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technosonics
DIGITAL
MUSIC AND SOUND ART COMPOSITION
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MUSI
235 is an innovative 180-student class in digital music and sound art
composition. Started in 2006 at UVA by Prof Burtner, 235 explores the
history, theory and practice of digital music and sound art. Students
learn tools and techniques that infuse music of many genres and traditions.
From experimental computer music, ambient and dance music, sound art and
multimedia, digital tools have changed the way we make and listen to music.
This course offers a wide view of computer music as “technosonics”.
Students all compose original compositions and these are performed via
podcast on the iTunes Music Store.
In
2008, with the assistance of a Teaching+Technology Initiative Fellowship
and grant, Technosonics expands into the area of interactive computer
music performance. The class will host MICE, the Mobile Computer Music
Ensemble, a 180-person laptop orchestra. We will perform on April 30 on
Jefferson'sUVa Lawn at the Digitalis festival.
podcast :
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about
the class
our
team
materials/technology
assignments/grading
syllabus
about
the class
MUSI 235, Digital Music and Sound Art Composition
class: Monday and Wednesday, 12-12:50pm, Wilson
301
discussions:in Wilson
306
Course
Overview
MUSI 235 explores the history, theory and practice of digital music and sound
art in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students gain insight into a variety of
tools and techniques that have grown and expanded to infuse music of many genres
and traditions. From experimental computer music, ambient and dance music, sound
art, and multimedia digital tools have made a major impact in the world of music.
This course will offer a wide view of computer music as “Technosonics”.
In addition to historical and theoretical concerns, students will experiment
with digital tools for musical creation and live performance.
our
team
Professor
Matthew Burtner
mburtner@virginia.edu
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~cmb4f
205 Old Cabell Hall
office hours: Thursday, 1-4pm (please email in advance to schedule as these
fill up)
Scott
Barton, Teaching Assistant
scottbarton77@gmail.com
office hours by appointment, Old Cabell Hall
Steve Kemper, Teaching
Assistant
stk8m@virginia.edu
office
hours: by appointment, Old Cabell Hall
Troy Rogers, Teaching
Assistant
tsr9f@virginia.edu
office
hours: by appointment, Old Cabell Hall
Course websites
syllabus : http://www.technosonics.net
assignment submission/blogging/materials/grading/evaluations: http://www.collab.itc.virginia.edu
materials/technology
Podcasts
How
to podcast your final project.
1) go to http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/digitalis/
2) click "Create Account" and follow the directions
3) click "Post Song" and select your final project.
4) go to the iTunes Music Store to listen to your piece!
Textbooks
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Electronic and Experimental Music
by Thom Holmes
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MP3s and additional readings are available on-line on the Toolkit website.
required materials:
headphones with 1/8" inch connection.
optional materials:
jump drive of at least 512MB will be helpful but you can also use your
Home Directory
on-campus
computers
These Macintosh
computers have Garage Band; Remix Loops; SoundHack; Frequency; MaxMSP Runtime
and Audacity.They are available for student use on the schedule of those rooms/buildings.
* Discussion sections are in Wilson 306: 20 workstations (including instructor
station)
* Bryan Hall, 235: 4 workstations
* Ruffner Hall, 277: 4 workstations
* Clemons Library (4th floor): 7 workstations
* Robertson Media Lab (in Clemons): about 10 workstations
software
downloads:
If you want to install the software on your own computers you can download it
here.
Soundhack:
http://www.soundhack.com/stuff/SH893.hqx
Frequency:
http://tc.versiontracker.com/product/redir/lid/307535/Frequency.dmg
Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/latest/audacity-macosx/audacity-macosx-1.2.4b.dmg
MaxPlay (also called Max/MSP Runtime). Download the full version
with documentation and just throw away the Max/MSP4.6 icon and replace it with
the MaxPlay icon. This will allow access to all the documentation.
http://www.synthesisters.com/download/maxmspruntime456.dmg
assignments/grading
Attendance %10 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Attendance of discussion sections required.
Quiz material will come from readings, lectures and discussions. Students are
responsible for being in class to learn material for quizzes (powerpoint slides
will not be posted on line). If you miss a class it is your responsibility to
get the notes from a friend. The lectures are very important for the quizzes.
Attendance and participation in MICE performance at Digitalis Under the Stars
Festival is required:on Jefferson's UVA Lawn!, April 30, 8pm. You must sign
the sign-in sheet to be counted present.
Although attendance is only 10% of the grade, poor attendance will hurt you
in quizzes, and in the group projects. Make sure you are contributing to your
group and stay on top of the readings/notes!
Composition
Assignments %20 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Assignments for the entire class: %20 (5% each)
The whole class creates three short assignments and the individual groups use
the class material to assemble material for the final performance. You are graded
on:
1) 2/5 timely completion and clear organization and naming of your files. The
assignment is only considered submitted when you post it on the Collab site
in your own drop box. Assignments will not be accepted more than two weeks late.
2) 3/5 musical creativity and diversity of your sounds. I want you to try to
make different kinds of sounds, not variations on one sound.
Bounce your sounds to iTunes and upload them to your Collab drop box folder
Assignment 1: Wired beats
Make 10 short sounds using the sound design programs
1⁄2 to 2 seconds long to be used as samples in a rhythm sequencer.
Compose a rhythm in Garage Band with your beats
Turn in the 10 individual beats titled “unixID_beat1.wav”, “unixID_beat2.wav”,
etc. And turn in your rhythm composition as a wav file
You may make more than 10 sounds.
Assignment 2: Digital clouds
Design three ambient sounds using the sound design programs.
Your sounds should be short clouds of computer music, 10-30 seconds long each.
In Garage Band mix your sounds into a short composition
Turn in the 3 sounds titled as “yourname_cloud1.wav”, yourname_cloud2.wav”,
etc.
And turn in your cloud composition as a wav file.
You may make more than 3 sounds.
Assignment 3: Modulation melodies
Compose three melodic lines made up of sounds you generate using modulation
synthesis. Mix your melodies into a short piece in Garage Band. Turn in the
3 sounds titled as “yourname_melody1.wav”, yourname_melody2.wav”,
etc.
And turn in your cloud composition as a wav file.
You may make more than 3 sounds.
Assignment
4: Signal processing voice
Using
vocal samples created by the voice/text group, process the samples using the
software tools. Create 5 processed voice examples and turn in the 5 sounds titled
as “yourname_voice1.wav”, yourname_voice2.wav”, etc.
You may make more than 5 sounds.
MICE
group assignments 20%-----------------------------------------
Assignments for the group projects
The groups will work together outside of class and coordinate on various aspects
of the performance. In discussion sections and through Collab the groups will
be able to share knowledge and materials. The groups may need to use special
MICE equipment such as recorders, music interfaces, controllers, microphones,
etc.
9 specialized groups distributed between discussion sections.
* rhythm group (organize rhythm patches)
* timbre group (organize sound effects)
* melody group (organize melodies)
* instrumental and signal
processing group
(play and process instruments in MICE performance)
* sampler group (record and edit samples for MICE sample libraries)
* video/imaging group (gather video and work on video component of MICE, produce
concert images for projection/publicity)
* coding group (work on Java programming and network technology for MICE)
* controller group (master specific interactive instruments for performance)
* text/voice group:
record/create/collect vocal samples for class processing in assignment 4
The groups work on their projects and the discussion sections will contain people
from each group.
Rhythm group follow-up assignment: listen to all the Assignment 1 sounds and
choose approximately100 beats to map into the rhythm sequencer
Timbre group follow-up assignment: listen to all the Assignment 2 sounds and
choose approximately 50 sounds to work with in the Timbre generator group.
Melody group follow-up assignment: listen to all the Assignment 3 sounds and
choose approximately 20 melodies to work with in MICE
Instrumental and signal processing group: work towards a live instrumental part
with signal processing for the final concert.
Controller group: work with the MIDI interfaces and perform them in the final
MICE performance
Video group: independent work gathering/creating video and/or images and assembling
them into a performance sequence for the MICE performance
Coding group: programming java interfaces for audience participation in MICE.
Sampler group: record a library of sounds for use in the MICE piece
Quizzes
15% (5% each)---------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiz 1 on early electronic music
Quiz 2 on computer music history
Quiz 3 final covering entire semester
Writings
25% total (personal blog entries)
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Concert Reports %10
attend at least two technosonic concerts during the semester (not including
Digitalis) and write a 500 word concert report on your blog.
Technosonics Blog 10%
Keep a record of your life with music technology. The blog may include images,
video, audio and text as you wish. It is a kind of web journal of your own exploration
of technosonics this semester. It may include parts of your class notes, writings
on songs/artworks/pieces you heard which were striking to you, your thoughts
on the readings, etc. The blog will be viewable by the class through the Collab
site along with your assignments. Midterm blogs due on March 12 (Monday); Final
blogs due April 23 (Monday).
Review another student work 5%
Navigate the online assignment repository and find another student's assignment
you want to study. Write a review of the techniques used and why the music is
especially effective for you. The review should not be shorter than 500 words.
Address the use of sounds (timbres), layering of tracks, musical form, concept
(idea), and technical skill of software used. Your review will be posted in
your blog.
Final
Composition, 10%: -------------------------------------------------------
The final project is your original composition using whatever tools you like
from the class. Graded on 1) technique from class (3/10), 2) good compositional
form (2/10), 3) meets duration requirements (at least 2min) (1/10), 4) experimentation/originality
(it means I want you to try something new to you) (2/10), 5) evidence of care
and thought put into it (2/10).You do not need to create a score. A short text
description of the piece and a title are required. Your final project may use
work from your group projects but each student needs to create her/his own original
composition.
syllabus
Wed Jan 16: Introduction
to the class, the prevalence of digital music
listening: The Orb, Little Fluffy Clouds
discussions: orientation to the class tools
The pre-electric origins of digital music (since ancient Greece)
Mon Jan 21: no class for MLK Day!
Wed Jan 23
The pre-electric origins of digital music; editing sounds in Audacity
listening: Kraftwerk, The Robot and Calculator; Guillaume
Dufay, Nuper Rosarum flores(1400s isorhythmic motet)
reading: Thom Holmes, Chapter 1
discussion sections: composition
environment and group formations
Mon Jan 28
Pre-20th Century background
listening: Avalanches, Flight Tonight; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Musical
Dice Game; Aphex Twin, Track #2 from Windowlicker, Erik
Satie, Vexations; Julian Carillo, Preludio a Colon
Early instruments (Electric Things) and the use of noise
Wed Jan 30
Russolo’s Art of Noises and the Noise Orchestra;
live electronic music of the early 20th Century.
the multitracking environment
reading: Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto
listening: Ryuichi Sakamoto, 20Msec, and Ngo; Yellow Magic
Orchestra, Computer Game; Erik Satie, Gymnopedies 1
discussion sections: Garage Band boot camp
Mon Feb 4 Electronic instruments from the 1920s and 1930s.
reading: Holmes, Chapter 2;
listening: Lee Scratch Perry, My name is from Techno Party; DJ
Spooky (with Mad Professor and Lee Scratch Perry), Dubtometry; Clara
Rockmore performance of Sant-Saens The Swan on the Theremin; Beach
Boys, Good Vibrations; Olivier Messiaen, Livre du Sacremant
for organ; Messiaen, Fête des belles eaux for 6 Ondes Martenot;
Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love; Nine Inch Nails, Just Like You
Imagined; Tchaikovsky, Valse Sentimentale performed by Clara Rockmore;
Radiohead, Where I End and You Begin.
Wed Feb 6 Electronic instruments from the 1920s and 1930s continued
listening: Amon Tobin (Cujo), Traffic, and Verbal; Suba,
Seria; Suba/Bebel Gilberto, Tanto Tempo;
discussion sections: sound design: phase vocoding
Mon Feb 11
Meet your instructor: Steve Kemper, Troy Rogers, Scott Barton
listening: music by the TAs
Wed Feb 13: MICE Groups organization class 1
reading: Holmes, Chapter 3
listening: Money MICE, MICE Ascending: previous MICE ensembles
discussion sections: sound design using spectral filtering
The Electronic Music Studio as Instrument / Modulations
and Acoustics
Mon Feb 18
Musique Concrete; working with samples
reading: Holmes, Chapter 4 and "Stockhausen's Journey" from Chapter
6
listening: Goa Gil, Hux Flux; Ravi Shankar, Morning Raga; Pierre
Schaeffer, Etudes du Bruits; Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, Etude
por un homme seule; Piere Henry, Psyche Rock; Danny Elfman, Futurama
Assignment 1 due
Wed Feb 20: Electronische Music; working with oscillators in Max/MSP (Frequency
Modulation, Additive Synthesis and Amplitude Modulation);
reading: Holmes Chapter 5 and Varese and the Listener's Experiment from
Chapter 6.
listening: Bjork, An Echo/A Stain; Medula and Joga;
Matmos,California Rhinoplasty; Stockhausen, Gesang der Junglinge
and Studie I
Mon Feb 25: introduction to acoustics; Poeme Electronique
reading: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Electronic and Instrumental Music (p370
in Cox)
listening: Daft Punk, Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger; Air, How
does it make you feel?; Varese, Poeme Electronique;
Xenakis, Concret PH
discussion sections: sound design in Max/MSP and how to make a blog
Wed Feb 27 Quiz
1 on Early Electronic Music
Spring Break
Mon March 3: spring break
Wed March 5: spring break
The 1950s and 1960s: Sequencers and Sound Synthesis
Mon March 10: Midterm Blogs due
group idea jam session
Wed March 12: Sequencers and Electric Instruments for live performance;
listening:Moog sounds; The Monkees, Star Collector; Wendy Carlos, Switched
on Bach.
discussion sections: more Max/MSP sound design
Mon March 17 Synthesizers and Computer Music/Digital Audio
listening: The Moog Cookbook, Smells Like Teen Spirit; David Rosenboom,
In the Beginning - Etude II; David Bowie (Brian Eno) from Low;
Gary Numan, I Dream of Wires, Cars; Morton Subotnick, Silver
Apples of the Moon
Wed March 19 Computer Music
History;
listening: Missy Elliot and Timbaland, Work it and Pass that Dutch;
Neptunes Mash Up; Neuman Guttman, In a Silver Scale; Max
Mathews' Music 1, Daisy; video of 2001 Space Odyssey, HAL
singing Daisy
Fri March 21 discussion sections: Sound Design workshop for Assignment 2
Assignment 2 due at the end of the day
1970s to the 1980s: into MIDI
Mon March 24 MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
listening: John Oswald (Plunderphonics), Brown, Net, Dab and Urge-Marianne
Faith No Morrisey (from Plexure); Negativeland, Negativland vs U2 (the
banned single), and Michael Jackson; John Chowning, Stria;
Barry Truax, Riverrun; A-Ha, Take on Me
reading: Holmes Chapter 10/11
Wed March 26 Meet your instructor, Matthew Burtner
listening: music of Matthew Burtner
discussions: MICE and interactive computer music
Drones, Environmental and Ambience
Mon March 31: temporal and layering techniques;
reading: R. Murray Schafer, The Music of the Environment; Brian Eno,
Ambient Music;
listening: Cocosuma, Tapping the Source; Erik Satie, Gymnopedie
1; Brian Eno, Music for Airports and Unfamiliar Winds ; Tangerine
Dream, Phaedra; Pink Floyd, a Saucerful of Secrets
Wed April 2: Quiz 2 on Computer Music and MIDI
discussion sections: workshop on modulation melodies
Pulse and Polyrhythm
Mon April 7: looping techniques;
readings: Steve Reich: Music as a Gradual Process
listening: DJ Krush, Song for John Walker (featuring Anticon), Toki
No Tabiji (Journey of Time featuring Inden); Steve Reich, Come Out,
Hildegard Westerkamp, Talking Rain; Barry Truax, Pendlerdrom,
Jon Appleton, Shermetyevo Airport Rock
Wed April 9: polyrhythmic techniques
listening: African Head Charge, No Don't Follow Fashion and Pursuit;
Steve Reich, Electric Counterpoint; Gyorgy Ligeti, Poeme Symphonique
for 100 Metronomes; Conlon Nancarrow, Study 21 for player piano
Assignment 3due
discussions: polyrhythmic technique
Machines and Sound Mass Processes
Mon April 14: sound mass and swarming techniques
readings: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Production-Reproduction: Potentialities of
the Phonograph (p331, Cox); Philip Sherburne, Digital Discipline: Minimalism
in House and Techno (319 in Cox)
listening: (Yoshiteru Himuro and RJD2); Krystof Penderecki, Threnody for
the Victims of Hiroshima; Gyorgy Ligeti, Lux Aeterna; Joan LaBarbara,
Erin; Einojuhani Rautavaara, Cantus Arcticus; Horatiu Radulescu,
String Quartet Nr. 4, Op33 -- Infinite to be cannot be infinite, infinite
anti-be could be infinite.;
Wed April 16: sound mass and machines; Assignment 4due
Sound mass experiment with class
listening: Arthur Ganson, Machines; Kanto Hario, Machines;
Alvin Lucier, Music on a Long Thin Wire; and I am sitting in a
room;
discussions: paper discussions
Media Art: records, CDs, radio, and mixed media
Mon April 21: DJs, CDs, Radio Art; final Blogs due
reading: Christian Marclay & Yasunao Tone: Record, CD, Analog, Digital
(p341, Cox); Paul D. Miller, Algorithms: Erasures and the Art of Memory
listening: Invisibl Skratch Piklz, World Cut Scratch; The X-ecutioners,
Mad Flava; John Cage, Imaginary Landscape No. 1 and No 4; Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Kurzwellen; Scanner and Tonne, Sound Polaroids; Herby
Hancock, Rockit; Terre Thaemlitz, Inelegant Implementations; Vladimir
Ussachevsky, Piece for Tape Recorder
Wed April 23: Turntablism;
listening: Beastie Boys (with Mixmaster Mike), 3 MC's & 1 DJ;
Christian Marclay, Night Music; DJ Shadow, Flashback; Mixmaster
Mike, Well Wicked; excerpts from Scratch, the movie by Doug
Pray.
discussion sections: MICE rehearsal
Mon, April 28, MICE planning/rehearsal
Wed, April 30, final
class MICE setup
Wed, April 30, Digitalis Under the Stars Festival on Jefferson's UVA Lawn!,
8pm
Exam time: Thursday, May 1, 2008 1400-1700
Quiz 3, Final Projects due
