[microsound] Electroacoustic techniques

[Steven Ricks]

I think Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms are essential pieces if you're
interested in a "traditional" approach to composing for traditional Western
acoustic instruments plus electronics.  All of them include scores which
become increasingly more specific in terms of notating what the electronics
are doing and how the live instrument syncs up with them.

I apologize if I've misunderstood your question and these works are known to
you.  Anyway, in an an interview with guitarist David Starobin, Davidovsky
says something to the effect of wanting to imbed the sound of the guitar (or
whatever instrument he's dealing with) into the electronics, and vice
versa.  It's an approach in which the sounds/timbres of the two mediums are
meant to dovetail and be closely related, at least much of the time.

SR

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Randal Davis
<randal_davis at operamail.com>wrote:

> David,
>
> You might start by looking into Morton Subotnick's "ghost scores."  You can
> find some program and technical notes on his website, recordings and
> additional texts at the Avant Garde Project site, and a good article from
> some years back in The Musical Quarterly (requires JSTOR access).
>
> I'd look particularly closely at the works in The Double Life of
> Amphibians, which include works for solo cello, solo voice and string
> quartet (all with electronic "ghost scores."
>
> RD
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "David Powers" <cyborgk at gmail.com>
> > To: microsound at microsound.org
> > Subject: [microsound] Electroacoustic techniques
> > Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:03:26 -0600
> >
> >
> > Greetings,
> >
> > For a new project (actually Pi Day), I have decided to take a
> > different route and compose my piece in a more traditional manner,
> > basically as a piano piece, and then add in electronic elements, some
> > of which will probably be based on probabilities and some more or less
> > notated.
> >
> > So with that being said, in my mind the great weakness in the classic
> > books for electronic techniques that I've read ('Formalized Music' and
> > 'Microsound') is that, in my opinion, they fail to bridge the gap
> > between the world of composing as I know it, and new ways of
> > approaching sound. I am not interested in discarding traditional
> > techniques but rather extending them.
> >
> > So, I would be interested to hear from composers who work with
> > traditional musical materials and instruments alongside electronic,
> > especially those who use "normal" notation, manipulate cells and
> > motives, and do not rely on improvisation for the performance of the
> > electronic elements. How do you approach the use of electronics in
> > your work? How do you bridge the gap in sound between the electronic
> > and acoustic elements in your piece? Any software and technology that
> > you find to be especially helpful? If you work on micro timescales,
> > how do you bridge the gap between that timescale and the more normal
> > timescale of notated music?
> >
> > I'm considering finally digging into CSound to do the current piece;
> > the other options that occur to me offhand are ChucK, for the Physical
> > Modeling code, and PD, which I know reasonably well but usually only
> > use to generate data which I send via MIDI or OSC elsewhere. Any
> > advice would be appreciated.
> >
> > ~David
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> >
>
>
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-- 
Steven Ricks
Composer
Associate Professor, BYU School of Music
(801) 422-6115
www.stevericks.com
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