Due Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Read Copland, What to Listen for in Music.
Read Cage, "The Future of Music: Credo" and "Experimental Music" in Silence.
Read Russolo, The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto.
For each of the three authors, write (using a typewriter or word processor; no handwritten papers, please!) one or two paragraphs concisely summarizing their main points.
Listen to Varèse Ionisation, Varèse Poème électronique, Schaeffer Etude aux sons animés, and Stockhausen Gesang der Jünglinge. The Varèse pieces are in the regular collection of the Music Media Center. The Stockhausen is listed by its English title "Song of Youths", and--along with Varèse's Ionisation--is in the CD anthology Music For Our Time edited by Robert Winter. The Schaeffer piece is on reserve under "Dobrian" in the MMC.
Wednesday, April 12, 2000
Attend a performance of Microepiphanies: A Digital Opera in the Concert Hall at 1:30pm or 8:00pm. Write a one page article summarizing the technology being used, the artistic statement being made, and the thoughts or questions it provoked in you. (Due Tuesday, April 18.)
Due Thursday, April 13, 2000
Read Varèse "The Liberation of Sound" (pp. 277-283 in the reader). You are not required to write a summary of this article, but you may do so for credit.
Read Chadabe, The Electronic Century: "Beginnings" and "Tales of the Tape" (pp. 284-302 of the reader). You are not required to write a summary of this article, but you may do so for credit.
Listen to Honegger "Pacific 231" in the Arts Media Center.
Due Tuesday, April 18, 2000
Read Bartlett "Microphone Technique Basics" (pp.356-373 of the reader).
Hand in your one-page article on Microepiphanies. (See April 12, above.)
Due Thursday, April 20, 2000
Make an audio tape recording (cassette or DAT), 30 seconds or more, using equipment checked out from the Arts Media Center. Try two or more different types of microphone placement (e.g. close to the sound source, or while moving around the sound source, or while the sound source is moving, in a small room, in a large indoor space, outdoors, etc., etc.). The goals are 1) to make the best quality of recording possible with the equipment you have, and 2) to capture one or more interesting "sound objects".
Due Tuesday, April 25, 2000
Read Dobrian "How Digital Audio Works" in your reader. You can also find this article on the web under the title Digital Audio.
The following articles in your reader are not required, but are very useful additional reading for this point in the class: Rossing "Hearing", Rumsey and McCormick "What is sound?", and Rumsey and McCormick "Microphones".
Due Thursday, April 27, 2000
Listen to Davidovsky "Synchronisms No. 5" (CD1182), Stockhausen "Telemusik" (CD2283), Berio "Thema - Omaggio a Joyce" (CD2887), Cage "Sonatas and Interludes" (Sonatas 1-5 and First Interlude) (CD2069), Cage "Imaginary Landscape No. 4" (CD2583), Xenakis "Concret P.H." (LPB0826), and Varèse "Poème électronique" and "Déserts" (CD2647, on reserve under 'Son').
Due Tuesday, May 2, 2000
Listen to Kampela "Textorias", on the ICMC '95 CD, and "f(Ear)" on the Music from SEAMUS volume 7 CD, on reserve in the Arts Media Center. (Note: "f(Ear)" has a very large dynamic range.)
Due Thursday, May 4, 2000
Make a musique concrète composition using your recorded sounds and the SoundEdit 16 software. The composition must be at least 30 seconds long, and should include at least one instance (each) of the techniques of editing, mixing, and effects processing.
Turn in your composition on a Zip disk. The name of your Zip disk should be your name. Your finished composition should be a SoundEdit 16 document (or AIFF file). If you have more than one file on your Zip cartridge (it's likely that you will), your finished composition should be at the top level of the disk's file heirarchy, and should bear a filename that clearly identifies it as your finished piece (e.g., "Final Version", "Check this out, dude", etc.). Or, if you want to give your file/piece a more significant title, feel free to do so, but put it in a top-level folder that has an obviously directive name (e.g., "My piece is in this folder"). I will just listen to the file from start to finish and assume that that is what you wanted me to hear, so don't leave extra tracks in your file that you don't intend for me to hear as part of the piece.
Tuesday, May 9, 2000
Midterm exam. Short answers to questions covering the first five weeks of the course; identification of recorded examples from listening assignments in the first five weeks.
Due Thursday, May 11, 2000
No assignment.
Due Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Read Karlheinz Stockhausen's article on the composition of Gesang der Jünglinge, handed out in class on Thursday May 11.
Listen to Lucier "I am Sitting in a Room" (CD2281), Reich "Come Out" (CD0829), and Stone "Shing Kee" (CD2285). Listen to at least the first few minutes of each piece, and to selected sections throughout the remainder of each piece. What are the underlying principles that are common to all three pieces? You may write your answer and hand it in for credit. (Written assignment is suggested but not required.)
Due Thursday, May 18, 2000
Listen to Newton "African Cyborg" on the CD Above is Above All.
Additional listening (optional): Listen to Dobrian Electronic Music Sampler cassette (on reserve in the AMC).
Due Tuesday, May 23, 2000Read Gibson "MIDI Theory".
Due Thursday, May 25, 2000Read Milano "What MIDI Does".
Listen to Dobrian "Entropy" and "Unnatural Selection", on the CD Artful Devices (Tracks 1 and 4 on CD3040).
Due Tuesday, May 30, 2000Read Simoni "A Survey of Gender Issues Related to Computer Music and Suggestions for Change".
Listen to Sonami "Story Road" (CD 2202, Track 2), Kimura "'U' (The Cormorant)" (CD 2222, Track 2), and Deep Listening Band "Ten Ears Celebration" (CD 2566, Track 11).
Wednesday, May 31, 2000Attend the 1:30 pm lecture/demo and the 8:00 pm concert by Amy Knoles in the Winifred Smith Hall (a.k.a. the Concert Hall).
Due Thursday, June 1, 2000
Complete a composition for Roland JV-80 synthesizer, at least 1 minute in duration. The composition should use only Preset Patches (Preset sounds) of the JV-80 (i.e., only from Preset banks A and B, not from Bank I) and only a Preset Performance (from Preset banks A and B).
You should hand in your composition in the form of a Vision file on a floppy disk or a Zip disk. If you have more than one file on your disk, your finished composition should be at the top level of the disk's file heirarchy, and should bear a filename that clearly identifies it as your finished piece (e.g., "Final Version", "Check this out, dude", etc.). Or, if you want to give your file/piece a more significant title, feel free to do so, but put it in a top-level folder that has an obviously directive name (e.g., "My piece is in this folder"). I will just listen to the file from start to finish and assume that that is what you wanted me to hear, so don't leave extra tracks in your file that you don't intend for me to hear as part of the piece.Your Vision file should contain at least one program change message (patch selection command) for each MIDI channel you use in your sequence, to ensure that the file is played with the synthesizer sounds you intended. It is advisable also to include volume messages (continuous contoller 7) for each channel to ensure the correct balance of the sounds.
Your composition must include 1) at least one instance of something not performable by a human and 2) at least one instance of continuous control (volume, panning, modulation, etc.). Within the limitations of the preset sounds of the synthesizer, strive for interesting timbres. (To this end, you might want to explore composite mixtures of sounds -- and/or the use of extreme, uncharacteristic pitch ranges -- to achieve better timbres.)
FINAL EXAM Thursday, June 8, 2000, 1:30-2:50pm in M&MB202.
NOTE: The final exam will be held on the last day of scheduled class, June 8, NOT at the final exam time shown in the schedule of Classes (i.e., NOT Friday, June 16, 2000, 4:00-6:00pm).