Department of Music

From the 1980s onwards, György Ligeti openly acknowledged the influence of African polyphony, Indonesian gamelan and music of the Americas on works such as the Piano Concerto (1980–8) and Violin Concerto (1989–93), as well as the Études pour piano (1985–2001). The present article analyses Étude No. 7, ‘Galamb borong’, in order to establish the precise point of intersection between Western and non-Western within one specific piece. On the basis of this case study, the composer may be shown to celebrate the exotic under the umbrella of the cosmopolitan in a discourse of the universal that is inherently local. Furthermore, by permitting ‘Galamb borong’ to unfold as a dialogue between Balinese music and the Western classical canon, Ligeti's embrace of ‘amalgamated musical languages’ comes to represent an aesthetic standpoint capable of liberating the creative individual not only from inherited tradition but also from the postmodern present.

Digital computers offer unprecedented flexibility and accuracy for the composition and performance of polytemporal music involving multiple time streams: polyrhythms, metric modulations, multiple tempi, and precisely calculated independent continuous tempo changes (accelerandi and decelerandi). This article addresses some important musical and technical issues encountered in music with multiple simultaneous tempi, including music with independently fluctuating tempi. The article includes a brief summary of some important precedents in pre-computerized music, a look at some implementations of polytemporality in computer music, and some suggested techniques for designing and manipulating multiple time streams in computer music composition.

Computers are ubiquitous in the process of music recording and distribution, and increasingly also in the process of music composition and performance. This tool has a considerable effect on the music itself, especially when the computer is pressed into service in the actual role of performer or composer. Since music is assumed to be a form of human emotional expression, one may wonder how a computer can effectively contribute to its creation and performance. What can a computer have to “say” in music? By taking a look at its use and influence in Korean music, we see some examples of how
the technology affects musical content.

Computer-mediated music control devices compel us to reexamine the relationship between performer and sound, the
nature and complexity of which is theoretically unlimited. This essay attempts to formulate some of the key aesthetic issues raised by the use of new control interfaces in the development of new musical works and new performance paradigms: mapping the gesture-sound relationship, identifying successful uses of “virtual” instruments, questioning the role of “interactivity” in performance, and positing future areas of exploration.

La musique véhicule souvent une impression de “geste”, une évocation de mouvement et d’énergie, qui la rend spectaculaire, passionnante et expressive. Dans la production de musique générée par le truchement d’algorithmes, une question commune est d’imprégner le son de la nervosité et de la vitalité de la performance live. Dans le cas de la musique mixte, un défi supplémentaire est de programmer l’ordinateur pour interpréter les qualités expressives de la musique jouée en temps réel.

Research is currently being conducted at the University of California Irvine to develop novel approaches in music performance and composition generated from dancer’s gestures. We report here specifically the modification of the “Vicon 8” motion capture system to control digital music. This system allows for the capture of a dancer’s movement in 3D. Software is being developed, in the “Max/MSP” environment, to use the motion capture data for sound generation and/or alteration, through MIDI parameters or by controlling signal processing algorithms. This approach is promising for the extensive study of various possible relationships between gesture and music. This paper describes the method currently developed, illustrated by a short movie example. We also briefly discuss future directions of this work in progress. Movie examples can be found at www.zotnet.net/~fbevilacqua/mocap/

In the design of interactive computer music systems and the composition of interactive computer music, the tracking and analysis of musical "gestures" — characteristic motions discerned within musical attributes — provides a promising challenge. There are in fact ways that one can clearly and empirically define and identify "gesture" in musical content, often with conceptual models and tools similar to those used for tracking and identifying physical gestures. The analysis of musical gesture as "significant motion" can be applied to many aspects of music: melodic contour, note speed and density, loudness, level of dissonance, etc. Gestures can be characterized by the shapes produced by measuring changes in these aspects, and the derivation of data about change, rate of change, etc. within a particular feature or set of features. Computer evaluation of gesture may be divided into the tasks of measurement, segmentation, identification, and taxonomy. What ...