
Nov 22 Computer Music performance videos (Suite from the Seven
Wonders, UNI, etc)
READING: ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Up to Chapter 2P / Practice (page 324)
Week 13
Nov 29 Lab 5 Algorithmic control of FM synthesis using Max/MSP. [Due Dec 2]
Demos, Max/MSP continued, using OSC (Open Sound Control) with arbitrary devices, Aalto and Kaivo synthesizers
Final
Projects [Due: December 16]
OTHER INTERESTING MUSIC/AUDIO PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS (open source):
Listening examples (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
Sound design for Forbidden Planet
Wendy Carlos on tuning systems
Final project due Friday, DECEMBER 16 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!