Music 680: Special Topics in Music Theory - Electronics in Performance (Fall 2006)
Mondays 4:30 - 7:10 pm, Music B40
Christopher Burns (cburns at uwm dot edu)
office hours: Music 367, Monday afternoons, 2-4 pm or by appointment

Course description: Aesthetics, composition, analysis, and performance practice of works using electronics in the context of live performance. Historical overview of the genre, and discussion of digital implementations of analog techniques and processes. Emphasis on close study of pioneering works. Students will complete short composition / programming assignments and a final creative project.

This course is an elective for the Digital Arts and Culture Certificate Program.

Prerequisites: Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students in the Music Department and the DIVAS program; other students by consent of the instructor. Qualities that will be essential for the course include patience, curiosity, diligence, creativity, and aesthetic open-mindedness. Prior experience with programming is not required. Please let the instructor know if you need any special accommodations.

Course requirements:
1. Students must attend all classes and arrive on time. If you need to miss a class for any reason, please let the instructor know in advance. Students who miss two or more classes will receive reduced grades (one reduction for each absence, beginning with the second). Concerts listed on the syllabus are also included in this attendance requirement (though other instructor-approved contemporary music concerts can be subsituted if absolutely necessary). Please be sure to find the instructor at each concert and make sure you are counted; you can also get another member of the composition faculty to sign your program and submit it to the instructor after the concert.
2. Students must prepare for class by completing all reading and listening assignments. Remember that listening is an active process; if you are multitasking you are unlikely to get much out of the experience. You may also wish to take notes on your listening and score reading - what are you hearing? How does it change over time (what is the form of the work?) Please arrive for class ready to participate in the discussion; this will count for 15% of your final grade.
3. Students must complete all programming and creative assignments in a timely manner. These assignments constitute 50% of the final grade. Assignments are due on time; late submissions will receive reduced grades (10% per day). If you are having difficulty completing an assignment please contact the instructor as soon as possible, and before the due date.
4. Students should be prepared to propose a project which addresses a specific compositional issue involving the integration of electronics into live performance, to compose a work addressing that challenge, and to present their work as part of the Electro-Acoustic Salon on Thursday, December 14, at 7:30 pm. The final project is worth 35% of the final grade.

Course materials: Listening and reading assignments for the course are available online from the UWM Library electronic reserves. The Pd software used in the course is freely available and runs on the Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux operating systems. (It is already installed on all the workstations in Music 270). Curtis Roads' The Computer Music Tutorial (MIT Press) is a useful reference for sound synthesis tecchniques.
Pd software: http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
UWM Uniform Syllabus Policies: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/policies.html

Course outline:

September 11:

topics:

historical overview of the genre

introduction to Pd: calculation, timing, and logic

class notes

code resources (right-click and "Save As...")

assignment 1 (due Monday, September 18):

create a Pd patch which will trigger specific calculations at specific times

September 18:

topics:

Cage, Lucier, sound, and the aesthetics of innovation

beating phenomena and pitch perception

sinusoids and additive synthesis

audio signals in Pd: osc~, line~, +~, *~, and dac~

listening:

John Cage / Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) [7']

Alvin Lucier / Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas (1973-74) (excerpts: "Glockenspiel" [13'] and "Violin solo" [8'])

reading:

Alvin Lucier, "Making audible that which is inaudible" and "Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas," Reflections/Reflexionen (Cologne: MusikTexte, 1995), pp. 152-170 and 358-368.

Alvin Lucier, "Origins of a Form: Acoustical Exploration, Science, and Incessancy," Leonardo Music Journal 8 (1998), pp. 5-11.

James Pritchett, "'For more new sounds...' (1933-48)," The Music of John Cage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 6-35.

class notes

code resources: review, sine oscillators, envelopes

assignment 2 (due Monday, September 25):

make a Pd realization of the 1973-74 version of Alvin Lucier's Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Familes of Hyperbolas

September 25:

topics:

moment-form, modular form, and the Mikrophonie I form scheme

realizing Mikrophonie I in Pd: lop~, hip~, bp~, and constant-power panning

the scoring of performance with live electronics

listening:

Karlheinz Stockhausen / Mikrophonie I (1964) [26']

reading:

Stockhausen, Karlheinz. "Microphony," in Stockhausen on Music (London: Marion Boyars, 1989), pp. 76-87.

Burns, Christopher. "Realizing Lucier and Stockhausen." Journal of New Music Research vol. 31, no. 1 (2002), pp. 59-68.

class notes

code resources: filters, abstractions, filter abstraction, linear panning abstraction, constant-power panning abstraction

assignment 3 (due Monday, October 9):

synthesize an articulate and directed musical phrase using Pd

October 2:

topics:

the unification of musical time and space: American serialism and electronics

subtractive synthesis: phasor~, vcf~

phrase generation

listening:

Milton Babbitt / Philomel (1964) [19']

reading:

Babbitt, Milton. "Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium" and "An Introduction to the R.C.A. Synthesizer," in The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 109-140 and 178-190.

Hollander, John. "Notes on the Text of Philomel." Perspectives of New Music vol. 6, no. 1 (1967), pp. 134-41.

class notes

code resources: quartic ramps, quartic amplitude abstraction, subtractive synthesis, sample playback

October 5, 7:30 pm, Fine Arts Recital Hall: Kyle Bruckmann oboe & electronics performance

October 9:

topics:

delay in Pd: delwrite~, delread~, vd~

comb filtering, flanging, and other extensions of delay

delay as a compositional resource

listening:

Pauline Oliveros / Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) [8']

reading:

Oliveros, Pauline. "Tape Delay Techniques." Software for People (Baltimore: Smith Publications, 1984), pp. 36-46.

Oliveros, Pauline. "Acoustic and Virtual Space as a Dynamic Element of Music." The Roots of The Moment (New York: Drogue Press, 1998), pp. 3-21.

class notes

code resources: click abstraction, delay, echo, reverb

assignment 4 (due Monday, October 23):

use Pd to create a time-varying manipulation of a live input signal

October 16:

topics:

the unification of musical time and space: beyond serialism

pulse-train synthesis

tabwrite~, tabread4~, tabplay~

listening:

Karlheinz Stockhausen / Kontakte (1960) [35']

reading:

Harvey, Jonathan. "The Early 'Moment-Form' Works," in The Music of Stockhausen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), pp. 81-94.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz. "The Concept of Unity in Musical Time." Perspectives of New Music vol. 1, no. 1 (1962): 39-48.

class notes

code resources: pulse-trains, wavetable playback

October 23:

topics:

indeterminacy, instrument-building, and performance composition

listening:

John Cage / Cartridge Music (1960) [14']

Pauline Oliveros / Applebox Double (1965) [17']

David Tudor / Pulsers (1976) [20']

reading:

James Pritchett, "'Music (not composition)' (1962-69)," The Music of John Cage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 138-161.

James Pritchett, "David Tudor as Composer/Performer in Cage's Variations II." Leonardo Music Journal 14 (2004), pp. 11-16.

Ron Kuivila, "Open Sources: Words, Circuits, and the Notation-Realization Relation in the Music of David Tudor." Leonardo Music Journal 14 (2004), pp. 17-23.

class notes

code resources: triangular and linear random distributions, linear distribution abstraction

assignment 5 (due Monday, November 6):

create a brief algorithmic composition using Pd

October 30:

topics:

formula composition as a meta-serial unifying strategy

modulation synthesis - ring, AM, and FM

listening:

Karlheinz Stockhausen / Mantra (1970) [69']

reading:

Harvey, Jonathan. "Appendix (1972)," in The Music of Stockhausen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), pp. 126-131.

class notes

code resources: ring modulation, user interface, algorithms and arrays

November 6:

topics:

amplification as a kind of live-electronic resource

delay as a structural parameter of composition

aesthetic possibility in the 1970s: expansion and intensification

listening:

George Crumb / Black Angels (1970) [18']

Brian Ferneyhough / Time and Motion Study II (1973-76) [22']

reading:

Ferneyhough, Brian. "Time and Motion Study II (1977)," and "The Time and Motion Study Cycle (1987)." Collected Writings, Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 107-116.

class notes

code resources: abstractions, oscillator abstraction, delay abstraction

assignment:

write a page-long proposal for your final project (due November 13; projects are due December 13)

November 13:

topics:

the aesthetics of spectral music

listening:

Tristan Murail / Desintegrations (1983) [23']

Jonathan Harvey / Tombeau de Messiaen (1994) [9']

reading:

Julian Anderson, "A Provisional History of Spectral Music," Contemporary Music Review vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 7-22.

Joshua Fineberg, "Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music," Contemporary Music Review vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 81-113.

Gerard Grisey, "Did You Say Spectral?" Contemporary Music Review vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 1-3.

class notes

code resources: spectra and fm, spectral approximator/sonifier, sonifier abstraction, calculator abstraction, pitch name abstraction

assignment 6 (due Monday, December 4):

compose a brief work using Pd that addresses the notion of spectra as pitch material (or pitch material as spectra)

November 16, 7:30 pm, Fine Arts Recital Hall: Electroacoustic Music Center concert

November 20:

topics:

techniques for reverberation and spatialization

listening:

Luigi Nono / Omaggio a Gyorgy Kurtag (1983, 1986) [17']

reading:

Stephen Davismoon, "...many possibilities..." Contemporary Music Review 18/2 (1999): 3-10.

Roberto Fabbriciani, "Walking with Gigi," Contemporary Music Review 18/1 (1999): 7-16.

Hans Peter Haller, "Nono in the studio - Nono in concert - Nono and the interpreters," Contemporary Music Review 18/2 (1999): 11-18.

class notes

code resources

November 27:

topics:

electronics after tape: sampling, score-following, and interactivity

listening:

Jonathan Berger / The Lead Plates of the Rom Press (1990) [12']

Kaija Saariaho / NoaNoa (1992) [9']

reading:

Damien Pousset, "The Works of Kaija Saariaho, Philippe Hurel, and Marc-Andre Dalbavie - Stile Concertato, Stile Concitato, Stile Rappresentativo," Contemporary Music Review vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 67-110.

class notes

code resources: MIDI, signal analysis

December 4:

topics:

the present day - the expanded field of composition and performance

listening:

Matthew Burtner / s-morphe-s (2002) [9']

Eleanor Hovda / Glosses/Glacier (1991) [7']

Lukas Ligeti / Delta Space (2002) [16']

Jake Rodriguez / Parsnip Maker (2000) [4']

class notes

December 11:

topics:

course catch-up, wrap-up, and projects assistance

December 14, 7:30 pm: Electroacoustic Music Center Salon, Music B60 - final project presentations