Newsletter no. 33
Newsletter no. 33
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
TOR Spotlight:
Timbre Lingo Series
ACTOR's Timbre Lingo series is growing! Six new entries are being published each Monday beginning October 23. Written by ACTOR Research Assistant Amélie Bernier-Robert and edited by ACTOR Postodc Ben Duinker, these entries cover the topics of spectral envelope, spectrogram, masking, blend, Klangfarbenmelodie, and timbre space. Many thanks to the ACTOR partners who reviewed these entries. Happy reading!
Publications:
New research involving ACTOR members has been published:
Zeller, M. (2023). Klangfarbenmelodie, chromophony, and timbral function in Arnold Schoenberg’s “Farben”. Music Theory Online, 29(3). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.29.3.8
Korsmit, I.R., Montrey, M., Wong-Min, A.Y.T. & McAdams, S. (2023). A comparison of dimensional and discrete models for the representation of perceived and induced affect in response to short musical sounds. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1287334. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287334
For the full bibliography, please visit ACTOR publications.
SMT - Outstanding Publication
ACTOR congratulates Zachary Wallmark for receiving the Outstanding Publication by the Society of Music Theory's Popular Music Interest Group, and the Best Essay in Popular Music Scholarship by the American Musicological Society's Popular Music Study Group for his article "Analyzing Vocables in Rap: A Case Study of Megan Thee Stallion," Music Theory Online, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.28.2.10
Best composer prize
Congratulations to ACTOR Member Jimmie LeBlanc whose opera-film Light was recently awarded "Best Composer" prize at the Venice Short Film Festival.
Herberger Institute Research-Building Investment Grant
Lindsey Reymore and colleagues have been awarded a Herberger Institute Research-Building Investment (HIRBI) Grant from Arizona State University. The project, titled "MILES: Music Immersive Learning ExperienceS," will result in a transdisciplinary virtual reality learning experience about acoustics and timbre. MILES was designed in collaboration with ACTOR student member Eduardo Orea Domínguez, who will also act as Project Manager. Team members include Arizona State faculty Nicholas Shea (music theory), Robert LiKamWa (Arts, Media, and Engineering), Rodrigo Meirelles (film/sound design), and Dave Fossum (ethnomusicology), as well as external collaborators Stephen McAdams (McGill University) and Matthew Zeller (Musical Instrument Museum).
Orchestre de l'Université de Montréal
12 November | 3:00pm (EST)
Maison Symphonique
The Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal opens its season on a brilliant note at the Maison Symphonique on November 12th. The program traverses three centuries of music. First the 21st century, with a premiere by ACTOR student member Snežana Nešić, winner of the 2023 OUM Concerto Competition, then the 20th, with excerpts from Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé. That work, in which the composer evokes the “Greece of his dreams”, was premiered by the renowned Ballets Russes, with Nijinsky in the role of Daphnis. The shimmering colours of the orchestra and the delicacy of the writing imbue this score with a tantalizingly sensual poetry. As for the 19th century, that will be illustrated by one of its most famous representatives, Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote a vibrant Concerto for Two Pianos in order to perform it with his sister, Fanny. Read more
Premiere of "A weave of Artifacts" by Andrés Gutiérrez
18 November | 8:00pm (CET)
Schaumbad - Freies Atelierhaus
On November 18, ACTOR Postdoc Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez's composition A weave of Artifacts will be premiered in Graz, Austria by Ensemble Schallfeld. The concert commemorates the 10th anniversary of the ensemble and cultural association of the same name of which Andrés is a founding member. The composition, for bass clarinet and mixed ensemble, is dedicated to the ensemble, its musicians, and the decade-long collaborative relationship. Read more
International Conference Ligeti 1923-2023
24-25 November
Sala Puccini - Conservatorio di Milano
On November 24 and 25, the International Conference Ligeti 1923-2023 Composition as invention, between memory and experimentation, organized by the Milano Conservatory will take place. ACTOR member Pierre Michel will participate in the conference with a presentation entitled "From textures to motivic writing: György Ligeti’s evolution of pitch and rhythmic combinatorics based on the Chamber Concerto, Trio and Piano Concerto." Read more
ACTOR Speaker Series - Dr. Matthew Morrison
7 December | 12:00-1:15pm (EST)
Online - Zoom
As part of the "Afrological Perspectives on Timbre & Orchestration" speaker series, the presentation by Dr. Matthew D. Morrison (New York University) will be held on December 7, 12:00-1:15pm. The talk titled "Blackface, Black Sounds, and Black String Band Music" was scheduled for October 12, but had to be postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.
As always, the presentation will be held over Zoom, is free, open to the public, and does not require registration. The series has been organized by ACTOR student members Jason Winikoff, Danielle Davis, Joshua Rosner, Chidi Obijiaku, and J Marchand Knight.
Join Zoom meeting:
https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84940926467?pwd=US9PNU0xdU5LeTZYRWlVL0RxMHUwZz09
Meeting ID: 849 4092 6467
Passcode: 706092
Jeremy Tatar
Jeremy Tatar is a PhD candidate in music theory at McGill University, and his research focuses on the design, structure, and cultural meaning of sample-based hip hop. His work has been published in Music Theory Online and the Journal of Music Theory, and in November he will be presenting at the AMS/SMT annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.
Victor Burton
Victor Burton is a Montréal-born sound artist and audio engineer currently residing in Berlin and studying at the Universität der Künste Berlin (M.A. Sound Studies & Sonic Arts/Klangkunst). Victor’s creative and research endeavours have a specific consideration for sonic plasticity, audio reactivity, and transmissivity across mediums. He also contributes sound design to video work and dance projects.
The Collaboration
In our collaborative ACTOR project, we are examining how timbre and texture play important roles in articulating the different metric layers of Footwork’s instrumentation, focusing on the compilation Bangs & Works, Vol. 1 (2010) released by the UK label Planet Mu. Footwork is a highly kinetic style of music and dance that originated in Chicago in the late 1990s. Percussive, disruptive, and uncompromisingly Black, the music is characterised by heavy syncopation, skittering cross-rhythms, and the coexistence of multiple levels of metric dissonance—all speeding by at 160 bpm.
Drawing on work in auditory scene analysis, we argue that Footwork producers judiciously select drums and other samples for their timbral qualities, and allocate these elements across the frequency spectrum to generate a multistable metric space that affords several diverse possibilities for metric entrainment. Our collaboration explores a generative analytical relationship with this music, rather than one that is extractive. Using Footwork as a case study, we seek to explore the scholarly and artistic outcomes of asking: what is possible when timbre is prioritized as a musical parameter?