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George Crumb: Makrokosmos, Volume II (1973), for amplified piano, Movt. XII, Spiral Galaxy (SYMBOL) Aquarius
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This paper examines the screening of music notations and the impact of this configuration in a live music performance situation. Before the development of graphical computing, Traditional music notation, was rarely shared with the anyone other than other musicians, composers and analysts; let alone displayed during the performance. However, some co...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... giving an audience associative imagery, you encourage a type of listening that is more visual than it is auditory. (Ibid p.12) In the Cut (2009) is a work for 5 instruments, each represented on the score by a different colour. ...
Context 2
... this way, the work's configuration of information is only made possible by the computer medium. Figure 10a. is a notional representation of the structure of a performance of Transit of Venus, showing the order of texture continuum material presented to players and interruptions by free sections throughout the work. ...
Similar publications
This paper examines the screening of music notations and the impact of this configuration in a live music performance situation. Before the development of graphical computing, Traditional music notation, was rarely shared with the anyone other than other musicians, composers and analysts; let alone displayed during the performance. However, some co...
This paper examines the screening of music notations and the impact of this configuration in a live music performance situation. Before the development of graphical computing, Traditional music notation, was rarely shared with the anyone other than other musicians, composers and analysts; let alone displayed during the performance. However, some co...
Citations
... íntimas con el arte plástico durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX, en la actualidad continúan esta conexión y, con la experiencia de la poesía sonora, comienzan a realizar partituras con la ayuda de realidad virtual y gaming (Vickery y Hope, 2011). Así, aunque las primeras partituras computacionales de este tipo aparecen desde de la década de 1990, su gran surgimiento se da en la década de 2010, año a partir del cual músicos de todas partes del mundo comienzan a generar PDD de forma casual y simultánea. ...
La lectura e interpretación musicales son el objeto del texto. No es sorpresa que los intérpretes que se acercan a la música escrita después de la segunda mitad del siglo XX mencionen problemas de legibilidad al abordar sus escrituras. La expansión de las formas tradicionales de notación musical —manuscrita— y su escritura en computadoras —mecanografiada— propone retos que, de no ser resueltos, pueden seguir dañando la relación entre compositores e intérpretes musicales.
Aunque los modos de ver pictóricos parecen lejanos al habitus musical, dentro de ellos se encuentran indicios o elementos que permiten diseñar algo como un boceto de ortografía musical para partituras complejas, tal como las dinámicas —aquellas que se mueven mientras dura la interpretación de la obra. Así pues, nuestro objeto de estudio será la notación musical que, aunque destinada a la interpretación prosódica y lírica, tiene numerosos usos, entre los que se encuentran aquellos que le da el arte plástico. De esta manera, observamos primero un indicio remoto, para concentrarnos en el movimiento Fluxus, la instalación sonora y terminar con la sinestesia; esta observación será explícita mediante las metodologías que utilizan los artistas plásticos de la notación musical. Finalmente, concluimos con una liga hacia la visualización de la notación realizada por las Partituras Digitales Dinámicas y, entre estas dos líneas, emitimos hipótesis para el diseño de la lectura del movimiento en las partituras que utilizan notación musical dinámica.
... Aunque existen algunos antecedentes en la década de 1990 con la obra de Winkler (2004), la gran explosión de estos se da en el nuevo siglo. (Hope y Vickery 2011b) Por otro lado estas nuevas partituras computacionales no tendrían lugar en la música actual si no fuera por una especie de reconciliación de la partitura con el compositor y el intérprete. (Cfr. ...
Pantallas nos informan; pantallas nos ponen en contacto con el mundo; pantallas nos vigilan; pantallas formulan nuestros deseos y extienden nuestros sentidos; pantallas registran, reproducen, producen, crean; pantallas nos sitian; pantallas trazan las sen ̃as de nuestra identidad subjetiva y
nuestro inconsciente colectivo; pantallas dan cuenta de nuestra felicidad y nuestra desesperaci ́on...
(Subirats 2003, 9)
Esta cita, heredera de Debord1 o Baudrillard (1993), da pie para hacer una reflexio ́n en torno a lo que tenemos enfrente cuando disen ̃amos la mu ́sica con los dedos, y se nos proyecta una luz que describe un mundo alternativo; similar, en potencia, al de nuestra memoria: una computadora.
En nuestro contexto de sociedad visual, el compositor maduro2 ha dejado de criticar la inca- pacidad expresiva de la partitura y observa las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnolog ́ıas para la creacio ́n visual de la mu ́sica. Muchos compositores, artistas del sonido e investigado- res musicales han contemplado la posibilidad de dejar de producir u ́nicamente sonido con las computadoras y comienzan a explorar las capacidades mediales de la producci ́on musical.
Podr ́ıamos resumir estas renovadas modalidades tecnol ́ogicas incluyendo en la partitura la capacidad de exhibir comportamiento y su puesta en el escenario, su performatividad.3 Para aprovechar estos conocimientos decidimos desarrollar una l ́ınea de investigaci ́on, que profundice sobre la escritura musical digital, con miras a entender de forma u ́til, la amplitud con la que se puede trabajar una partitura digital. Por esto el trabajo sera ́ de corte “panor ́amico”, con la amplitud correspondiente.
... This piece was In The Cut (2009) for violin, cello, bass clarinet, bass guitar and turntable with sub woofer and is shown in Figure 1. The piece does not treat harmony or meter in any 'traditional' way, adopting graphic notation as a way to better reflect a proportional approach to music composition [12]. ...
In 2009, the Decibel new music ensemble based in Perth, Western Australia was formed with an associated manifesto that stated “Decibel seek to dissolve anydivision between sound art, installation and music by focusing on the combination of acoustic and electronic instruments” [1]. The journey provided by this focus led to a range of investigations into different score types,
resulting in a re-writing of the groups statement to “pioneering electronic score formats, incorporating mobile score formats and networked coordination performance environments” [2]. This paper outlines the
development of Decibel’s work with the ‘screen score’, including the different stages of the ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’, an application (App) for reading graphic notation on the iPad. The paper proposes that the Decibel
ScorePlayer App provides a new, more accurate and reliable way to coordinate performances of music where harmony and pulse are not the primary elements
described by notation. It features a discussion of selected compositions facilitated by the application, with a focus
on the significance of the application to the author’s own compositional practices. The different stages in the development, from prototype score player to the establishment of a commercialized ‘Decibel ScorePlayer’, are outlined in the context of practice led
investigations.
... These challenges are discussed below. Decibel has been working with graphic, mobile and realtime screen scores for some time, and the Complete Variations Project has provided a possibility to apply experience and expertise gleaned from the creation of new works to the realization of historic pieces [23]. Each of the Variations has a performance score produced digitally, and realized in real time, where the computer performs cut ups, random placements, measurements, joining up of figures and realisation of the resulting score onto a computer screen or projection to be read by performers 3 . ...
... These challenges are discussed below. Decibel has been working with graphic, mobile and realtime screen scores for some time, and the Complete Variations Project has provided a possibility to apply experience and expertise gleaned from the creation of new works to the realization of historic pieces [23]. Each of the Variations has a performance score produced digitally, and realized in real time, where the computer performs cut ups, random placements, measurements, joining up of figures and realisation of the resulting score onto a computer screen or projection to be read by performers 3 . ...
To celebrate the centenary of John Cage’s birth in 1912, Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel undertook the realization of the John Cage’s completeVariations I – VIII. The works offer a unique insight into the development of Cage’s approach to composition practice, aleatoric approaches, spatial arrangements and the use of electronics. The preparation and reading of the scores that make use of transparent sheets (Variations I, II, III, IV and VI) has been adapted using digital score creators and readers. This permits real time generation of measurements and graphics, as well as the assemblage of performance symbols, that can occur during the actual performance of the works. This paper examines the approach to Variations IV (1963) and VI (1966) from the perspectives of digital adaption and the context of the program as a whole.
There are many ways in which wisdom pervades artistic discourse. It is only recently, however, that a concerted effort has been made to understand the wisdom embodied in music. Drawing from the literal translation of phonosophy, this article attempts to unveil what might be described as sonic wisdom from a composer’s perspective, derived from an interview between Australian philosopher Samuel McAuliffe and composer Cat Hope. Hope’s notational practice challenges the hierarchies established by common practice notation, resulting in her contemporary art music being accessible to a wider range of performers, including those that do not read any music notations. Engagement with Hope’s notation leads to a revealing and transfer of a different kind of sonic wisdom than found in more traditionally notated works, in a process facilitated by technologies and articulated through musicianship.
El interés de los creadores hacia las nuevas tecnologías está siendo renovado. En vez de utilizar las capacidades computacionales únicamente para generar sonido, un gran número de compositores, artistas del sonido e investigadores musicales están enfocando sus esfuerzos en producir métodos de interacción simbólico-dinámica entre un pensamiento creativo y una acción interpretativa. Es decir, generar una representación performativa de una obra musical mediante "partituras digitales". Esta tendencia del trabajo computacional se enfoca en cambiar el aspecto virtual (producido y ejecuta-do desde de la computadora) de la creación sonora, para enfocarse en la complejidad de la producción mediada y corporal del sonido-con la fragilidad que ello comporta. Y aunque este viraje no es excluyente, el compositor actual dispone de una potente herramienta de creación musical, que no sólo se limita a la transcripción de su manuscrito, sino que permite que la escritura musical exhiba comportamiento y cambie su performatividad. Este trabajo se centra en exponer una breve descripción del origen y emergencia de las partituras digitales actuales. Terminaremos examinando la obra "Lapso elástico", donde estas novedades se hacen presentes.
Para representar los distintos fenómenos sonoros, la notación gráfica —escritura musical originada a mediados del pasado siglo— hace uso de una gran variedad de elementos del lenguaje visual. En este tipo de notación, la partitura actúa no solo como registro y motor de la experimentación musical llevada a cabo por los compositores de vanguardia, sino también como territorio de ensayos y pruebas con los diferentes lenguajes visuales. Este artículo profundiza en el conocimiento de los distintos lenguajes visuales utilizados en la notación gráfica con el fin de comprender cómo se relaciona el concepto musical de cada obra y compositor con el lenguaje visual elegido para su representación gráfica. Así, se ha llevado a cabo un estudio interdisciplinar de determinadas obras representativas de la notación gráfica realizada desde mediados del siglo XX hasta nuestros días, seleccionando los lenguajes visuales del cómic, el collage, la escultura, el vídeo y la película, la fotografía y el dibujo. Esta pone de manifiesto la naturaleza sinestésica de la notación gráfica y destaca el carácter creativo de esta forma de escritura musical, generadora de nuevos procesos sonoros y artísticos, así como de sugerencias y recursos interpretativos. Se enfoca en el estudio de la notación gráfica como fenómeno sinestésico, musical y plástico, tomando como punto de partida el lenguaje visual propio de cada partitura para comprender cómo dialogan imagen y sonido en cada caso, cómo el pensamiento musical se materializa en una obra que es también plástica, y viceversa, cómo una obra plástica genera nuevos procesos sonoros.
This dissertation proposes a novel memetic framework and creative methodology to probe the mechanism underpinning the transmission of a composer’s intention to an audience, contending that cultural replicators – memes – drive our understanding of a composer’s intention. It is hypothesized that memes catalyse the creation of artefacts which, in turn, act as instigators for memetic replication in brains. Additionally, it is hypothesized that microsound – sound at the edge of perception – may play a key role as memetic instigator.
Thinking about these hypotheses and how they might be interrogated through works of organized sound (music, sonic art), yields creative deployment of microsound in primarily scored works. This creative process allows the researcher to arrive at a deeper understanding of memetics and to formalize the conceptual memetic framework and hypotheses described herein. In this way, theory and practice become interlocked in the search for evidence of memes in the creation of works of organized sound, and the role memes play in an audience’s ability to (re)construct the intention of a composer.
The scope of this methodology facilitated the creation of a large quantity of creative works throughout candidature, of which four notated/semi-notated musical compositions and one piece of software (made in MaxMSP) are included in the final thesis, with the other related works are included in the appendices and accompanying media. Mozart Variations is an open, graphical score for any number of musicians that assisted in formalising the small- meme stance; silver as a catalyst in organic reactions takes the meme as a metaphor, using existing data structures (a silver atom bonded with a carbon atom) as the source to be ‘read’, akin to genetic replication, and is for solo baroque violin; End to Reattain for violin and electronics is a structured improvisation that plays with microsound and its perceptual bases; It needs a big ‘ow’ sound; ow-nd... ground! for solo low woodwind attempts to trace the lineages of microsound (and by implication, memes) across multiple iterations of music, by ‘tracing’ composer Evan Johnson’s Ground and creating a variation piece that retains key structural information but is otherwise thoroughly transformed, and; Spectral Domain Microsound Amplification Software (SDMAS) is a software prototype to amplify those sounds in a frequency spectrum that are generally inaudible, and was deployed in pieces that are listed in the appendices. All works include a score and recording, or the software, as appropriate.
The author examines visual design considerations in the development of real-time screen scores. Such scores are shown to lend themselves particularly well to the representation of non-linear musical processes and the articulation of non-linear musical forms. The author argues that the foregrounding of such scores, through their projection for an audience and meticulous design, draws especial attention to the manner in which such non-linear processes are represented and in turn decoded by performers. While the transparency of the decoding process is shown to vary across a wide spectrum, the central role of the notational schema in works such as these is shown to align them in many ways with a broader interface aesthetics, promoting rich fields of creative and artistic enquiry.
