Electroacoustic music studies and the danger of loss - Cambridge ...

Electroacoustic music studies 51Table 1ComputerPeripheralsAudio acquisition and conversionMIDIDiffusionMicrophonesEffectsControllersSoftwareSamplerType used at the first performance (to provide an example), speed, RAM memory sizeSize of hard disks, other necessary peripheralsNumber of channels, sampling rateNumber of channelsNumber of loudspeakers. Number of channels.Types of loudspeak-ers (stage,sub-bass, etc.). Set up in the performance hall.Number; types (contact, aerial, HF) and models used in the first performanceCompressors, limiters, equalisers, reverberation, harmonisers, etc. Precise descriptionof models and versions for future reference.MIDI keyboard. Other MIDI controllers (faders). Pedals (switch or volume).Joysticks. Non-standard items (gloves, bodysuits).Name. Version used in the first performance. Platform and operat-ing system underwhich the software runs. See Software environ-ment in table 2.RAM memory size. Sample map. Voice settings (filter, pan, vol-ume, envelope, etc.).Knowledge of the programming language is a necessityif one wants to grasp fully the intention and role ofthese instructions. This is how the analyst can understandhow a composer adapted a general-purposelanguage to the specific needs of the work.A recent study of Jonathan Harvey’s 1980 tapepiece, Mortuos plango, vivos voco, has shown howvaluable composer sketches are. The original MUSICV texts – orchestras and scores – could not be retrieved.To study this pure tape piece, the analysthad access to Harvey’s private documents and coulddiscuss them with the composer. Thus, many compositionaltechniques of the piece were uncovered andthoroughly explained.Because electroacoustic music has been in existencefor a rather long time and has generated a whole livingrepertoire, part of which is available on commercialrecordings, it is indeed possible to assemble a varietyof material in order to study and analyse an electroacousticpiece or a body of work. It is not difficult toaccept the idea that such a long history of compositionalpractice has generated a volume of documentsin addition to the music itself. Loosely drawing fromarchivistic categorisation, I will subdivide them into‘texts’, ‘paratexts’ and ‘documents’.Texts are composed of a wide diversity of writtenand graphic primary material, such as patches, analoguesynthesizers’ dope sheets, program listings,computer instruments, note lists, and so on. Paratextsare heterogeneous elements which help in the receptionof a work, such as titles, epigraphs and dedications,and commentaries of a work such as programmenotes. Documents consist in secondary sources notnecessarily related to music: handbooks and manualsof various technological tools such as computerprograms and audio devices, as well as textsrelated to art history, sociology, aethetics, philosophy,semiotics, cognitve sciences, etc.Table 1 lists the information for typical live electronicpieces using real-time digital systems, such asthose produced in the early 1980s. It is presented as anexample of a guideline for the preservation of informationdata used for performance and should proveuseful in electroacoustic music studies. It can also beused for tape music and pieces for tape and instrumentsor voice. Table 2 is a blueprint to help in a comprehensivedocumentation of pieces using computersin their performance. It is derived from a templatedevised by the author during his tenure at IRCAM inthe 1990s.There are large institutions which store and managedocuments and records for this music. Librariessuch as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France or theLibrary of Congress have comprehensive music departments.Their collections consist of musical scores,books, personal archives and music periodicals. Specialisedlibraries maintain whole collections of scientificand technical periodicals and books; this is thecase for large university libraries and research institutions.Many European radio organisations and associatedaudiovisual media institutions tend to do archivalwork by storing large sets of audio and video recordings,and many of them are engaged in research fordate retrieval from massive collections of documentrecords. Institutions which are or have been doingmusic research and production, such as INA-GRMand IRCAM in France, or Milan’s RAI are takingimportant steps towards preservation and access totheir collection of published and unpublished material.Also, music information centres, such as CDMCin France or the ones found in Europe, Japan, NorthAmerica and elsewhere, are good places to find

52 Marc BattierTable 2General presentationAudio connections set-upMIDI connections set-upAudio and MIDI set-up from thefirst per-formanceDigital processing mapDiffusion set-upList of all prepared soundfilesand sound samplesSoftware environmentSignal processing schemePreparation, tests and rehearsalPerformanceProgramme notesThis is where the reader should become acquainted with the specifics and the intentionof a piece, as well as its mode of presentation and performance. A morecomprehensive study could also be included.Place of all necessary microphones; audio signal paths to process-ing devices(reverberation, equalisation, compression, spatialisa-tion, other processing); A/D andD/A conversion; routing of output of audio signals; mixing; connection toloudspeakers.Must display channel numbers. Should show list of MIDI devices, control channelsand patching.Referring to the first performance’s set-up is invaluable. While tech-nology will evolveand be replaced in the future, a snapshot of the first performance can explain a lot.When digital processing is used (such as with a computer pro-gramme – MAX/MSP,Super Collider, jMax, etc.), a map of the data flow, a list of processing functions andI/O modules as well as a careful notation of settings is most useful for study (as well asfor a technical port to latter day technology).Live pieces tend to use more than two channels. A map of the diffu-sion set-up forspatialisation should clarify the choices made by the composer and those taken by thetechnician for a particular per-formance.Direct-to-disk and sampler technology tend to evolve rapidly. It is most important toknow the sampler’s map, its program settings and the triggering systems. Screen shotscan be useful.When triggered from a MIDI device (keyboard or gestural control-ler),precise MIDI messages (usually voice messages) should be noted. It may be that theperformer’s score has these indications already.In addition to the information given in table 1, this is where a com-prehensiveindication of the overall software environment is given (list of necessary plug-ins,abstractions, patches, programs, settings).Data flow representation of the signal processing algorithms.Steps to be followed to install the set-up and conduct tests. Indica-tion of rehearsalprocedure.Steps to be followed and overall procedure for the performance of the piece.The programme note is a paratext. As such, it is important to use the programmenotes from the first performance, although other versions might have been producedlater.documentation on living composers and music frommusicians working in their own country, such asscores, paratexts, associated documents and audiorecordings. Finally, museums not only acquire, storeand preserve musical instruments, but often giveresearchers access to their own document recordsarchives.When it comes to classifying methods, one encountersseveral approaches. Museums, for instance,have their own agenda of preserving, restoring andsometimes finding ways to keep instruments in aplayable state, and accompanying repository documentsare used as technical guidelines for these aims. 5Major libraries, on the other hand, especially nationalones, are more focused on archival methods.5On the steps taken by a museum regarding electronic musicalinstruments, see Sylvie Ramel’s article in this issue.One cannot expect electroacoustic music centres toconduct thorough data management. Most of themsimply do not have the time, the resources, the methodology.Their interest lies elsewhere, mostly in the productionof new music and in its public performance.It is a complex task to gather the documentationnecessary to electroacoustic music studies.An important missing tool is a thesaurus. A multilingualthesaurus would be a useful instrument forunderstanding terms whose meanings are sometimesuncertain or have changed over time. For instance,the word ‘sample’ has taken a whole new significancethese days. At the onset of computer music, the term‘sample’ is what digitalisation and sampling theorydefines as a single number representing an instantaneousamplitude in a waveform. With the arrival ofreal-time recording devices in 1980, the word was used

Electroacoustic music studies 53to designate a whole sound which could be playedback on a digital sampler instrument (Davies 1996). 66. CONCLUSIONTo help electroacoustic music’s repertory to live, tobe better known and performed more often, effortsshould be made to understand it better. Understandingtechnological works means studying the way theyshould be performed, how they ought to be presentedto the public and, also, the technical context in whichthey were born, their possibilities, limits and resources.REFERENCESBattier, M. 2003. A Constructivist approach to the analysisof electronic music and audio art – between instrumentsand faktura. Organised Sound 8(3), pp. 249–55.Bossis, B. 2004. Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco de JonathanHarvey. In M.-N. Masson (ed.) Les Images de lavoix. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, coll.Aesthetica, awaiting publication.Busoni, F. 1913. Sketch for a New Esthetic of Music.Reprinted in Three Classics in the Aesthetic of Music,New York: Dover, 1962.Davies, H. 1968. International Electronic Music Catalog/Répertoire, international des musiques électroacoustiques.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Also published asElectronic Music Review 2–3.Davies, H. 1996. A history of sampling. Organised Sound1(1): 3–11.Glinsky, A. 2000. Theremin. Ether Music and Espionage.Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Laurendeau, J. 1990. Maurice Martenot, luthier del’électronique. Montréal: Louise Courteau.Mathews, M., with Miller, J. E., Moore, F. R., Pierce, J. R.,and Risset, J. C. 1969. The Technology of ComputerMusic. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Moholy-Nagy, L. 1923. New Plasticism in music. Originallypublished in Der Sturm, no. 7, 1923, reprinted andtranslated in U. Block and M. Glasmeier (eds.) BrokenMusic, pp. 55–6. Berlin: Daadgalerie, Berliner Künstlerprogrammdes DAAD and Gelbe Musik, 1989.Risset, J. C. 1969. An Introductory Catalog of ComputerSynthesized Sounds. Murray-Hill, N-J: Bell TelephoneLaboratories, 6 + 105 pp.Schedel, M. 2002. Anticipating interactivity: Henry Cowelland the Rhythmicon. Organised Sound 7(3): 247–54.Stockhausen, K. 1961. Music in space. In Die Reihe,pp. 67–82.Varèse, E. 1936. New instruments and new music (froma lecture given at Mary Austin House, Santa Fe). In E.Schwartz and B. Childs (ed.) Contemporary Composerson Contemporary Music. New York: Norton, 1967.Varèse, L. 1972. Varèse. A Looking-Glass Diary, Volume I:1883–1928. New York: W. W. Norton.Weidenaar, R. H. 1995. Magic Music from the Telharmonium.Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.Young, G. 1989. Blues for Sackebout. Ottawa: NationalMuseum for Science and Technology.6Developing such a thesaurus forms part of the EARS project at DeMonfort University.