Newsletter no. 28
Newsletter no. 28
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
TOR Spotlight
Amazing Moments in Timbre - "Petals"
New Amazing Moments in Timbre essay by Sheanna Wirasinghe! "Tension and the Cello, Kaija Saariaho’s Petals, composed in 1988, transforms the cello into a diverse tool capable of creating countless varying sounds. Her organization of sounds produces two distinct timbral profiles that alter throughout the work, governing its two-part structure. Different music variables, including temporal perception, sound characteristics, density, and attack, are employed by each profile to construct several binaries that either produce a state of tension or relaxation. The superimposition of profiles towards the end of Petals begets the work’s climax by maximizing tension. Saariaho therefore develops a narrative that explores opposing approaches to the creation and dissolution of tension through timbre."
Click on the link to read the full essay: Petals
Project Updates
Metaphors We Listen With
Follow the link to read more about the ongoing collaborative research project Metaphors we listen with, Auditory brightness perception investigated through intra- and crossmodal interference by Charalampos Saitis and Zachary Wallmark.
Using the Tristan prelude from OrchPlay
Follow the link to read the project update and student exchange report entitled Using the Tristan prelude from OrchPlay to investigate musical instrument identification under realistic acoustical scenarios by ACTOR student member Simon Jacobsen.
Creations & Productions
The Music of Dialect
Composer and ACTOR member Jason Noble and guitarist Steve Cowan had the final 3D audio recording session for their ACTOR-funded project "The Music of Dialect." The session took place at McGill University, with recording engineers Carolina Rodriguez Escobar and ACTOR student member Ying-Ying Zhang. This project, which uses recorded speech featuring the dialects of Newfoundland and Labrador as source material for musical composition, will culminate in an album to be released on the Centrediscs label later this year. Read more about the funded project here, and the Research Alive presentation for more info.
Summary of activities by ACTOR student member Jorge Ramos
Performed in Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal on February 12, 2023.
In between for Tuba and Electronics
Perception for Harp and Electronics
Falling in Love Again for Clarinet, Cello, Piano, Video and Electronics
On April 24, 2023, Ricardo Pires released his album Windsor Project at Museu Nacional da Música in Lisbon, Portugal in which Ramos's piece Keep up! for alto saxophone and live electronics is included. This composition is part of Jorge Ramos's research at the RCMa and includes a live generated score using Orchidea (Computer-Assisted Orchestration) in real-time. More info: https://jorgefpramos.com/keep-up
Interactive Website - Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique"
ACTOR Private-Sector Partner Sonic Solveig invites all ACTOR members to visit their interactive website on the instruments in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Click on the link to explore the orchestra instruments involved in this fantastic piece: Interactive Website
Publications
New publications involving ACTOR members have been made available:
Bouvier, B., Susini, P., Marquis-Favre, C. & Misdariis, N. (2023). Revealing the stimulus-driven component of attention through modulations of auditory salience by timbre attributes. Scientific Reports, 13, 6842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-33496-2
For the full bibliography, please visit ACTOR publications.
Presentations
FluCoMa Workshop
On April 14th, the FluCoMa Workshop for advanced users took place at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. The workshop, organized by ACTOR Postdoc Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, was supported by the ACTOR project in collaboration with CIRMMT and involved the participation of composer Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, principal developer of FluCoMa, and Dominic Thibault, co-leader of the R4 research axis at CIRMMT.
FluCoMa combines advanced timbral analysis tools with machine learning and has a wide range of applications for performance, as well as analysis-oriented work such as source separation, classification, visualization, and manipulation of sound corpora on the basis of a wide array of timbral features, and timbre-based human-computer interaction.
The workshop brought together students and creative practitioners from different institutions in Montreal who are currently employing FluCoMa in their work. The aim of the event was to learn about the software through its different uses by a diverse pool of practitioners. The workshop focused on presentations by several participants, including Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez, Dominc Thibault and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay.
It was great to have so many participants share their work and to have an insight into the motivations behind the development FluCoMa. Tremblay's presentation provided useful know-how regarding important considerations pertaining to the different timbre analysis possibilities and the use of machine learning strategies in real-time sound-based work.
SUENA Festival
9 March | 7:30pm (CEST)
SUENA Festival
Studio Molière, Liechtensteinstraße 37A, 1090 Wien.
On May 9, Ensemble Schallfeld will perform ACTOR Postdoc Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez's piece Gitterfenster for mixed quintet in the frame of SUENA Festival for Ibero-American music in Vienna, Austria. Read more
CORE Project - UCSD
21 May | 5:00 (PDT)
UCSD - Conrad Prebys Music Center
7600 Fay Avenue, La Jolla
On May 21 at 5pm PDT, the compositions written during the two-quarter seminar sequence devoted to round 3 of CORE (Contemporary Orchestration Research Ensemble) carried out at the University of California, San Diego will be performed by WasteLAnd Ensemble at the Conrad Prebys Music Centre in La Jolla, California. The concert will present pieces by faculty professors Rand Steiger and Roger Reynolds and four graduate students written for septet and electronics. The event will be live-streamed and can be accessed in the link Actor Project concert: wasteLAnd.
Workshop Update
Y5 Workshop
Information about the Y5 Workshop is now available on a dedicated webpage. Visit ACTOR Y5 Workshop and check all the details about:
Registration
Zoom Access
Complete Schedule
Student Presentations
Lodging
Slack Channels
We would like to remind you that the event is open for all ACTOR members to participate in whether in person or virtually. As usual, we will be focusing our time on active discussions, so our workgroup leaders will be uploading materials for you to peruse beforehand.
For more information, please visit our website or contact Andre Oliveira.
Not a member yet? Visit our General Information page and learn how to apply for membership in time for the workshop.
ACTOR animated logos
New ACTOR animated logos have been made available to all members via the webpage of the Knowledge Mobilization Committee. Members are welcome to include these in their presentations related to ACTOR as well as the standard acknowledgment text stating that the research at hand has been supported by SSHRC.
Student Member Support
ACTOR Virtual Office Hours
Got questions about funding opportunities, publishing platforms, ongoing projects, or anything else ACTOR?
Stop by the ACTOR Virtual Office Hours and ask ACTOR Postdocs Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez and Ben Duinker.
Held every Thursday 12:00-1:00pm (EST), the initiative aims to inform and motivate students to participate in research and research-creation projects, and more broadly, to encourage them to take advantage of the ACTOR project to advance their own research and collaborate with other student members.
Zoom Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/83091795949
Zoom Meeting ID: 830 9179 5949
Yannaël Pasquier
Photo by Ferrante Ferranti
A former student of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Yannaël Pasquier has won five prizes for composition and holds the Certificat d'Aptitude de Professeur d'Écriture of the CNSMD de Lyon. He is currently head of the department of composition and conducting at the CNSMDP, a doctoral student in music and musicology at Sorbonne University, attached to the Institut de recherche en musicologie (IReMus, UMR 8223), and a member of the SACRe-PSL laboratory. His work focuses mainly on French harmony treatises in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the history of the Paris Conservatory.
Within the ACTOR network, he leads with Arthur Macé and Corentin Boissier the strategic project "Database of scores and recordings of orchestral exams at the Paris Conservatory", an activity of the partnership started in 2018.
Arthur Macé
Photo by Ferrante Ferranti
A graduate of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in music history and musical analysis, Arthur Macé is currently in charge of coordinating and promoting research activities at CNSMDP. His work focuses on the role of music in Franco-Russian diplomatic relations in the 19th and 20th centuries, on women musicians' associations, and on the history of the Paris Conservatory. This year, with Clément Carpentier, he is preparing a critical edition of the Gazette des classes du Conservatoire (1915-1919).
Within the ACTOR network, he is leading with ACTOR member Yannaël Pasquier and Corentin Boissier the strategic project "Database of scores and recordings of orchestral exams at the Paris Conservatory", an activity of the partnership started in 2018.
Satellite Meeting Funding
The purpose of the Satellite Meeting Funding is to increase ACTOR's visibility at international conferences by supporting the organization of adjunct meetings involving at least 2 ACTOR members. A maximum amount of $300 (CAD) will be provided. Applications will be accepted continuously, but must be submitted at least two months prior to the conference date. For more information on how to apply and to access the online application form, visit ACTOR Funding Opportunities.
Contributing to TOR
We encourage all ACTOR members to share their research (in progress or completed) with the ACTOR community via the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR). This may include an article, blog, or video submission containing information on project ideas, experiments, external resources/tools, teaching materials, analysis, or anything related to timbre and orchestration that you deem relevant. We believe that only in doing so will we truly benefit from the expertise and feedback from the world-class team of scientists, artists, and humanists involved in ACTOR. If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact Kit Soden.
