Electronic Music

More than 500 pages, interactive examples, hundreds of patches, online support, theory and Pure Data glossary, test, reverse engineering exercises, analyses, completion and correction of patches, etc.

ISBN-13: 978-8899212216

Chapter I – Introduction to Sound Synthesis and Signal Processing
Chapter II – Additive Synthesis
Chapter III – Subtractive Synthesis
Chapter IV – Controls and LFO

This book is an overview of the theory and practice of Pure Data, with a glossary of terms and suggested tests that allow students to evaluate their progress. Comprehensive online support, running parallel to the explanations in the book, includes hundreds of sample patches, analyses, interactive sound-building exercises, and reverse engineering exercises. This book will provide a reader with skill and understanding in using Pure Data for sound design and musical composition.

Exploration of issues related to music composed for diffusion over loudspeakers, beginning with a historical overview. Subsequent chapters discuss terminology for the classification of such music, theories of listening, approaches to ear-training, the aesthetics of mimesis in music, and methods of analysis.

In his 1996 essay, ‘Music and Identity’, sociologist and music critic Simon Frith argued that identity was not a thing but a process. That our identities came from the outside, not the inside; subjectivity, a question of doing rather than being. Taking its cue from this short epigraph the purpose of this essay will be to address the conceptual legacy of Afrofuturist music through the hydrophonic frequencies of Drexciya, an electronic music duo from Detroit active during the 1990s and early 2000s. Often referred to as the darker edge of Afrofuturist music, their eponymous neo-nautical mythology and posthuman soundwaves have created a sonic fiction of techno Afro-becoming that has persisted well beyond their operative years. An aural wormhole, siphoning from past to future and back again. Looking at the work of Paul Gilroy and his seminal work of cultural theory, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), alongside sonic theories of Afrofuturist affect and post-structuralist cultural studies, I wish to underscore Frith’s aforementioned hypothesis: that the production of identity is non-essentialist in character, in so far as Drexciya’s sub-aquatic politics affirm the privileged position of music in constructing new forms of techno-subjectivity in the dystopian realm of late capitalist social hegemony. That Drexciya provide a model for future subject becomings anchored in the dark soul of the present.

This commentary accompanies the portfolio of electroacoustic works realised at the NOVARS Research Centre, and intends to provide insight into methodologies for acousmatic composition as researched at the University of Manchester between 2013 and 2016. Six compositions are presented in order of realisation, as follows: Frictions/Storms, Rise, Glitches/Trajectories, Transmissions/Intercepts, Reductions/Expanses, and Iteration/Banger. An analysis of each work in relation to research-specific topics is provided, adopting Denis Smalley's concepts of spectromorphology and space-form as appropriate syntax in the elaboration of compositional methodologies and overall outcomes.

The research focuses primarily on the appropriation of transformed and synthesised sound materials in acousmatic spatial composition. Resulting works are intended for presentation in concert via the practice of live sound diffusion performance. The portfolio documents an arc of development working in fixed media formats incorporating live electronics processes into the realisation of multi- channel compositions, to finally arrive at a methodological merging of fixed media studio composition and live electronics performance practices.

Additional supplementary materials in support of the portfolio and commentary are provided including Max coding patches, video tutorials, technical information and related audio materials.

Original vinyl recordings of popular music provide a rich source of
data to supplement other historical research. Vintage recordings and associated
liner notes provide details about the chronologic, geographic,
biographic, and artistic elements that contribute to an understanding of
music, music technology, and popular culture of the time. Information
derived from a study of vinyl music recordings can fortify and supplement
other forms of research in popular culture, artists, and music. I
have undertaken a project to archive every commercial recording made
using the Moog Modular Synthesizer between the years 1967 and 1970.
This study represents my initial findings regarding The Sound of Moog
project, which focuses on the influence of this early synthesizer on popular
music, culture, and industry. The central question behind my research
is: What can we learn about the history and influence of the
Moog Synthesizer by examining the recordings of the early adopters of
this technology? In this study, I explore general methods of discographic
practice in organizing data from vintage vinyl recordings, address the
issue of dating popular music recordings, and illustrate that research
derived from recordings adds unique findings and insight to historical
research.

A partir del libre juego de la imaginación, y utilizando algunos conceptos de acústica de manera totalmente libre, en este texto he querido reflexionar sobre la naturaleza de la música electrónica y electroacústica, y en particular, en torno al "problema" de la relación entre dichas prácticas y la ejecución musical instrumental.
El texto consiste en una serie de ecuaciones especulativas y totalmente imaginarias, que resumen aficientemente los conceptos que quiero abordar y sus relaciones.
La parte final es un libre juego sobre las implicaciones "físicas" de la reflexión, que, como advierto en la introducción, son pura ficción e impostura. Es decir, éste texto NO es científico.

This chapter analyses VJing as a kind of performance that develops between the fields of art, new media and club cultures. The author sketches a map of the changing relationship between art and VJing throughout three historical phases, from the early 1990s to now.

Increase in use of power electronics in power system addressed power quality problems. Converters are widely used in industrial area for different application. They are non-linear devices and degrade power quality of system. In this paper, 12 – pulse ac – dc power supply is taken as non-linear load example. Power supply, here discuss is use in low voltage, high dc current application. High dc current is generated by connecting four M3 converters in parallel. Phase-shifting transformer is also introduce for require phase displacement. Converter can affect power quality in terms of inject harmonics and decrease power factor. It can be used as dynamic load; therefore, it is necessary to evaluate active and reactive power for different loading condition. This paper represents assessment of power quality for such system.

Industrial Activity: Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity as dystopian sonic template.
Radio-Activity (1975) deals with the most dystopian themes the pioneering German electronic group ever addressed. It was released shortly before the emergence in Britain of what became known as industrial music. The paper will argue that the more sonically radical and conceptually dystopian elements of the album were a strong precedent for industrial music and the way in which it used electronically-generated sound and noise. The minimalistic electronic percussion, oscillator and voltage sounds, shortwave radio recordings and collages of sampled voices deployed by Kraftwerk here can be directly compared to industrial's use of noise as a texture, within and against a pop format. The use of these sonic elements to explore dystopian and ambivalent subject matter is also relevant here. Geiger Counter manipulates the fears surrounding radiation and The Voice of Energy features an alienated, electronically processed vocal that gives voice to fears of technological domination. The use of simulated and actual radio sounds and news reports on News has parallels with the near-contemporary work of the British group Cabaret Voltaire and their use of similar materials and themes, for instance on the early track Baader Meinhof.  While Kraftwerk took this sample-based technique no further, it would become a key stylistic trope of industrial music. Uranium is a chilling soundscape that coldly dramatises the lethal potential of the element, and uses electronic sound to communicate a sense of ominousness. Another important parallel to be considered is the use of sonic and conceptual ambivalence. The album was the group's most controversial, with some seeing it as being uncritical of, or even consciously aestheticising nuclear power. This overlooked Kraftwerk's documentary ambition to present tone pictures of everyday technological life, as well as their sly irony. The presenation of extreme and disturbing subject matter in industrial has generated even more severe criticism, with many being disturbed by its sonic-conceptual ambivalence. With these questions in mind, Radio-Activity will be compared with examples from groups such as Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA and others, illustrating some of the related approaches that appeared in the wake of the album. Both Kraftwerk and these artist consciously used what were then the still-alienating potentials of electronic sound,  manipulating and ambivalently exploring technophobia and the darker side of late 20th Century ideas of (post)-industrial progress. Due to the controversy generated by its apparent “over-identification” with nuclear power, it has been relatively overlooked and is seen as less influential than those before and after it, yet it did exert a hidden influence as what Slavoj Žižek terms as a “vanishing mediator” between the approaches informing the elektronische musik of the Cologne School (which Kraftwerk members were fully aware of) and industrial. From there the still under-narrated industrial's effect on subsequent forms including Electronic Body Music (EBM), New Beat, Techno and certain strains of electronica can be traced, expanding our understanding of Kraftwerk's stylistic and conceptual influence further than previously.

Electronic beeps, synthesizer melodies, and theremin portamento conjure up images of robots, aliens, space, and a dystopian technological future. This association with science fiction has a significant legacy (Hayward 2004; Laudadio 2011), including theremin in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), the first all-electronic soundtrack for The Forbidden Planet (1956), and synthesizer in Solaris (1972). This association also has ideological precedence in the link of technology with the “mystical and visionary” (Collins and d’Escrivan 2007, 13) in both early electronic music and science fiction, and in “electronic sound’s indexical relationship to intangible spaces, both cosmic and psychological” because they are “necessarily concealed, remote, detached” (Leydon 2004, 63). By 2015, given the abundance of non-electronic science fiction soundtracks—such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Prometheus (2012), and Interstellar (2014)—we should be transcending these automatic connections. Not so, it seems, in the ears of my undergraduate general education students. Exposure to electroacoustic music recently in class and at a faculty composers concert resulted in characterizations of the music by these students as “creepy” and “like a science fiction soundtrack,” when, to my ears, the sounds had warmth and beauty, with many musical aspects we had been discussing in acoustic examples.

Following a brief history of electronic music in science fiction, and a synthesis of perception and agency in electroacoustic music (d’Escrivan 2006; Emmerson 2007; Smalley 1996 and 1997), this paper outlines pedagogical strategies for removing students’ aural and conceptual barriers to electroacoustic music, providing a vocabulary, and facilitating critical listening through activities and assignments based primarily on Elizabeth Barkley’s Classroom Engagement Techniques (2009) and Judy Lochhead’s principles of phenomenological listening (1995). The paper will demonstrate this pedagogical approach to listening using Hugh Le Caine’s Dripsody (1955) and three remixes released on the Canadian Music Centre’s Centretracks.

La realizzazione del brano Incontro di Giorgio Nottoli, ci ha posto di fronte a varie e profondamente diverse questioni, esse affrontate con i giusti mezzi ci hanno permesso di iniziare a realizzare gli strumenti necessari per l’interpretazione ed una futura esecuzione dello stesso.
I documenti forniti dall’autore, oltre ad il manuale dello strumento principe(l’EMS VCS3) di questa composizione hanno reso più semplice il lavoro di porting dello strumento, facendoci intendere a fondo come realizzare digitalmente uno strumento analogico complesso e composto da varie tipologie interconnesse di hardware.
FAUST2 e Max3 ci hanno aiutato lungo il percorso; permettendoci di realizzare lo strumento digitale ponendoci una "tabula rasa" capace di farci capire ed intendere quali scelte algoritmiche effettuare a seconda degli aspetti fisici necessari, mostrando ed ampliando le capacità espressive dell’esecutore ed estendendole attraverso l’utilizzo di adeguati mezzi elettronici.
Il seguente testo affronterà dunque uno degli aspetti piú interessanti dello strumento VCS3, ovvero la matrice di cui lo stesso si avvale per connettere tutti i frammenti del "puzzle strumentale elettronico", facendo da fil rouge tra filtri oscillatori ed effetti che Zinovieff4 introdusse in questo primo strumento "commerciale".

This paper reviews 3D sound technology. It focuses on the core technical issue of 3D sound: the scientific and engineering means by which a listener of a stereo reproduction system can perceive the direction of a sound in a 3D space. The scientific basis is first discussed, followed by the practical techniques for 3D stereo reproduction.

The main object of this paper is the composition Seven Circles completed in 1959 by Danish composer Else Marie Pade. It is the first piece of purely electronic music composed in Denmark. The paper has three primary focuses which are first: the evolution of electronic music that leads up to Seven Circles, second: Pade and the production of the piece itself, and third: how the techniques used by Pade point out the way towards the electronic music we know today.

The Poeme Electronique in the Philips Pavilion at the World Fair of Brussels 1958 was a unique experience, the very first multimedia project to involve a sense of the total experience of vision and sound. Realized by three relevant personalities of contemporary culture, Le Corbusier (conception after Kalff, coordination and visual show), Varese (organized spatial sound delivered over 350 loudspeakers), Xenakis (architecture of the pavilion), the Poeme Electronique has never been repeated after the Philips Pavilion has been pulled down after the Expo. The Virtual Electronic Poem (VEP) project is reconstructing the lost artwork with virtual reality techniques. In this paper we consider the technical aspects of the reconstruction of the audio part of the Poeme by describing the investigations made on the piece and by connecting the Poeme to the whole Varesian production.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is an industry-standard communications protocol for electrical musical instruments. Since its introduction in 1983, MIDI has rapidly achieved prominence, revolutionizing the music world, with most musicians and manufacturers growing increasingly dependent on it; yet, some musical communities have remained critical because its use has presented numerous technical and aesthetic issues.

Ce livre parle de la FREE-PARTY. Cette fête techno, clan­des­tine et sau­vage, enva­hit des lieux aban­don­nés ou déserts, les trans­for­mant en ter­ri­toi­res fes­tifs.

L’explo­ra­tion de plu­sieurs thè­mes comme les usa­ges du corps, la consom­ma­tion de psy­cho­tro­pes, la tem­po­ra­lité et les socia­bi­li­tés, nous donne à voir, sans emphase, la dureté des rela­tions avec les autres, avec les pairs et avec soi-même (à l’ins­tar d’ailleurs de beau­coup d’uni­vers sociaux).

Alliage d’eth­no­gra­phie et de socio­lo­gie, cette recher­che menée dans l’ouest de la France s’attarde sur les tra­jec­toi­res socia­les des par­ti­ci­pants qui s’avè­rent être, pour l’essen­tiel, des jeu­nes issus des cou­ches popu­lai­res de la société.

La fête, loin d’être un milieu uni­fié autour d’une culture musi­cale, de ses valeurs et pra­ti­ques, accueille des indi­vi­dus aux logi­ques d’inté­rêts variées, aux modes d’enga­ge­ment plu­riels. Elle témoi­gne de la façon dont une forme fes­tive devient lieu d’inven­tion de « métiers », enser­rés dans le halo de l’économie paral­lèle et de l’illé­ga­lisme. Cela pour un pan d’une popu­la­tion (les chô­meurs) en butte à l’exclu­sion socio-économique et à la recher­che d’une reconver­sion sociale. On com­prend alors, à par­tir du point de vue des acteurs, le carac­tère déviant et clan­des­tin de la fête sau­vage.

Paweł Mykietyn’s operatic adaptation of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain has aroused huge interest within the Polish musical environment, partly on account of the replacement of the traditional orchestra with an electronic accompaniment. The present article discusses the opera’s musical language within the context of Mykietyn’s compositional style. Distinguished in the text are several features characteristic of the opera which are also idiomatic of the composer’s earlier output. One key issue is that of manipulations of musical time, through the use of permanent accelerations and decelerations. These procedures appeared in several earlier works by Mykietyn, such as the Second Symphony and the Flute Concerto, but in The Magic Mountain they organise the entire electronic layer. The other aspects discussed in the text are as follows: the combination of traditional features of opera, such as operatic singing, with modern procedures – an electronic accompaniment; references to different types of popular music; the use of sound processing effects; elements close to the style of music written for theatre and film. The article also points to the composer’s use of deconstructionist techniques derived from the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. The last part of the text summarises features which The Magic Mountain shares with other stage and vocal-instrumental works by Paweł Mykietyn, in particular the Passion according to St Mark.

The thesis of this essay can be stated quite directly: Slavoj Žižek, despite having little to say about mashup and remixing in any direct way, engages this new media phenomena in both theory and practice, providing contemporary culture with both a conceptual understanding of the mashup and a carefully executed illustration of its methodology. The examination of this will proceed by way of two movements. The first investigates how Žižek's work, especially his general interest in "short circuiting," provides theoretical insight for understanding the mashup and its cultural significance. The second turns things around, demonstrating how the mashup explains and describes Žižek's own compositional practices. In other words, the first part explains the mashup by way of Žižek, while the second explains Žižek by way of the mashup.

"Cheap Thrills" é uma canção da cantora australiana Sia, o tema foi composto pela própria intérprete em parceria com Greg Kurstin. Inicialmente a música foi escrita para a cantora Rihanna mas como esta acabou por não gravar Sia decidiu colocar o tema no seu disco (This is acting, 7º álbum). O tema conta ainda com a participação do artista jamaicano Sean Paul.
Este álbum reflete uma faceta importante da carreira de Sia, que nem todos conhecem, é que na verdade, além de cantora, SIA é também uma compositora muito requisitada por grandes artistas do mundo pop. Entre muitos outros destaco nomes como os das cantoras Beyoncé, Adele e Rihanna. Na verdade todo o álbum é constituído por canções que a cantora já havia escrito para outros artistas.
Musicalmente falando, o tema original está em fá#. Como é normal mudei a tonalidade para facilitar a execução: este instrumental está em sol menor. Apesar dos dois bemóis na armação de clave (sib e mib) a melodia não utiliza NUNCA o mib.
A parte A é um pouco difícil de executar por causa das notas graves e rápidas, mas o resto do tema é fácil.
Hamonicamente a música foi composta sobre 4 acordes apenas (sol menor, mib maior, sib maior e fá maior). É um tema fantástico para utilizar com os instrumentos Orff.

Letra / Lyrics
on, come on, turn the radio on
It's Friday night and I won't be long
Gotta do my hair, I put my make up on
It's Friday night and I won't be long

'Til I hit the dance floor
Hit the dance floor
I got all I need
No I ain't got cash
I ain't got cash
But I got you baby

Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
But I don't need no money
As long as I can feel the beat
I don't need no money
As long as I keep dancing

Come on, come on, turn the radio on
It's Saturday and I won't be long
Gotta paint my nails, put my high heels on
It's Saturday and I won't be long

'Til I hit the dance floor
Hit the dance floor
I got all I need
No I ain't got cash
I ain't got cash
But I got you baby

Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
I don't need no money
As long as I can feel the beat
I don't need no money
As long as I keep dancing

(I love cheap thrills!)
(I love cheap thrills!)
I don't need no money
As long as I can feel the beat
I don't need no money
As long as I keep dancing
Oh, oh

Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills!)
I don't need no money
As long as I can feel the beat
I don't need no money
As long as I keep dancing

La, la, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills!)
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills!)
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills!)
La, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills!)

Cifra melódica
dó ré dó ré
ré dó ré sol sol sol
sol fá fá fá
fá fá sol fá fá

dó ré dó ré
ré dó ré sol sol sol
sol fá fá fá
fá fá sol fá fá

sib sib DÓ lá sib
sib sib DÓ lá sib
sib sib sib fá fá
sib sib DÓ lá
sib sib DÓ lá
sib sib sib sib fá fá

sol lá sib sol
sol sol sol sol
fá sol sol fá fá

sol lá sib sol
sol sol sol sol
fá sol sol fá fá

ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré dó
ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré...

ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré dó
ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré.

dó ré dó ré
ré dó ré sol sol sol
sol fá fá fá
fá fá sol fá fá

dó ré dó ré
ré dó ré sol sol sol
sol fá fá fá
fá fá sol fá fá

sib sib DÓ lá sib
sib sib DÓ lá sib
sib sib sib fá fá
sib sib DÓ lá
sib sib DÓ lá
sib sib sib sib fá fá

sol lá sib sol
sol sol sol sol
fá sol sol fá fá

sol lá sib sol
sol sol sol sol
fá sol sol fá fá

ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré dó
ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré...

ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré dó
ré sol lá sib
lá sol ré...

sib lá sib DÓ DÓ
sib, lá,
sib lá sib DÓ DÓ
sib...

sib lá sib DÓ DÓ
sib, lá,
sib lá sib DÓ DÓ
sib...

Educação Musical
José Galvão

Partitura e outros recursos em: http://josegalvao.wix.com/educacaomusical

During the glasnost period when many forgotten biographies were rediscovered and rewritten, one of the most bizarre finds was the Soviet-American inventor and pioneer of electr(on)ic music, Lev Sergeevich Termen (aka Léon Theremin, 1896-1993). Termen, “the secret link between sci-fi films, the Beach Boys, and Carnegie Hall,” whose “electronic musical instrument took the world by storm in the 1920s and '30s” — several decades before the rise of electronic popular music — had been forgotten for 50 years in the East and West.

Cipriani A., (vers. 2016) "Verso una tradizione elettroacustica? Appunti per una ricerca" in Musica/Realtà N°49 Marzo 1996 LIM Lucca  - Versione riveduta e aggiornata, 2016

In questo articolo viene delineata, nei suoi aspetti principali, un'ipotesi di esistenza di una nuova tradizione basata sulle tecnologie elettroniche, la quale si sovrappone alla tradizione orale e a quella scritta e ne influenza gli sviluppi. Si cerca di dimostrare che questa nuova tradizione, definita elettroacustica, porta con sé modificazioni nella trasmissione del repertorio, nell'ascolto, nel contesto, nella composizione e nell'esecuzione che stanno determinando un mutamento nel pensiero e nell'espressione musicale pari a quello che ebbe luogo nella vita musicale europea con l'avvento della tradizione scritta. Alcuni anni dopo la prima pubblicazione di questo articolo per l’ICMC95, François Delalande ha espanso i concetti riguardanti la tradizione elettroacustica
nel libro Le son des musiques, entre technologie et esthétique (Delalande 2000) e nell’articolo ”Il Paradigma elettroacustico” (Delalande 2001), ma molti aspetti di questo tema vanno continuamente aggiornati. Questo articolo, la cui prima versione fu pubblicata negli atti dell’International Computer Music Conference nel 1995 (Cipriani 1995), è stato ora aggiornato a causa degli enormi mutamenti intervenuti in questi ultimi dieci anni.

This paper discusses music analysis in relation to images of musical sound using spectral or Fourier analysis.  Fourier analysis allows us to make pictures of musical performances, which reveal the fundamental, overtones, and complex noise-like sounds.  These images provide an acoustic basis for our musical perceptions.  The recent history of Fourier analysis in relation to musical analysis is discussed first, and then three analyses are presented using works from a variety of periods and cultures, including a prelude by Chopin, a Japanese gagaku work, and a computer piece by Markus Popp.  Chopin is discussed in relation to comparative performances, Japanese gagaku is explored in relation to timbre, and Markus Popp is looked at in relation to non-notated electronic music.  Each work highlights a specific approach that can be taken using spectral or Fourier analysis.

This Bachelor Thesis in composition explores an alternative compositional process for creating
improvised music through the approach of sound design.

The questions addressed in the thesis are
concerned with how the soundscape can be controlled by the composer while still maintaining the
expressivity of an improvised performance. Thus, the composer’s role as both sound designer,
producer and performer is investigated using live electronics and score design.

The theoretical framework for the thesis is to be found in the intersection between Anglo-American
experimental music, electronic music, sound design and electroacoustic improvisation. Key influences
include indeterminacy as expressed in the music of John Cage, Deep Listening practices pioneered by
Pauline Oliveros as well as the aesthetical paradigms of electronic and electroacoustic music.

The artistic methods revolved around the following steps: studio workshops with musicians (Fredrik
Ekenvi and José Louis Relova Gallego) exploring timbres, playing techniques and music technology in
real-time followed by associative discussions about the soundscapes created; composing audio and
graphical drafts influenced by the workshops; designing diagrams for the electronics and compiling
these to a design document; workshopping and performing the final piece (Towards the Event
Horizon).
Towards the Event Horizon (for bass clarinet, electric guitar and live electronics) is the final result of
the work, comprising a score with accompanying design document as well as a recording of the original
performance at Studio Acusticum in Piteå 20th of March 2021. The artefacts and associated
documentation are presented in their entirety on the dedicated Research Catalogue exposition.

Conclusions include how composition and sound design are tied together and cannot be considered as
isolated processes, especially in the context of live electronics; the interrelationship between the
improviser, the acoustic soundscape and the artistic associations that inform the improvisation; the
importance of form as the defining element of a composition and lastly; how a score for improvised
music can be devised in the shape of a blueprint of form and texture, setting certain technical, sonic
and gestural conditions while leaving the performer to play freely within this frame.

The following is the text of a lecture entitled «Notturno» von Bruno Maderna und das «Studio di Fonologia Musicale di Milano», which was given at the Haus der Wissenschaft, Bremen on July 1, 2015 (Atelier Neue Musik, Serie: «Scanned. Elektroacustische Musik im Fokus»).

Acousmatic sound art production has as its goal a transformation of recognizable recorded sound samples into new relations, effectively hiding the origin of the raw material so as to focus on an experience of pure sound.  The author defines the "live" as the "life" from which these samples are pulled, and considers the ways in which the biography of the sample troubles acousmatic art.
From special issue Why Live? ed. Nicolas Collins

Today, technology develops autonomously; we embrace its progression, its efficiency, as it propels our culture at breakneck speed toward a future that's hard to see clearly. Technology has infiltrated commerce, education, government and art of record production through many key contributions. One seminal technological contribution to music making was the synthesizer. It remains a conduit for creation for many musicians and producers, acting as a vehicle of sound exploration. In many cases, the synthesizer facilitated the musician or producer to take a more functionary role within the art of record production by simply becoming a controller, allowing the synthesizer to become the primary compositional voice. This paper explores the 'what if' principle through Brian Eno's 1975 album ​ Discreet Music. Here, creation, collaboration and connectivity are skillfully distributed between man and machine. ​ Discreet Music masterfully employs an EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer that once set into operation by Eno, creates soundscapes with little or no intervention on the performers part apart from occasionally alternating the timbre of the synthesizer. It examines the roles of collaboration, invention, innovation within technology that helped Eno bypass traditional record production mechanisms. Furthermore, the paper highlights Eno's contribution to notions of control within electronic music production, his influence within generative music making and questions current creative utopias that allow toward the control over every imaginable parameter within electronic music making through MIDI and automation.

In questo progetto verrà illustrata la realizzazione di un preamplificatore audio fatto col circuito integrato LM386 della Texas Instruments. LM386 è un semplice amplificatore finale da 1 Watt al massimo la cui alimentazione può variare da un minimo di 4 Volt fino a 12 Volt, l'obiettivo è quello di portare segnali a bassa tensione (Pickup, Microfoni Dinamici, segnali con picchi di millesimi di volt). ad un livello di linea soddisfacente per l'ingresso ADC di una scheda Arduino Uno.

This paper contends there are several causes of timbral homogeneity in contemporary electric guitar performance: 1) the acoustic origin of the instrument; 2) the traditional performance practice of timbral constancy, whereby “the player will have been schooled for many years to maintain timbre constancy in many musical situations” (Erickson 1975, p. 12); and 3) the monaural nature of the instrument, in terms of the single-feed audio output found in most electric guitar pickups. The second and third causes are arguably a direct result of the first. Such timbral homogeneity is problematic because it limits the electric guitar performers’ ability to utilise “timbre as a distinct, dynamic feature of music” (Fales 2005, p. 157). Instead, timbre is placed in the traditional role of nuance. As a form of remediation, this paper argues that modern polyphonic pickup technology provides an opportunity for timbral structure to
become a more central part of contemporary electric guitar music by encouraging a practice whereby the performer consciously investigates perceived relationships between common pitch structures and timbral and spatial parametric change in a reflective manner in real-time music performance. The proposed approach maintains the potential to facilitate a new performance practice in contemporary electric guitar music whereby the performer utilises musical stimuli which exploit their similarities to environmental
“regularities” (Bregman 1993, pp. 10-36).

With more than a dozen number one singles, multiple Grammy wins and nominations, and Songwriter of the Year Award from BMI, the 26-year-old producer and songwriter Benny Blanco has ensured his place in the history of popular music. Some of his hits include Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” and “California Gurls”, Maroon 5’s "Moves Like Jagger,” and “Payphone," Britney Spears’ “Circus,” Taio Cruz’s "Dynamite," Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK,” and Gym Class Heroes’ "Stereo Hearts." Blanco’s remarkable success at such a young age is matched only by his humility and the maturity of his understanding of the post millennial songwriting and production process in the contemporary popular music milieu in which he occupies a central position.

The following is an edited transcription of a presentation given by Blanco in which he delved into his songwriting and production techniques using examples from stems of his hit recordings and by answering audience questions. The presentation was given at the Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts, Phoenix, MD., USA, November 10, 2012. It was arranged and (very lightly) moderated by Richard James Burgess for the Washington DC chapter of the Recording Academy’s Producer and Engineer Wing for which he was, contemporaneously, its co-chair.

"DURING the latter half of the twentieth century Christians from denominations around the world have stated a desire to find their way back to the roots of Christianity and experience a more full expression of Christianity and the life of the Church. One way in which this has manifested is the ‘convergence movement’. The convergence movement has developed as a bridge for promoting unity among Christians from the various ‘streams’, or historic traditions, and has encouraged their flowing into the one ‘river’ of the Church. This paper will give a basic history of convergence, including a few notable events and people, offer an overview of a communion of convergent congregations, and discuss the possible future of convergence."

(https://www.eighthdayinstitute.org/florovsky_paper_abstract_three_streams_one_river_the_history_and_future_of_the_convergence_movement)

The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how technology and popular cultural texts interact with one another. It will be demonstrated that, far from being neutral, technology is intrinsically tied to social and cultural relations, as well as issues of production, consumption and power in capitalist society. Likewise, through a discussion of the German electronic band Kraftwerk, it will be shown that the band are not an apolitical, neutral, avant garde text which can be considered as ‘above’ society, but rather a cultural text which is embedded within social and cultural relations, as well as adaptive to the interests of commercialism and commodification.

When reviewing the research of scenes and subcultures it becomes apparent, that economic aspects remain largely unresearched or exploratory (E.G. Hesmondhalgh, 1998; Lange & Bürkner, 2010). So far the economy of those formations has been mostly understood as being part of the cultural industries (or now referred to as creative industries ), or not even economic at all (Gebesmair, 2008; Handke, 2009). Based on research in the Berlin music scene around ‘underground’ techno and house music, I have come to different conclusions: I found micro-globalized and small-entrepreneurial infrastructures of clubs, marketing and booking agencies, shops, media and distributors run by club owners, promoters, DJs, booker and agency/club staff. They have an own value creation chain rooted in a common subcultural aesthetic and integral music culture – a scene economy (Kühn, 2011). By exerting various selective subcultural orientations (non-commerciality, familiarity, sell-out) these both cult ural and economic actors perform a post-modern form of aesthetic resistance (Kühn, 2013). Although the distinctions remain blurred, they thereby produce a subcultural/internal hierarchy (Bourdieu, 1996; Thornton, 1995) and draw boundaries around their mode of cultural production (Strachan, 2007; Moore, 2007). By combining Bourdieu’s theory of the cultural field with scene and subcultural theory (Hall & Jefferson, 2006; Hitzler, Honer, & Pfadenhauer, 2008; Muggleton & Weinzierl, 2003), the presented approach links both subcultural identities and cultural-economic structures together and heads towards overcoming the current dichotomy of subcultural and post-subcultural theory.