[microsound] musical structure

[David Powers]

> On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 6:48 PM, David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> All I'm basically aiming at is whether it is possible to talk about
>> diverse musical structures from different traditions using some more
>> comprehensive language than the language of traditional musical
>> theories which tend to only describe the set of musical practices of a
>> single culture or subculture.
>>
>> ~David

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Paulo Mouat <paulo.mouat at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes it is possible. Just mix a generous dose of Schaeffer's _Traité des
> objets musicaux_ with a pinch of Xenakis' _Formalized Music_ and Roads'
> _Microsound_ and you have everything you need.

REPLY:

I don't think any of those theories include culture and semiotics,
without which one could not understand, say, the music of Gustav
Mahler or Charles Mingus. In fact I find Xanakis and Roads to be
useful but extremely limited theoretically in terms of understanding
music in general. Both concentrate on very narrow, particular subsets
of musical practice rather than providing any kind of account of
musical practice in general. Pierre Schaeffer’s work is likely more
broad but it's unavailable in English so my awareness of what it
covers is rather limited. I would be interested to learn more on
Schaeffer's theories if you care to explain them.

Following are some other potentially interesting theories of music of
which I am aware.

1. I came across the following at the website of Marcus Bittencourt,
http://www.music.columbia.edu/~alessi/research_prospects.html

Sounds like he has some pretty interesting ideas. Here's what he
writes on the page above:

***Begin Quote***

    Following the work done in my DMA dissertation, I am planning a
Treatise on Musical Structure and Form for an Experimental
Electroacoustic Music.

            In the first part of such work, I would try to define and
map the idea of what is Musical Form and Structure from a point of
view that is disconnected from a particular musical tradition or
culture. At the core of such work would be a thorough study of Pierre
Schaeffer’s Traité des Objets Musicaux (Éditions du Seuil, Paris,
1966), a very important and seminal work which is, unfortunately,
still unavailable in English and therefore quite unknown in the USA.
As a matter of fact, I have been studying for several years
Schaeffer’s Traité because of its strong syntony with my own ideas.
Schaeffer’s work is an attempt to define what is Music and what
belongs to the Musical realm in a basic primitive, archetypical level
disconnected from Culture. His most important accomplishments are his
phenomenological study of musical listening and perception, and his
idea of a solfege of sound objects, which is based on an attempt of
formalizing a Morphology and a Typology of sound objects.

            Some of my ideas for this Treatise have already been
sketched in my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. In that
essay, I analyzed how musical structures could be developed in several
levels. Basically, my ideas were focused in two fronts, first, a
microscopic one, which I called a Musical System, defined as being a
systematic series of filtrations of the continuums of information
contained inside sound itself. The second front is a macroscopic one,
Musical Form, which I claimed to be the result of a judicious
application of Montage technique. Here, I often used concepts borrowed
from Semiotics and Film Theory. For example, I used Serguei
Eisenstein's Montage theory and Andrei Tarkovsky's concept of Time
Pressure to explain my special notions of Musical Time and Musical
Space. I believe most of my definitions and conclusions are correct
but still at a very raw state. They are in need of clarification,
further exploration and amplification.

            In the second part of the Treatise, I would deal with
issues pertaining more directly to the field of Electroacoustic Music,
which I view as the most important and promising medium for an
Experimental Music, as defined in my dissertation essay. Armed with my
seven intensive years of experience working with Computer Music, I
would return once more to Schaeffer’s Traité, this time to his
breakdown of the "Electroacoustic Chain", and carefully explore and
map all the main issues concerning the composition of Electroacoustic
Music. First, I will work with the idea of a virtual electroacoustic
lutherie, which will generalize concepts for sound pick-up, sound
cataloguing, signal processing, and algorithmic composition. Second, I
will propose general guidelines for an orchestration of sound objects,
including a vertical orchestration (the study of simultaneities), as
well as horizontal and spatial orchestrations. Finally, I will discuss
sound diffusion/projection, spatialization, and Acousmatic listening.

            The main goal of the Treatise is to precise, at the most
basic level, what are the Materials and Tools at the disposal of an
Electroacoustic Music composer of the 21st century, and the nature,
qualities, and possibilities of those elements, in other words, their
"alchemical" properties. Regardless of aesthetic/cultural preferences,
such studies would be important to anyone who wants to try to
understand the nature of the organization of sounds as a form of
artistic expression, and who wants to become proficient at thinking,
understanding, manipulating and exploring the universe of sounds with
the intention of creating Music.

***End Quote***

2. Also particularly interesting might be this book: David Borgo. Sync
or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age.

"At once theoretical, practical, pedagogical, musical, and even
autobiographical, Sync or Swarm is an attempt to blend contemporary
science and psychology with the critical study of musical
improvisation. For those who are not musically oriented, this text
might seem intimidating at first given its expansive musical
vocabulary, from the Phrygian mode to phase transition, and the range
of musical references, from Anthony Braxton to Arnold Schoenberg..."

3. Finally, speaking of Anthony Braxton, he does have some ideas which
are rather interesting about theory and ways to structure musical
works.

~David