Transcript Document

A Glimpse into a Composer's Workshop
Nigel Morgan
www.nigel-morgan.co.uk
A Glimpse into a Composer’s Workshop
Computer Assisted Composition
The Composing Continuum
A Glimpse into 3 Compositions
Issues: Problems: Vision
Computer Aided Composition: A Definition
•
CAC systems focus on the formal structure of music.
•
We conceive a CAC environment as a programming language,
enabling composers to constitute their personal universe.
- Carlos Agon, IRCAM, Paris
Index
Composers
•
The Monte Carlo Method
– Illiac Quartet
Lajaren Hiller & Leonard Isaacson
Experimental Music (1959) McGraw-Hill
•
Stochastics
– Pierre Barbaud
BARBAUD P., Vademecum de l'ingénieur en musique, Springer, 1993,
– Iannis Xenakis
•
MIDI: The Composer’s Assistant
– Morton Subotnik
– Fred Lerhahl (IRCAM)
– Robert Rowe
– David Rosenboom
Index
Composers
•
The Spectral View
– Tristran Murail & Gerard Grisey
– Jonathan Harvey
•
Fractals
– Magnus Lindberg
– Rolf Wallin
•
Statistical Distribution
– Richard Barratt
– James Dillon
•
Generative Music without Computers
– Franco Donatoni
– Milton Babbitt
Index
Software
•
Pre-MIDI
– Use of AMPLE
•
MIDI
– Logical (Boolean) editing: Cubase & Logic
– M, Jam Factory, Real-Time
– Programmable Variations Generator of Dr. T’s KCS
– HMSL, Interactor, Cypher, MAX
•
LISP & Smalltalk Composition Environments
– Common Music
– Symbolic Composer
– Cecilia, D-MIX
– Bol Processor
– Patchwork & Open Music
•
The use of Matlab
– Matlab MIDI Toolkit
Index
The Composing Continuum
Follows this sequence:
Pre-composition
pq
Audition and Simulation
pq
The Notated Score
Index
Pre-Composition
A blue-print of the composition containing the core
materials required by the composer to 'make' the
composition.
From the semiotics of of Jean Molino
poietic composing
- the business and process of making a composition
Index
The Hindemith Approach
Eckhart Richter’s ‘A Glimpse into the Workshop of Paul Hindemith’ (Richter
1977:122) describes Hindemith’s working method as presented to a class at
Yale in 1951.
1.
The general determination of the character, medium and the basic
purpose of the piece, as well as its expressive character, and even
place of performance
2.
A master plan of formal design, including the overall shape, the
number and character of sections, changes in mode and tempo,
rhythmic character, texture and the degree of activity . .
3.
Then ‘came the tonal layout in which the basic tonalities of each
section and their relative degrees of tonal stability and complexity,
as well as the modulations, were mapped by means of a diagram’.
4.
Specific thematic material.
Index
Before the Notes
Improvisation
Verbal Descriptions
Drawings and Diagrams
Plans, graphs, flow-charts
Sketches in graphic notations
MIDI recordings
Index
Conditions Surrounding Performance &
Performers
Instruments and instrumentation
Duration
Context
Technical Ability
Index
From the Sketch to the Score
Traditional methods usually hide the techniques and the web
of decisions that are engaged to produce a notated scoring of a
complete musical section.
Decisions are kept on hold as long as possible:
Very little evidence of what-ifs (the contents of the waste-paper
bin!)
Index
Towards Programming for Music
Parametric Thinking
The Hierarchy of Action
Traditional Practice
The Experience of the Ear and Eye
Internalisation
Meta-composition
Generative Techniques
(and the art of good continuation)
Index
Parametric Thinking
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (LZW) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pi cture.
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see thi s picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (LZW) dec ompres s or
are needed to s ee this picture.
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (LZW) decompres sor
are needed to see this pic ture.
Quick Time™ an d a
TIFF ( LZW) d ec ompre sso r
ar e n eed ed to s ee this pic ture .
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see t his picture.
Timbre
Note-length is a virtual distance of a sounding pitch or chord
Duration is associated with performance articulation of the Note-length
Index
The Beat/Space Concept
Concerto N0.4 M1 (Instrumentarium Novum)
;
|
|
|
w1
" - ---
w2
"
br
" ---
s1
" ----
s2
"- -- --
pc
"- --
cn
"------ - -- ---
--
||
|
- -- -
- ---
-- -- -
-
-----
--- -
-
- -
-
------
--------- -
-- -
;
|
|
wd
"--- ---
br
" - -
pc
"
st
"- ----
|
- - -
-
|
|
----- -
-
--- - -- -
----- ---- ---
-
--- - ---
”
”
--”
"
(4 Diverse instruments)
|
--- - - -
- - -
-- - --- ---
- - -
Giuoco delle Coppie
|
”
"
Quatour des Timbres
|
--
---- --- -- ---- - ---
----
|
”
- -- -- -
- -
|
--
-- - -------
--
|
------- --
-
-- --
|
”
-”
-----”
-- - ----- --- ”
template-based procedures(x = = x = = x x) > (a b c d) > (a = = b = = c d)
example of binary rhythmics
(x = = x) or (x = x x = x x x)
Listen to Nigel Morgan’s Toccata for solo piano
Index
The Hierarchy of Action
A musical composition tends to display a hierarchy in the arrangement of
parametric elements.
Bach's Prelude in C from WTK could be said to have this hierarchy:
Harmony
Harmonic Rhythm
Note-length
Pitch
Rhythm
CAC needs to allow the composing process to start from any parametric
element.
Index
Traditional Practice
The need for a composer to really understand the
elements commonly used in his/her composing.
"The problems of language, meaning, and form must
remain central to the composer, and he has constantly to
set himself up against the history of his own art."
Alexander Goehr in Finding the Key (1998)
This book contains some valuable descriptions of the
composer’s own pre-composition processes and that of his
teachers Richard Hall and Olivier Messiaen.
Index
The Experience of the Ear and Eye
•Experience based on studies of existing scores and practice.
•What works well with performers - in slow/fast tempos?
•How are changing metres presented? (with time-signatures or
the use of accents)
•The value of visual scanning to the process of building a musical
structure of many parts and sections.
Index
Internalisation
How important is the ability to hear in one's imagination the detailed
sound of the music as it develops?
Is the intervention of computer-assisted playback of musical elements
helpful or a hindrance?
Are we only experiencing the outer layer of the musical message?
Index
Meta-composition
Can we think about composition as a play of symbolic elements?
Can we work 'back to the notes' from speculative symbolic ideas?
Hindemith favoured a process of thinking about composition in which
'the notes' assumed the lowest position in the hierarchy of planning a
musical work.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Index
Generative Techniques
What are the basic / essential generative techniques composers
use during the pre-composition stage?
Can these techniques be defined as functions able to act on
individual parametric elements?
What other techniques do we need to have available to enable
'good continuation' ?
How important is analysis in defining generative techniques?
Are we talking about reverse engineering?
Index
Audition and Simulation:
During the Pre-composition process
What is required, important, essential?
Auditioning discrete parametric material
The sonic sounding board (real instruments to sampled
simulations)
The baggage of musical detail (necessary or not?)
Is MIDI the only protocol we can use here?
Index
Audition and Simulation:
During & After the Production of a Notated Score
Value to performers.
A means of checking.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Index
The Notated Score & Summary
What are the mechanisms that enable the rendering of pre-compositional
material into a notated performance score?
What are the expectations?
What are the common difficulties and anomalies?
Summary - The Composing Continuum
• In the making of music for human performance a small, but significant number of
composers use Computer Assisted Composition.
• Very few of these composers a) have sustained a long-term association with a CAC
or b) acknowledge how and to what degree compositions are made with computer
assistance.
• Informal and anecdotal evidence suggests that a) it is rare for a composer to even
attempt the composing continuum (pre-composition to notated score), b) most use
the CAC to generate unique material in one parametric element only - usually pitch.
• There remain unresolved issues in the translation from midifile (the favoured
output of most CACs) to staff notation: time-signatures and metre zones (bars),
tuplets or irrationals rhythmics, metrical modulations, microtones, articulations.
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Compass
from Array, for solo violin
(setq phrases
(append
(vector-to-symbol a l
(gen-sin 0.1 0.1 60 180
(gen-ramp 10 0.1
(vector-to-symbol a x
(gen-sin 0.3 0.1 60 180
(gen-ramp 10 0.3
(vector-to-symbol -l l
(gen-sin 0.5 0.1 60 180
(gen-ramp 10 0.5
(vector-to-symbol -o w
(gen-sin 0.7 0.1 60 180
(gen-ramp 10 0.7
)
60)))
60)))
60)))
60))))
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Compass
from Array, for solo violin
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
The Waterfall
from Stone and Flower - for voice and keyboard
The Fall
It is the fall, the eternal fall of water,
of rock, of wounded birds, and the wounded heart,
the waterfall of freedom. Angels fall
like lovers from the azure, separate,
and die by that same death that ends us all.
Falling ten million years, we fling ourselves
again into the inviting arms of time;
our nuptial flight must end again in death
that serves for freedom time and time again
while the hard labouring mystic holds his breath.
The watching surface of the living sea
ever intact, smiles with the face of love,
where living blood drowns in its ecstasy,
impelled by nature that can mountains move,
feeling most freedom when it least is free.
Shall we go down, shall we go down together?
here on the mountain top, the wind and snow
urge us to fall, and go the way they go.
The way is clear, the end we shall not know,
the sea will carry us where tides run and currents flow.
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
The Waterfall - Page 1
from Stone and Flower - for voice and keyboard
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (LZW) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pic ture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Process of Pitch Composition
•Vector output from white noise fractal
•Division into phrases
•Phrases picked and randomised into new order
•New order includes possibility of repeats
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Orchestration
•Stage 1 orchestration in 7 timbres
•Wind 1&2, Brass, Strings 1&2, percussion, continuo
•Array-base processing to define instrument activity
•Production of timesheet
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1 - rough prototyping i
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1 - rough prototyping ii
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1 - rough prototyping iii
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1 - full-score
Index
A Glimpse into Three Compositions:
Concerto 1- SCOM Workspace
Index
Issues: Problems: Vision
Issues
Education
Artistic Perceptions
Problems
Gaps in the Composing Continuum
The MIDI (file)
Vision
Enabling work in Open-Form
Towards a more dynamic relationship between
composer and performer
MPEG AHG on Music Notation
Index
Issues 1
The Effect of Digital Technology on Musical Creativity
What has digital technology to offer the composer searching for the
right note, the appropriate chord, the smooth transition from one
idea to another? Are the current tools and systems, said to make us
more creative and productive, delivering the goods? Or, are there
intrinsic problems that may be already having a serious effect on the
development of composers whose formative relationship with music
composition has depended on interactions with technology? To this
end, the paper considers a study of undergraduate students working
with computer sequencers and describes research and development
of new tools for music composition and its teaching and learning. It
concludes with recommendations that suggest composers empower
themselves to take control of digital technology, rather than being
controlled by it; to move away from the emphasis on production and
performance outcomes towards the development of personal
environments responsive to creative and critical thinking.
Abstract of paper delivered at Beyond Art? Digital Culture in the
Twenty-first Century Colloquium The Oxford Union, 21st April,
1999
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ctitext2/beyond/morgan.html
Index
Issues 2
Teaching Cycles in the Creative Community of Inquiry
Nigel Morgan and John Cook
In this paper, five studies are described which investigated the way in
which tutors (both human and computer-based) were used to support a
‘creative community of inquiry’ in undergraduate musical composition.
Each study involved a cycle around some or all of the following four
elements
• dialogue analysis
• learning support system design
• implementation of a learning support system
• evaluation of the system plus reflection on the
implications for music composition teaching
The paper concludes with a reflection on the impact that this cyclical
research and development has had on the practice of a composerteacher (the first author).
Abstract of a paper delivered at the ALT-C Music Workshop 2000 and
published in Musicus 6 by PALATINE on-line
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/palatine/musicus6/morgancook.pdf
Index
Composing: How and Why
John Cook and Nigel Morgan are currently working on a book titled:
Composing: How and Why
Technology offers the promise of reinstating composing once more at
the heart of musicianship. Just as visual arts practice and creative
writing have been demystified by photography, the word processor and
the internet, the complex skills and techniques surrounding music
making are being redefined and made newly accessible by digital
recording, interactive machine musicianship and synthesis. In the light
of these new conditions revisiting and reinventing traditional forms of
learning and thinking about music can offer us a lively way forward to
developing the creative and critical tools to make and understand new
music. The authors believe that interactive portals able to foster creative
and critical thinking will soon be a part of new technologies that are
responsive to an individual’s learning needs: to encourage selfexplanation, speculation, and reflection about intention. We can even
look forward to the machine becoming a kind of knowledge-mentor
prompting us to explain our intentions, formulate our plans, recognise
areas of weakness and review outcomes as part of the creative process.
Index
Composing: How and Why
Composing: How and Why examines the relationship of
thinking to composing and how dialogue and self-explanation
can mediate between listening and making one's own music. It
examines how musical learning has traditionally employed
modes of thinking and questioning and how these today might
be remodeled and embedded within the technologies and
media through which we will increasingly learn and gather
information.
Index
Problems 1
Gaps in the Composing Continuum
* The interpretation of time signatures
* The representation of irrational groupings (tuplets)
- including compound or nested irrationals/tuplets
* The interpretation of complex time-signatures
(where tuplet values are represented as denominator)
* Metrical Modulation
* Musical Spelling
* Metre Groupings
* The simulation/audition of microtones
Index
Problems 2
The MIDIfile
UnfortunatelyMIDI is currently still the most practical format
even with its shortcomings and restrictions
The result is that we stay with Midi for the time beingbut
research has to be done for a higher level representation
that inserts itself well into the composer's and musical
assistant's work.
Requirements for Music Notation regarding Music-to-Score
Following and Music Alignment
Diemo Schwarz IRCAM (2003)
Index
Vision 1
Touching the Distance - for solo piano
(open-form version for Disklavier)
Composition devised for an action research project with
pianist Joan Dixon (York University)
Getting your hands on the music - paper delivered at the
Leaving The 20 Century conference
at Bretton Hall College 1996
Available with interactive musical illustrations
@ www.nigel-morgan.co.uk
Self-Portrait (2002) - for seven musicians
Open-form composition for members of BBCNOW
Interactive web tool devised to enable performers to audition
open-form possibilities
Index
Vision 2
Many contemporary scores offer few clues to their
pre-compositional activity and their ‘making’ process.
Much new music requires in its execution a high degree of
technical precision leaving very little interpretative space for a
performer to bring his/her experience to bear on the music.
An effective
Pre-Composition- Audition/Simulation - Notation Continuum
offers possibilities for musicians to gain access to the content
and workings of musical compositions.
Musicians able to render new and alternative versions of
musical compositions suitable for particular and different
performance contexts.
Index
Vision 3
The MPEG Ad Hoc Group on Symbolic Music Representation
Created by MPEG the basis of the request of members of the
MUSICNETWORK which is a large network in which are present more
than 850 participants and more than 400 institutions and companies.
Maxwell and Ornstein’s groundbreaking Mockingbird music editor
pioneered the approach of storing independently information about the
logical, performance (also called gestural), and graphic aspects of
music. NIFF, as well as Nightingale and other programs, adopted that
approach; SMDL added a fourth “domain,” for analytic information. We
strongly advocate this independent-domain model.
http://www.interactivemusicnetwork.org/mpeg-ahg/
Index
Resources & References
ICCMR University of Plymouth
Research Seminars
Wednesday 19 April
You can download the slides used in this seminar here
http://www.nigel-morgan.co.uk/files/futurelab.ppt
Study-Scores and MP3s of the compositions
discussed are available here
http://www.nigel-morgan.co.uk
Index
Resources & References
Agon, C (2006). Mixing Visual Programs and Music Notation in Open Music in Mazzola/Noll/Lluis-Puebla (ed)
Perspectives in Mathematical and Computational Music Theory. Epos
Barbaud, P.(1993) Vademecum de l'ingénieur en musique, Springer,
Cook, J. and Morgan, N. (1998). Coleridge: a computer tool for assisting musical reflection and self-explanation.
Association for Learning Technology Journal, 6/1, 102–8.
Cook, J. (1999). MetaMuse: A teaching agent for supporting musical problem-seeking and creative reflection.
Proceedings of AISB’99 Symposium on Musical Creativity, pp. 89-95. The Society for the Study of Artificial
Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour.
Goehr, A (1998). Finding the Key. Faber Music.
Hiller, L. and Issacson, L. (1952) Experimental Music.McGraw-Hill.
Hindemith, P. (1973). Hindemith Jahrbuch/Annales-Hindemith 3. Mainz: Schott
Lerdahl, F. (1988). Cognitive constraints on compositional systems. In Sloboda, J. (Ed.), Generative Processes in
Music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Lipman, M. (1991). Thinking in Education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Morgan, N. (1992). Transcript of tutorial sessions with undergraduate composers at Dartington College of Arts.
Research Report, Dartington College of Arts Library, Dartington, Devon, UK.
Morgan, N. (1993) Rhythmic Mnemonics in the Acquisition of Composition Skills. In Proceedings of the Workshop
on Music Education: An Artificial Intelligence Approach. AI-ED 93 World Conference on Artificial Intelligence and
Education.
Morgan, N. and Dixon, J. (1995). Getting your hands on the music. Conference Proceedings: Leaving the 20C,
Bretton College Univeristy of Leeds, UK.
Papert, S. (1980) Mindstorms. Brighton: Harvester Press.
Richter, E. (1977) A Glimpse into the Workshop of Paul Hindemith. Hindemith Jahrbuch/Annales-Hindemith 6.
Mainz: Schott
Schwarz, D. (2003) Requirements for music notation in music-to-score following and music alignment.
Slonimsky, N. (1975). Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. London: Duckworth.
Index