3 класс в современных ритмах мюзикл

Compositional Languages Fall 2012

Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN Tuesday 13:00-15:00 Lecture XII (LAST LECTURE!)

End-of-Semester Schedule

12/04: Musical “Timbre” 12/11: Final Project Presentations; Study Guide distributed 12/18: FINAL EXAM (??)

Assignment III

DUE TODAY! (??)

Topics

I. Musical Timbre Defined (?) II. Musical Timbre Structured: Klangfarbenmelodie III. Musical Timbre Classified: Musique concr?te IV. Musical Timbre Analysed I: Melody-Harmony-Timbre-Orchestration V. Musical Timbre Analysed II: Cross-Synthesis VI. Noise

I. Musical Timbre (

?) Defined

A. Dictionary Definition

“the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from pitch and intensity” Origin: French (timbre); Greek (tumpanon) = “drum”

What does this mean

Timbre is: NOT pitch/harmony (but related) NOT rhythm NOT intensity NOT register So what is it?

(Imprecise) Timbre descriptors

Rough/smooth Rich/poor Thick/thin Complex/simple Nasal Flute-ish, Violin-ish, etc. Stable/unstable Attack-oriented/resonant ???

B. Classical Definition: Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone (1863)

Helmholtz/Fourier Definition

Complex tone = sum of sinusoids

Problem with Helmholtz’ Theory

Timbre defined as time-constant (or “steady-state”) spectrum Most sounds are time-varying (change in time)

C. Time-Varying Timbral Parameters

1. Amplitude Envelope Components

2. Spectral Envelope

Unfolding of a sound’s spectrum over time e.g., brass instruments: high harmonics rise later than lower ones

3. Other Sources of Time Variation

Vibrato (frequency variation) and tremolo (amplitude variation) Crescendo: gradual shift in spectral energy, tuning, resonance, pitch-to-noise ratio

D. J.K. Randall, “Three lectures to scientists” (1967)

“It seems to me that any psycho?acoustician who forges ahead blithely out of touch with current concerns in musical analysis and musical composition is putting himself in an excellent position to produce silly science, silly music, or silly both.”

E. Composer Definitions

1) timbre as distinct and mobile “parameter”? 2) as reducible to quantifiable, atomic parameters? 3) timbre-harmony-pitch (+ rhythm) continuum/ambiguity/fusion? In Ravel, Wagner, Scelsi, spectral music… 4) as determined by human “modes of production” and/or anatomy of the instrument (e.g., scordatura) 5) as multi-dimensional and constantly in flux

II

Timbre Structured: Klangfarbenmelodie

A. Klangfarbenmelodie

“The evaluation of tone color, the second dimension of tone, is in a much less cultivated, much less organized state than is the aesthetic evaluation of pitch…Now, if it is possible to create patterns out of pitches, patterns we call ‘melodies,’ progressions, whose coherence evokes an effect analogous to thought processes, then it must be also possible to make progressions out of…tone color, progressions whose relations to one another work with a kind of logic entirely equivalent to that logic which satisfies us in the melody of pitches.” –Sch?nberg, Harmonielehre, 1911

Summary

“tone colour” progressions = structured like chord progressions and melodies Tone colour = “the second dimension of tone”

B. A.Sch

nberg, “Farben”

5 Orchestra Pieces, op. 16, no. 3 (1909) Use of Klangfarbenmelodie Process: harmony changes slowly Canon between 2 groups of instruments Tone colour “progression” as second layer to harmonic progression

Score/Analysis/Recording

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFT6NIYMF1I

III

Timbre Classified: Pierre Schaeffer

A. Musique concr

te

1940s: Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry experiment with transforming recorded sounds using analog equipment in Radio France studios Sources: sounds from the outside world Processes: Classical forms and phrase structure applied

Musique concr

te example: Etude aux chemins de fer (1948)

Sources: train (railroad) sounds “Unnatural” ordering and repetition Source sounds -> SOUND OBJECTS (objets sonores), separated from their original CONTEXT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFTo4UVYG8

B. Pierre Schaeffer, Trait

des objets musicaux (1968)

“Treatise on musical objects” Treatise on the classification (????) of all timbres into a solf?ge

1. “Reduced Hearing”

Separation of objet sonore (sound object) from its source Elimination of source-bonding (pairing of source with sound object) Reduction of universe of sounds to sound-object categories Psychological, rather than acoustic classification system

2. Schaeffer’s sound classification scheme

2 main criteria: mass and treatment

Mass

M1 = pure tones M2 = complex pitched sounds M3 = complex, non-variable sounds M4 = slightly varying sounds M5 = highly varying sounds

Treatment (facture):

F1-F3: Continuous F4: Impulsive F5-F7: Discontinuous

[Chart]

Schaeffer and the Objet musical

Musical contexts for sound objects Class: musical morphology Genus: musical character Species: musical character, intensity, etc. This classification system encourages analytic and intimate listening experience of sounds

Schaeffer Introduction: Solf

ge de l’objet sonore (1967)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWMA_iRQSFg

Objections

Can the sound really be separated from its source? Does the sound not contain its source? As sounds change in time, are they best described as objects?

IV

Timbre Analysed I: Melody-Harmony-Timbre-Orchestration

Example: Jean-Claude Risset, Mutations (1969)

For electronics Melody-> harmony-> bell timbre Steady-state (time-constant) timbre Inharmonic partials Similar to harmonies and orchestration based upon trombone spectrum in Grisey’s Partiels

Score and Recording Excerpt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQRxTGLp8AY

V. Timbre Analysed II: Cross-Synthesis

A. Cross-Synthesis Defined

Creation of hybrid sound by combining spectral or temporal properties of time-constant OR time-varying sounds E.g.: a violin with a trumpet amplitude envelope E.g.: A bell with a voice spectral envelope https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/SpecEnv/Application_Example_Cross_Synthesis.html

B. Jonathan Harvey (b

1939): Mortuous plango, vivos voco (1980)

What’s going on here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdRzDx1_J4

VI

Noise

A. Definitions

1) loud, unpleasant disturbance 2) confusion 3) irregular fluctations (??) in a signal

B. Acoustic Reality

Random amplitude fluctuations No regular integer harmonics: all frequencies present

C. Types of Noise

White Pink Brown

D. Noise-Tone Continuum

There is no place where tone ends and noise begins Therefore: tone and noise fall along a continuum

E. Peter Ablinger: Der Regen, das Glas, das Lachen (1992)

Explores continuum between pure tone and white noise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuf0IcZ0dVc

?? ???

?!

Next week: PRESENTATIONS! ?