Music and Space

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.

Species of Spaces: The four main spatial categories.

Four categories of space emerge from this particular practice of interpretation and knowledge of the acousmatic repertoire: The “surround space” immerses the listener in a "bath" and is opposed to the “sound source” space which localizes sounds; the “geometry space” in a work structures plans and volumes. These three categories relate mostly to multichannel. The fourth, “Space illusion”, consciously or not, the subject works stereo format, which creates the illusion of depth of field on the screen of two speakers.

The spatial interpretation

The console  of projection (fader, multitouch surface, interactive gestures etc.) is a musical instrument and its "operator" a performing musician. This requires him some virtuosity (conditioned by the speakers system he has chosen, and the ergonomics of the sound projection instrument as well), stylistic knowledge of the repertoire, graphic statement of the simplified works and relevant to the spatialisation and maximum memorization of the work.

The interpretation of acousmatic music tends to bind different spatial figures that reinforce the writing of the work; the figures highlight existing or create new ones. The stereo works also leave more freedom of choice to the interpreter. Sixteen figures are listed, with their musical function.

The different types of existing spatial instruments, their specific examples

Some examples, diagrams and explanations show how various systems are designed for spatialisation and the acousmonium especially as it was designed by François Bayle in 1974.

The multiphonics

The interpretation of muliphonic  works raises new requirements with both technical (drivers, interfaces), types of transducers, and aesthetic. Comparison with the interpretation of stereo works

The stylistics

Depending on the character of each piece, one can, for a different work space, focusing on some aspect of writing: iconicity, movement, unmixing of polyphony, and phrasing changes, subjectivity matters, fluidity of the trajectories.

The figuralism

The figuralism, by playing with spatial figures, seems a royal way to give meaning and justify the space as an element that enhances the expressiveness of the musical work.

Space for what? : Composed space

As for any musical element, the space of sound is attributed a level of musical function decided by the composer. Nowadays technology allows for any variations in the use of space, from a micro event (static or dynamic spatial location for each sound) to a macro structure (whothe spatial structure, dynamic or static, mono or polyphonic for each section, phrases or group of events)
•Among other possibthe levels, I have selected the following 6 which, to me, are particularly useful and expressive:
Abstract level of space, conceived of plans, volumes, movements, or geometric figure
Structural level of space, used to emphasise sections, transitions or recall
Decorative level of space, often in movement, added to an event to strenghthen its meaning or temporary function
Figurative level, relating space to the imagination, the key feature, the metaphor Archetypal level of some obvious space figures, such as the wave (rocking movement), circthe (locked-in effect), explosion...
Madrigal level of the expressive strengthening of elements external to the music itself (text, image,...) : through figures, movements, and appropriate spatial situations.

The field of interactive music systems (IMSs), beginning in the 1980s, is still relatively young and fast moving. The field of music theory-analysis, during the same period (since 1980), has undergone a major transformation in terms of technological innovations, flexibility, and breadth. The two fields have not really caught up with each other. It will be interesting to see what arises as they do — especially as both fields have become more concerned with the role of the body and embodied cognition. Framed in terms of contrasting epistemological orientations, this essay considers some relevant developments in IMSs, music cognition, and music theory and analysis, leading up to the present.  The most popular approaches to music cognition and to IMS design are rationalist (Ashby 2010), exploiting the ‘correct’ embodiments of music (Godøy 2004, Leman 2007, Paine 2009) based on affordances (Gibson 1977, Kelso 1998). This essay, however, advocates a pragmatist (Ashby 2010) approach inspired by music analysis and exploiting the potential of kinesthetic learning (associative learning). Prompted by a progressive approach to music analysis, theory, perception, and cognition (Dubiel 1999, Mailman 2007), interactive music technology can also be constructive, flexible, and progressive, by exploiting kinesthetic learning from immersion in new and unusual motion-to-sound mappings derived from dynamic formal processes in analysed music. In this way, immersive interactive systems offer an opportunity systematically to learn new associations based on principles theorised in response to analysis. Experience of these systems essentially ‘rewires the brain’, thereby exemplifying what Korsyn (2004) has attributed to Lewin’s (1986, 1987) approach to music perception: the ironist approach, as formulated by Rorty (1989). Thus a pragmatist ironist experimental (PIE) approach is articulated. Rather than committing to any particular ways music is already embodied, this approach acknowledges the flexible nature of embodied musical experience. It forges and uses interactive music technologies continually to redescribe and therefore reform how music is embodied, thereby disembodying to re-embody music, expanding how music is heard, contemplated and experienced.

The outdoor music festival market has developed and commercialised significantly
since the mid-1990s and is now a mainstream part of the British summertime
leisure experience. The overall number of outdoor music festivals
staged in the UK doubled between 2005 and 2011 to reach a peak of over 500
events. UK Music (2016) estimates that the sector attracts over 3.7 million
attendances each year, and that music tourism as a whole sustains nearly
40,000 full time jobs.

Music Festivals in the UK is the first extended investigation
into this commercialised rock and pop festival sector and examines events
of all sizes: from mega-events such as Glastonbury Festival, V Festival and
the Reading and Leeds Festivals to ‘boutique’ events with maximum attendances
as small as 250. In the past, research into festivals has typically focused
either on their carnivalesque heritage or on developing managerial tools for
the field of Events Management. Anderton moves beyond such perspectives
to propose new ways of understanding and theorising the cultural, social and
geographic importance of outdoor music festivals. He argues that changes
in the sector since the mid-1990s – such as professionalisation, corporatisation,
mediatisation, regulatory control, and sponsorship/branding – should
not necessarily be regarded as a process of transgressive ’alternative culture’
being co-opted by commercial concerns; instead, such changes represent a
reconfiguration of the sector in line with changes in society, and a broadening
of the forms and meanings that may be associated with outdoor music events.

This article describes the importance of the Chilean urban cueca as a source of Santiago de Chile’s urban memory. The main argument explains how cueca lyrics transmit a sense of place that brings back a memory of friendship and fraternity, and also how these friendship songs are narratives of urban landscapes strongly connected with old memories and “performed maps,” that is, musical performance pathways of the past 50 years in the city. Interviews and nonparticipant observations are taken from two periods of fieldwork in Santiago de Chile between 2008 and 2009. Theoretically based on the concept of music scene, Edward Soja’s idea of vivid space and José Bengoa’s analysis of the lost community, the article concludes that memories form a counterdiscourse that criticizes the notion of progress or the Chilean way to global capitalism, turning upside down the created imaginary of a modern and developed city.

From Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘admission’ that he used it as one of his reference systems to Messiaen’s adaptation into his own second mode to the Taruskin-Forte debate, musical scholars seem at a loss as to what to do with the octatonic.
While its existence as a scale in its own right has been unambiguously verified by its presence in the folk heritage of different peoples, musicologists and music theorists are far from reaching a consensus regarding the frequency and way of its implementation in the works of 19th- and 20th-century composers. 
In his book The Harmonic Organization of „The Rite of Spring“ Allen Forte applied his own set theory (previously mostly used for atonal compositions) to scale systems used by Stravinsky, offering a clear definition of the sets and subsets that involve octatonic collections. This, however, found a strong detractor in one of the finest experts on Stravinsky, Richard Taruskin, whose review of Forte’s book underlined that Forte minimized the evolutionary value of the octatonic, while also accusing the author of a lack of contextualization. Dmitri Tymoczko replied that this scale system was overrated in Taruskin’s analytical view and even misused to the detriment of other scales and more widespread systems (such as highly chromatic tonality and the whole-tone scale). Although the positions of musicologists and theorists seem irreconcilable in many respects, some steps towards the reconciliation of the ‘historical’ and ‘analytical’ seem to have been taken. Thus Kofi Agawu does not reject Taruskin’s contextualism, but does add that it provides little information as to if and how a certain composer uses the system.
Using different harmonic and other analytical approaches, this paper hopes to offer the concept of a minimal ‘pitch callsign’ needed to unequivocally define a certain composition segment as octatonic, without neglecting the historical context of the system.

Studi recenti hanno messo in luce il ruolo centrale che la committenza musicale delle famiglie patrizie ha giocato nella vita musicale e spettacolare della Firenze seicentesca, contribuendo in tal modo a spostare lo sguardo dalla corte medicea ad un più composito e sfaccettato scenario musicale urbano.
Lo studio puntuale di tale scenario necessita di un’indagine che, oltre che sulle musiche e sulle modalità della committenza, si interroghi anche sui luoghi e sugli spazi riservati alle esecuzioni musicali nei numerosi palazzi di famiglia che all’epoca costellavano lo spazio cittadino. La duplice natura di questi ambienti – dimore private, ma al tempo stesso simboli tangibili del prestigio acquisito dalla casata – consente una riflessione su come la musica, in rapporto alla dimensione visiva e simbolica dello spazio prescelto, contribuisse alla creazione di un complesso sistema di autorappresentazione sociale e culturale del patriziato: una questione, questa, ancora non completamente messa a fuoco nel caso della Firenze seicentesca.
Sulla scorta di queste premesse metodologiche, l’intervento si focalizzerà su alcuni aspetti della committenza musicale del marchese Filippo Niccolini (1586-1666) in relazione agli spazi da lui allestiti per ospitare esecuzioni musicali nelle sue diverse residenze cittadine e suburbane. Si analizzerà in particolare il caso di Palazzo Ricasoli alla Carraia, dove Niccolini dimorò dal 1642 al 1648 e dove aveva iniziato ad allestire la sua collezione di quadri e di strumenti musicali. Incrociando i dati provenienti dall’archivio privato della famiglia con quanto già noto sulla storia di questo palazzo, si tenterà di ricostruire le caratteristiche (spaziali, visive e simboliche) di uno specifico ambiente interno, allestito per le esecuzioni musicali patrocinate dal marchese, che proprio in quel torno di anni si impone come attore tra i più influenti della committenza patrizia fiorentina.