Composition (Music)

Stylistic Cohabitation in the First Movement of Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet

by Sergio Cote

Composition

by Mark Lindley

Published in “The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians” (1980).

This article addressed implicitly the issue of whether the Western musical terms, “compose” and “improvise,” should be applied to folk music and to most traditional kinds of non-Western music. The implicit answer is “no.”

In and Out of the Sound Studio conference on gender and technology

by Andra McCartney

Report on the In and Out of the Sound Studio conference, held at Concordia University in July 2005. Includes bio, abstracts and discussion. Some abstracts in English, some French. Mike Alleyne | Michele Anderson | Diane Ballon | Wende Bartley | Katherine
Binns | Hannah Bosma | Éveline Boudreau | David Cecchetto | Owen
Chapman | Sylvie Chenard | Andrea-jane Cornell | Shelley Craig | Elizabeth
Curry | Stacy Denton | Marcelle Deschenes | Beverley Diamond | Shona
Dietz | Chantal Dumas | Jennifer Eisler | AnneMarie Ennis | Victoria Fenner |
Chantal Francoeur | Michelle Frey | Anna Friz | Lisa Gasior | Mark Harris |
Mara Helmuth | Randolph Jordan | Kathy Kennedy | Lara Kohl | Jessica
Landry | Chantal Laplante | Diane Leboeuf | Charity Marsh | Andra
McCartney | Cherie F Moses | Michelle Nagai | Kip Pegley | Claire Piché |
Hélène Prévost | Sam Routley | Anna Rubin | Jacky Sawatzky | Karen
Sunabacka | Charlotte Scott | Oana Spinu | Rae Staseson | Nancy Tobin |
Barry Truax | Karen Vanderborght | Marian van der Zon | Doug van Nort |
Ellen Waterman | Hildegard Westerkamp | Airi Yoshioka | Andrea Young

In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in... more In and out of the sound studio conference

In and Out of the Studio took place at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec from July 25-29, 2005. The conference brought together independent artists, professors and students from across Canada, the United States and beyond to deliver papers, give lectures and perform their work. The event included a number of concerts featuring the participants, as well as a keynote address by Hannah Bosma, a researcher of women and electrovocal music in the Netherlands. The conference was part of the In and Out of the Sound Studio multimedia project, headed by Concordia professor Dr. Andra McCartney.

The In and Out of the Sound Studio project aimed to establish a greater sense of community among women sound producers separated by geographic space, occupation or disciplinary boundaries, and aimed to make the working methods and philosophies of women sound producers accessible to emerging and established artists, as well as scholars in the fields of communication studies, women's studies, cultural studies, media studies, and music. The conference was held in cooperation with SSHRC, the NFB, CIAM, Studio XX, CKUT, and the SAT.

Narrativity in Multimedia Composition

by Constantin Basica

During my Bachelor studies in Classical Composition, I often felt the need of giving eloquent titles to my pieces,... more During my Bachelor studies in Classical Composition, I often felt the need of giving eloquent titles to my pieces, which did not only describe the idea behind the piece through words, but rather implied that the piece was a story in itself. Titles like “Murder in a Glass” (piano solo), “Confrontations with a Mathematician” (string quartet), “The Strange Story of the Five Angry Insects” (wind quintet), “Confetti Cannot Become Snow” (sextet), “This War Has Already Been Led” (septet) or “Storm Over a House in Leymen” (orchestral) suggest that the music in these pieces aims to describe characters and events. However, at that time my titles were merely a connection between the musical content of the pieces and the imagination of the listeners. Although music is a universal language, my music was still abstract and I was not composing pieces with a clear message or plot in my mind. Things changed when I came to Hamburg and started learning Max/MSP/Jitter. A whole new world opened for me with countless possibilities of translating, mapping and expressing ideas through computer-aided media. Out of all, the combination between music and the realm of video, as well as the freedom of controlling multiple parameters of the audio-visual elements in real-time, were the most significant additions that allowed me to further develop my techniques of storytelling. The multimedia pieces written during my Master studies in Hamburg have emerged from different thoughts that have troubled me recently and convinced me to share them with other people. Since I am more of an introverted person, I referred to art in order to make a sense of these thoughts and emotions. This thesis explores the methods employed in the process of composing my pieces, while trying to explain their premises and purposes; in short – their narrativity.

Real Time Custom Spatialisation Patch for a large dimension and non conventional area

by Rafael Subía

Different sound spatialisation tools and methods have flourished and been perfected over the years. Conventional... more Different sound spatialisation tools and methods have flourished and been perfected over the years. Conventional methods are used in typical closed music spaces. Richard Moore’s “Space”, Michael Gerzon “Ambisonics” or even traditional “Equal power panning” have all been designed for a closed location with a sweet spot where the listener is placed. However, what to do when a different area other than ordinary music spaces need spatialisation? This paper describes how the spatialisation patch for Buenos Aires Sonora’s “Oi(r) el Ruido” intervention to the (45 x 15 meters) Argentinian Bicentennial Pavilion was cre- ated. How the method was picked out and how it was implemented in Pure Data (PD).

A ESPECTROMORFOLOGIA COMO DISCURSO: CONSIDERAÇÕES ACERCA DA OBRA TEÓRICA DE DENIS SMALLEY

by Maurício Perez

Este projeto de pesquisa teve como objetivo a compreensão da obra teórica do compositor Denis Smalley, a fim de... more Este projeto de pesquisa teve como objetivo a compreensão da obra teórica do compositor Denis Smalley, a fim de investigar as possibilidades do uso da teoria espectromorfológica como ferramenta de organização discursiva para a Música Eletroacústica de vertente Acusmática. Para tal propósito, este trabalho desenvolveu-se em três etapas. Primeiramente, selecionamos os textos do autor que tratam especificamente sobre a teoria espectromorfológica e os inter-relacionamos, buscando compreender como Smalley concebe o discurso musical em sua poética espectromorfológica. Posteriormente, visando verificar como a teoria de Smalley pode ser aplicada como ferramenta composicional no que tange à organização do discurso, fizemos a análise de uma peça acusmática sob os preceitos do autor e, como última etapa, propomos uma organização discursiva influenciada pelas ideias de Smalley.

Composing Music by Composing Rules: Design and Usage of a Generic Music Constraint System

by Torsten Anders

Anders, T. (2007). Composing Music by Composing Rules: Design and Usage of a Generic Music Constraint System. PhD thesis, Queen's University, Belfast.

This research presents the design, usage, and evaluation of a highly generic music con- straint system called... more This research presents the design, usage, and evaluation of a highly generic music con- straint system called Strasheela. Strasheela simplifies the definition of musical constraint satisfaction problems (CSP) by predefining building blocks required for such problems. At the same time, Strasheela preserves a high degree of generality and is reasonably efficient.

Strasheela is highly generic, because it is highly programmable. In particular, three fundamental components are more programmable in Strasheela compared with existing music constraint systems: the music representation, the rule application mechanism, and the search process.

Strasheela features an expressive symbolic music representation. This representation sup- ports explicitly storing score information by sets of score objects, their attributes, and their hierarchic nesting. Any information available in the score is accessible from any object in the score and can be used to obtain derived information. The representation is complemented by the notion of variables: score information can be unknown and such information can be constrained.

This research proposes a rule formalism which combines convenience and full user con- trol to express which score variable sets are constrained by a given rule. A rule is a first-class function. A rule application mechanism is a higher-order function. A rule ap- plication mechanism traverses the score in order to apply a given rule to variable sets. This text presents rule application mechanisms suitable for a large set of musical CSPs and reproduces important mechanisms of existing systems.

Strasheela is founded on a constraint programming model which makes the search process programmable at a high-level. The Strasheela user can optimise the search for a partic- ular constraint satisfaction problem by programming a distribution strategy (a dynamic variable and value ordering) independent of the problem definition. Special distribution strategies for efficiently solving various musical CSPs – including complex polyphonic problems – are presented.

Interfacing Manual and Machine Composition

by Torsten Anders

Anders, T., E. Miranda (2009). Interfacing Manual and Machine Composition. Contemporary Music Review. 28(2), pp. 133–147.

Computer-aided composition (CAC) is situated somewhere in the middle between manual composition, and automated... more Computer-aided composition (CAC) is situated somewhere in the middle between manual composition, and automated composition that is performed autonomously by a computer program. Computers cannot make aesthetic decisions on their own, they only follow orders. Aesthetic decisions are made by composers, both via the design of computer programs and by manually controlling these programs. The latter activity plays an important part in CAC. The composition process typically involves much emending and revising: changing how a computer program is controlled is easier and allows for a more intuitive way of working than changing the program itself. This paper argues that constraint programming is a particular suitable programming paradigm for flexibly interfacing manual and machine composition, and it presents techniques that demonstrate this flexibility.

A Survey of Constraint Programming Systems for Modeling Music Theories and Composition

by Torsten Anders

Anders, T., E. Miranda (2011). A Survey of Constraint Programming Systems for Modeling Music Theories and Composition. ACM Computing Surveys. 43(4).

Constraint programming is well suited for the computational modelling of music theories and composition: its... more Constraint programming is well suited for the computational modelling of music theories and composition: its declarative and modular approach shares similarities with the way music theory is traditionally expressed, namely by a set of rules which describe the intended result.

Various music theory disciplines have been modelled, including counterpoint, harmony, rhythm, form and instrumentation. Because modelling music theories `from scratch' is a complex task, generic music constraint programming systems have been proposed that predefine the required building blocks for modelling a range of music theories.

After introducing the field and its problems in general, this survey compares these generic systems according to a number of criteria such as the range of music theories these systems support.

A Computational Model for Rule-Based Microtonal Music Theories and Composition

by Torsten Anders

Anders, T., E. Miranda (2011). A Computational Model for Rule-Based Microtonal Music Theories and Composition. Perspectives of New Music. 48(2).

This paper presents a computational model for microtonal music theories and composition based on the constraint... more This paper presents a computational model for microtonal music theories and composition based on the constraint programming paradigm. The fundamental layer of this model is its pitch representation, which introduces variables for pitches, pitch classes, and (chord or scale) degrees, as well as their their dependencies. Constrainable representations for higher level pitch-related concepts such as chord and scale objects are defined. The model has been implemented in Strasheela, so that this model can be used together with other Strasheela feature (e.g., temporal score object hierarchies).

This paper demonstrates the proposed model in a number of case studies that implement microtonal theories of harmony, melody and counterpoint. These case studies also showed how the model supports various equal temperaments. We modeled a diatonic cadence in 12-tone equal temperament (12-TET); a 7-limit harmony progression in 31-TET and adaptive just intonation; a chord figuration of a chord from La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano in 41-TET; and finally first a melody and and then harmonic counterpoint with Paul Erlich's static symmetrical major scale in 22-TET.

The presented model supports equal temperaments only; we are currently working on an extension for arbitrary regular temperaments including just intonation.

COLLABORATION AND THE COMPOSER: CASE STUDIES FROM THE END OF THE 2OTH CENTURY

by Sam Hayden

Co-authored with Luke Windsor; Tempo (2007), 61 : 28-39

The folk view of composition is often that of an isolated, possibly unhinged genius, struggling alone at the piano or... more The folk view of composition is often that of an isolated, possibly unhinged genius, struggling alone at the piano or desk. However, in this article we will investigate the collaborative aspects of compositional life, showing how such an individualistic model of the composer is both accurate and inaccurate, and how this paradox is played out in current attempts to valorize collaborative work in composition. Although we intend some of the observations and conclusions from this article to generalize, we are fully aware that such a case-study can only really be illustrative and provocative. Given that this is the case we will finish by attempting to make some general points about the aesthetic and social contradictions which this study has brought to light. Our concern in this article is more prospective than retrospective: although we will refer to some historical data, we aim to reflect mainly on contemporary compositional practice in the West, and particularly the UK.

On making music with artificial life models

by Prof Eduardo R. Miranda

Los creadores y las nuevas tecnologías: el caso de la música

by Francisco José Cuadrado

Ponencia invitada en el curso Los nuevos profesionales ante las transformaciones del sistema audiovisual celebrado en la Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (Sevilla, septiembre 2008).

El presente artículo analiza el cambio producido en los procesos de creación y producción musical a raíz del... more El presente artículo analiza el cambio producido en los procesos de creación y producción musical a raíz del desarrollo e implantación de las nuevas tecnologías del audio digital y de la informática musical, así como las consecuencias que este cambio ha tenido sobre la calidad de la propia música. También se estudia el cambio producido en la industria de la música con la aparición de nuevas formas de distribución y consumo de música a través de internet y la reacción que este cambio de paradigma ha provocado tanto en los creadores como en los consumidores.

The Hearing Room: Combining Video Art and Electroacoustic Music

by Aaron Hynds

This is the final copy of my Senior Honors Thesis, submitted as partial fulfillment of the designation of University Honors with Distinction.

The Hearing Roomis a multimedia project intended to give its audience a unique audiovisual experience.  The... more The Hearing Roomis a multimedia project intended to give its audience a unique audiovisual experience.  The project takes the form of five videos, all of which include an electroacoustic soundtrack.  These videos will incorporate elements of other multimedia artists’ works, utilizing the aspects that make those works so effective. With The Hearing Room, the ultimate artistic goal is to give viewers a unique audiovisual experience, while alsocreating a series of works that are aesthetically pleasing and personally relevant.

Barn sin medverknad i musikalsk skaping

by Bjarne Isaksen

Published in Podium #2/2008 (Universitetet i Tromsø, Det kunstfaglige fakultet)

Eit forsøk på å komponere med førskuleborn Eit forsøk på å komponere med førskuleborn

Mother Lode Issues: Ralph Shapey's worksheet and the late music

by Christian Carey

Published in Perspectives of New Music Vol 47, no. 2

Keywords: Ralph Shapey, Mother Lode worksheet, contemporary composition, post-tonal analysis, twelve-tone row, string... more Keywords: Ralph Shapey, Mother Lode worksheet, contemporary composition, post-tonal analysis, twelve-tone row, string quartet

Abstract: From 1981 until his death in 2002, Ralph Shapey repeatedly employed the Mother Lode, a worksheet which included a twelve-tone collection, together with various pitch and rhythmic relationships that he associated with the row. The Mother Lode worksheet is an omnipresent precompositional tool. Shapey included it at the beginning of some of his published scores.

Patrick Finley and Mary Greitzer have both evaluated works from the 1980s in which Shapey was remarkably faithful to the ordering of linear elements, verticals, and rhythmic gestures found on the Mother Lode worksheet. Although more varied in its deployment, the Mother Lode worksheet still exerted a great degree of influence in Shapey's works from the 90s and 00s. Shapey's single-minded exploration of the potentialities of the worksheet is an essential component to an understanding of his late works.   

Review - Gerhard Nierhaus: Algorithmic Composition: Paradigms of Automated Music Generation

by Paul Doornbusch

http://www.computermusicjournal.org/reviews/34-3/doornbusch-nierhaus.html

This is a review of the book "Algorithmic Composition: Paradigms of Automated Music Generation" by Gerhard... more This is a review of the book "Algorithmic Composition: Paradigms of Automated Music Generation" by Gerhard Nierhaus. It was published by MIT Press' Computer Music Journal

Symphony in Five Movements: A Presentation and Analytical Discussion of a New Work in a Symphonic Form

by Carlton Wilkinson

Dissertation, Rutgers University, 1995

By way of the presentation of a new musical score titled Symphony in Five Movements, problems related to the... more By way of the presentation of a new musical score titled Symphony in Five Movements, problems related to the transference of traditional forms into a modern-day idiom are analyzed. A complete score for orchestra, analysis of its composition and problems involving the model of a Cantor Set are discussed. The author finds the use of a symphonic form to be anachronistic, useful as source of inspiration but not as a vital structure.

Musical form after the avant-garde revolution: A new approach to composition teaching

by Rafael Junchaya

The Six Chamber Concertos of Elliott Schwartz

by Stephen Soderberg

Liner notes for the CD Elliott Schwartz: Chamber Concertos Nos. I-VI. Boston Modern Orchestra Project (http://www.worldcat.org/title/chamber-concertos-i-vi/oclc/436031696&referer=brief_results)

CD Booklet reproduced at: http://bmop.org/sites/default/files/bmop_-_1013_-_elliott_schwartz_-_chamber_concertos.pdf

For general audience.