Spectral Composition (Music)

G. Grisey, Tempus ex Machina cit., pag. 44 della versione francese. 11 G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Che cos'è la filosofia? cit., pag. 38. Deleuze fa riferimento a Spinoza, forse l'unico filosofo del passato che a suo parere sia riuscito a concepire ed affermare senza compromessi «l'immanenza immanente solo a se stessa», e a Bergson, che nel I° capitolo di Materia e memoria traccia un piano o un taglio sul caos, seguendo il movimento infinito della materia che non cessa di propagarsi, divenendo l'immagine di un pensiero che non cessa di spargere ovunque una pura coscienza di diritto. È perciò necessario seguire Bergson per rovesciare radicalmente il rapporto tra immanenza e coscienza, ponendo la seconda interamente nella prima anziché il contrario. 12 G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Che cos'è la filosofia? cit., pag. 48. 13 Deleuze scrive: «Se c'è un'età moderna è, indubbiamente, quella del cosmico [...] Le materie d'espressione lasciano il posto a un materiale di cattura. Le forze da catturare non sono più quelle della terra che costituivano ancora una grande Forma espressiva, ma le forze di un Cosmo energetico, informale e immateriale» (G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Mille piani cit., pp. 449-500). Rilevante, inoltre, è che il filosofo francese descriva il piano come una macchina astratta i cui pezzi sono i concatenamenti o i concetti filosoficamente intesi (Che cos'è la filosofia? cit., pag. 26). Anche Grisey preferisce parlare di forze anziché di forma e attinge all'immagine della rete orizzonatale di relazioni esistenti nel cosmo per concepire una musica che integri tutti i suoni derivandoli dalla rete di connessioni esistenti tra loro (G. Grisey,

This paper presents SonaGraph, a framework and an application for a simplified but efficient harmonic spectrum analyzer suitable for assisted and algorithmic composition. The model is inspired by the analog Sonagraph and relies on a constant-Q bandpass filter bank. First, the historical Sonagraph is introduced, then, starting from it, a simplified ("cartoonified") model is discussed. An implementation in SuperCollider is presented that includes various utilities (interactive GUIs, music notation generation, graphic export , data communication). A comparison of results in relation to other tools for assisted composition is presented. Finally, some musical examples are discussed, that make use of spectral data from SonaGraph to generate, retrieve and display music information.

Mixed pieces combining instruments and electronics call for extending the conventional concepts of pitch, duration, dynamics and timbre. A preoccupation with pitch in the instrumental domain is opposed to a predominance of timbral thinking in the acousmatic domain. Composers need to find links between these prevailing notions. Smalley's continua between note and noise/gesture and texture embrace a wide range of possible transformations. Applying these continua to the instrumental and the electronic domain dissolves the fixation of lattice-based with instrumental, and sound-object with electronic music. In mixed pieces, the play with expectations of what each medium should be doing leads to intricate relationships. This paper will explain aesthetic ideas and compositional techniques evolving from pieces that equally draw on acousmatic and instrumental idioms. For my piece Atmungsaktiv I developed a set of generative tools on the basis of spectral transformations. The paper will describe their technical implications and the way they enable a structurally cohesive approach – which is equally applicable to electronic and instrumental writing. A less stringent separation of instrumental and electronic music combines a variety of characteristics; it also demands compositional solutions which penetrate both domains. Introduction From the perspective of the composer, acousmatic art and instrumental music can seem like two entirely different media. In the acousmatic domain the composer directly crafts sound as it will be performed in the concert hall. In instrumental music the composer relies on performers to interpret the written score. While in acousmatic art recordings taken from the environment may be employed to evoke associations with real situations, the sounds produced by musical instruments are rendered solely for the purpose of music making. The physical foundations of the two media exhibit distinct features. Sound projected over loudspeakers is marked by directionality and clear definition – both in terms of its spatial field and its covered frequency range. Instrumental sound features a spatial and timbral complexity which can vary dramatically between individual instruments and players. Acousmatic art is advantaged by the fact that sound events can be fixed at any point on a continuous time-line. Rhythmic complexity is achieved by exploiting complex inner rhythm structures of sounds. In instrumental music the tempo differs from one performance to the next. Written tempo markings result in sometimes drastically different interpretations. In acousmatic art, the continuum of the frequency spectrum, with upper and lower bounds determined only by the human hearing, serves as starting point for pitch organisation – but pitch is only one parameter, without priority, sometimes even absent, within organisational strategies. Instrumental music deals with tuning systems, and composers are given the choice to accept, avoid or modify the existing possibilities. A more in depth consideration of the tools used for realising instrumental music and acousmatic art will illuminate further differences. However, the comparison also reveals contact points between the two domains.

In contrast to most electroacoustic spatialization systems which attempt to create a “virtual space” by surrounding the listeners with multiple loudspeakers, the “Timée”, a spatial sound projection device recently developed at Ircam, is based on the idea of interacting with the properties of the given architectural space it is used in. Instead of transporting the sounds through a room via loudspeakers distributed throughout an architectural space, the “Timée” configures the projection of multiple sources from a central cluster of speakers by manipulating the directivity patterns of these sounds through radiation synthesis. The resulting perceptual effect is that of a distinctly mobile “spatial counterpoint” between the various projected sources. After a technical description of the concept and design of the “Timée”, certain aspects of its performance and potential are critically evaluated in the context of acoustic as well as psychoacoustic considerations. In concluding, an outline for future research is presented.

In my recent practice I have developed a model of composition based on cybernetics, ANT, and interactions between human and material agencies. This model is a strict application of two overlapping processes enacted within a nonlinear and indeterminate acoustic environment. Typically this environment is musical/acoustic material that is metastable and extensible, affording stable patterns under certain conditions; multiphonics are a simple but non-exhaustive example of this. This article presents my current work-in-progress, a piece for solo cello, (1) discussing treatment of the instrument as a nonlinear space of acoustic continua (rather than event-based musical actions), and (2) outlining a theoretical basis for the performative exploration of such unstable musical materials by referring to research in the sociology/anthropology of science and technology (Lucy Suchman’s theory of Situated Actions), and philosophy of science (Andrew Pickering’s theories of human and material agencies).

Spectral music is now more than forty years old. In his preface, French composer and philosopher Hugues Dufourt defines it thus: ‘Spectralmusic’essentiallyrepresentsachangeinourwaysofthinkingaboutmusic. It is no longer a music based on discrete traditional categories, such as melody, counterpoint, harmony or timbre. Spectral music, on the contrary, is a music of middle categories and hybrid objects. Its objects stand at the frontier of two or more dimensions, timbre and harmony, harmonicity and inharmonicity, pitch and noise, rhythm and grain. Spectral music is the exploration of continuous transitions between traditionally heterogeneous domains; it creates mixtures, and works to cross thresholds of perception. The music of the end of the last century has irresistibly uncovered colour, as both a predominant and autonomous dimension of its language. We can define it as the art of colour modulation...