Transcript Sound Technology and Perception

Gestalt laws and sound
simultaneity in electroacoustic
music
Raúl Minsburg
Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero
Universidad Nacional de Lanús
Textura Texture
English
Oxford English Dictionary (1933)
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954)
Spanish
Diccionario Enciclopédico Quillet (1968)
Enciclopedia Espasa Calpe (1980)
Musical Teaching
Simultaneity
Harmony Counterpoint Orchestration
¿Textures?
Arnold Schoenberg
• “The accompaniment should not be a mere addition. It
should be as functional as possible, and at best should
act as a complement to the essentials of its subject....
Accompaniment becomes imperative if the harmony or
rhythm is complicated”
¿Functional? ¿Complement? ¿Complicated?
Walter Piston
Seven kind of orchestral textures
- Orchestral unison
- Melody and accompaniment
- Secondary melody
- Part writing
- Contrapuntal texture
- Chords
- Complex texture (combination two or more from I to IV)
Leonard Meyer
The way in which the mind groups concurrent
musical stimuli
•
•
•
•
•
A single figure without any ground
Several figures without any ground
One (or more) figure accompanied by a ground
A superimposition of small similar motives
Ground alone
Monody
Poliphony
Homophony
Heterophony
¿?
Dennis Smalley
Textures in electroacoustic music
Internal behaviour patterning
1) Enviromental sounds
2) Magnification of internal texture
3) Visual observation of textures
Simultaneity in electroacoustics, acousmatic
(Sound based music - Landy)
- Empirical/perceptual music.
- Voice, melodic line  Sound object
- Difficult to predict the result of the meeting of two
or more sounds.
Gestalt Theory
1910
- Max Wertheimer
- Kurt Koffka
- Wolfgang Kohler
“... the individual elements ... are
determined by the intrinsic nature
of the whole”
Note “B” ¿7th? ¿Tonic?
1923
“Laws of Organization in Perceptual Forms ”
“... we do not experience a number of individual things....
Instead, larger wholes separated from and related to one
another are given in experience. These arrangements
follow definite principles or laws ”
Some of the laws
-
Perceptual constancy
Simplicity
Pregnancy (Good shape)
Common fate
Balance
Simmetry
Closure
Good Continuation
Proximity
Similarity
Figure - Ground
Basic situation of simultaneity
- Two voices, sounds, sounding together: a
difference at least in one of the parameters
of the sounds
Instrumental Music
Bach Ligeti
Electroacoustic Music
1
2
Parmegiani
Similarity
Traditional Music = Pitch
- Fugue – String quartets
- Small intervals in melodic motion
- Virtual poliphony for one instrument.
We can extend it to other parameters of sound
Intensity - timbre - envelope – sound object
Two sounds in simultaneity which are not separated
in the frequency range , but in another sound
parameter
Chowning
Simultaneous sounds with difference in timbre and/or
frequency range
Rapp
If there is no difference ... they won´t be differentiated.
Chowning
Proximity
We link sounds according to their nearness.
Even if they are very different, they make a
perceptual unity
El otro espejo
Two kind of unities
1) Pair attack – sustain
Attack Sustain
Parmegiani
Beethoven
2) Cell:different sound objects that can not be
separate by our ear.
Schaeffer examples
Albert Bregman
Auditory Stream
A perceptual unit that represents a single
happening
It can incorporate more than one
sound (footsteps, birds)
Rapp
It´s perceptual, not
physical
¿When does our perception get lost?
When we listen more that three voices in sound
simultaneity, we perceive their global
characteristics, we perceive a group, a structure,
a web.
- Poliphonic music
- Contemporary music
- Ambience sounds
• Structure, configuration, Gestalt unity.
When the listener cannot perceived single lines but a
whole = statistical audition.
• Textural passage - Mountain
When the listener's attention is drawn to the overall
sonic image and the interplay of the component
elements rather than on any one individual line
Classification of textures?
•
•
•
•
Monody
Homophony
Polyphony
Heterophony
Vocal and instrumental music
Which is the real difference between heterophony and polyphony?
Does the homophony include all kinds of accompaniments?
How much is “poly”? Three, ten, forty, one hundred?
Is there only one kind of monody?
Does “hetero” refers to the amount or to the kind of voices?
In which measure does timbre can change the perception of a texture?
If “voice” means “melodic line”: what role has pitch in textures?
If we talk about rythmic polyphony can we talk about rythmic monody?
Is counterpoint the same in Machaut, Gesualdo, Schoenberg,
Strawinsky, Ligeti? And if it changes…polyphony also changes?
Can polyphony be different because of harmonic features?
And should we use the same name for it?
Can these four textures include all combination of voices?
Can different accompaniments create different homophonys?
If so: which ones? How many? If it doesn´t: why?
New terms?
New expressions?
a) Quantity
1- One
Monody
2 - Few
2 to 3 - 4
Homophony
Polyphony
Heterophony
3 - Many
More than 4
Structure
b)Functionality
• One voice
• Two voices
• Three voices
1- One
Monody
•Sound/s (different)
•Sound object/s (diff.)
•Auditory stream/s (diff.)
2 - Few
2 to 3 - 4
Homophony
Polyphony
Heterophony
3 - Many
More than 4
Structure
Simple
Single figure/s no ground
De Armas
Figure/s with ground
Parmegiani
Complex
Several figures no ground
Dhomont
Three (or more) figure with ground
Rudy
Simple ground
Composed ground
Belloc
RM
Why does some sounds form a structure?
Why do we link, perceptually,
heterogeneous objects?
Context
We link sounds if they are grouped by the context.
-Ambience situation = a specific space
- Sound Simultaneity = Structure in contemporary
music
Ambience situation
Extraction of the sound from it´s original context
Listening unnoticed sound qualities
Ambience
Beetle
Transformation of each one of those
sounds
Entre sueños
Gradual change of context
Modulation from a real ambience to an
artificial one
Confluence of textural and discoursive
features
Quotation
Evocation
Abstraction
. Direct reference of a sound/music
. Indirect or allusive reference
. Pure musical meaning/functionality
Overlapping of several leyers
Slow transformation (or modulation) from one
section to another
Prolongation - Anticipation
Subtle appearance of a sound or a group
Subtle appearance of a sound or a group
A tu memoria
Trigger
Insert
Ambiences Together
Sustained notes Note and ambience And more...
All =
Increasing or decreasing layers according
to discourse
1 2 3 4 2+4 5
Días después…
Cantos lejanos
6
Sound discourse – Perception of form
Contrasts or links between a groupe, a structure, and
the next one.
- Soft changes = transitions, processes
- Sudden changes = discontinuities
Good continuation
Formal or discoursives features
- Directional Processes = decay or growth in
intensity
It can be interrupted = surprise
It can conclude = expectation
Días después…
Voces del recuerdo
Problems to be resolved
• Ambiguity of some sounds, specially regarding
the figure/ground relationship.
• Confluence of texture and discourse.
• Aplication of other Gestalt laws: ambiguity,
common fate, simplicity, etc.
Possible derivations
- Perception of simultaneity
Musical textures: acousmatic, sound based music
with intruments
Audiovisual Textures
- Perception of form: integration with other arts
(Temporal changes)