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Acoustic Communication by
Since the first edition was published seventeen years ago social and technical changes have altered the world of acoustic communication. This book draws upon many traditional disciplines that deal with specific aspects of sound,and presents material within an interdisciplinary framework. It establishes a model for understanding all acoustic and aural experiences both in their traditional forms and as they have been radically altered in the 20th century, Digital technology has completely redefined the listening and consumption patterns of sound. We are now able to benefit from the march of technology via a companion CD-ROM, which accompanies this volume for the first time.
Analysing Musical Multimedia by
Analysing Musical Multimedia is the first study to produce a general theory of how different media - music, words, moving picture, and dance - work together to created multimedia. Though generally associated with contemporary developments, in particular music video and film, a general theoryof musical multimedia also encompasses traditional genres such as song and opera. Critical writing in these areas, however, is genre-specific; Nicholas Cook establishes principles, and a terminology for their description, that apply across the whole spectrum of musical multimedia. Beginning with astudy of how meaning is mediated in television commercials, Cook concludes with in-depth readings of Fantasia, Madonna's video Material Girl, and Armide (Godard's sequence from the collaborative film Aria). Analysing Musical Multimedia not only shows how approaches deriving from music theory cancontribute to the understanding of multimedia, but also draws conclusions from the practice and further development of musical analysis.
The Art of Record Production : An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field, Volume 1 by
The playback of recordings is the primary means of experiencing music in contemporary society, and in recent years 'classical' musicologists and popular music theorists have begun to examine the ways in which the production of recordings affects not just the sound of the final product but also musical aesthetics more generally. Record production can, indeed, be treated as part of the creative process of composition. At the same time, training in the use of these forms of technology has moved from an apprentice-based system into university education. Musical education and music research are thus intersecting to produce a new academic field: the history and analysis of the production of recorded music. This book is designed as a general introductory reader, a text book for undergraduate degree courses studying the creative processes involved in the production of recorded music. The aim is to introduce students to the variety of approaches and methodologies that are currently being employed by scholars in this field. The book is divided into three sections covering historical approaches, theoretical approaches and case studies and practice. There are also three interludes of commentary on the academic contributions from leading record producers and other industry professionals. This collection gives students and scholars a broad overview of the way in which academics from the analytical and practice-based areas of the university system can be brought together with industry professionals to explore the ways in which this new academic field should progress.
The Art of Record Production : Creative Practice in the Studio, Volume 2 by
The playback of recordings is the primary means of experiencing music in contemporary society, and in recent years 'classical' musicologists and popular music theorists have begun to examine the ways in which the production of recordings affects not just the sound of the final product but also musical aesthetics more generally. Record production can, indeed, be treated as part of the creative process of composition. At the same time, training in the use of these forms of technology has moved from an apprentice-based system into university education. Musical education and music research are thus intersecting to produce a new academic field: the history and analysis of the production of recorded music. This book is designed as a general introductory reader, a text book for undergraduate degree courses studying the creative processes involved in the production of recorded music. The aim is to introduce students to the variety of approaches and methodologies that are currently being employed by scholars in this field. The book is divided into three sections covering historical approaches, theoretical approaches and case studies and practice. There are also three interludes of commentary on the academic contributions from leading record producers and other industry professionals. This collection gives students and scholars a broad overview of the way in which academics from the analytical and practice-based areas of the university system can be brought together with industry professionals to explore the ways in which this new academic field should progress.
Audible Design: A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Sound Composition by 
Audio Culture by
Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music attempts to map the aural and discursive terrain of vanguard musical culture today. Over the past few decades, a new audio culture has emerged, a culture of making and thinking about music and sound that disregards conventional categories and oppositions still operative in the academy and the mainstream music industry alike. Via writings by key philosophers, cultural theorists and composers, this book explores the interconnections among such forms as Minimalism, Indeterminacy, musique concrete, Improvised Music, the Classical Avant Garde, Experimental Music, Avant-Rock, Dub Reggae, Ambient Music, Hip Hop, and Techno. T transgressing generic boundaries, and how contemporary composers, producers, and musicians now work within complex networks of association and influence: New York art rockers Sonic Youth release a CD of works by John Cage and other avant-garde experimentalists; Bjork interviews Karlheinz Stockhausen for a music magazine and Derek Bailey, the septuagenarian founder of Free Improvisation, collaborates with Drum 'n' Bass producers. Each chapter opens with an introduction that situates and interconnects the writings to follow and concludes with an extensive bibliography and discography. The book also includes a comprehensive glossary of terms and phrases such as 'Ambient, ' 'Dub, ' 'just intonation, ' and 'modal improvisatio
Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by
Michel Chion's landmark Audio-Vision has exerted significant influence on our understanding of sound-image relations since its original publication in 1994. In this updated and expanded edition, Chion considers many additional examples from recent world cinema and formulates new questions for the contemporary media environment.
Audio-Vision by
In Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, French critic and composer Michel Chion reassesses audiovisual media since the revolutionary 1927 debut of recorded sound in cinema, shedding crucial light on the mutual relationship between sound and image in audiovisual perception. Chion argues that sound film qualitatively produces a new form of perception: we don't see images and hear sounds as separate channels, we audio-view a trans-sensory whole. Expanding on arguments made in his influential books The Voice in Cinema and Sound in Cinema, Chion provides lapidary insight into the functions and aesthetics of sound in film and television. He considers the effects of such evolving technologies as widescreen, multitrack, and Dolby; the influences of sound on the perception of space and time; and the impact of such contemporary forms of audio-vision as music videos, video art, and commercial television. Chion concludes with an original and useful model for the audiovisual analysis of film.
Automated Sound Design by
Sound design is a ubiquitous subject for electronic musicians working across a staggering array of contemporary musical styles and practices. There is an extensive literature covering the creation of Foley effects, and another body of literature addressing domain-specific applications of sound design technique, e.g., how to make bass sounds for Dubstep or how to produce drum sounds for Trap. There is also a computer music literature that focuses on the mathematics of digital signal processing as it pertains to implementing classic digital synthesis and processing techniques. Automated Sound Design addresses the topic from a different perspective, demonstrating the power of sound design when enhanced by automated structures implemented with computer programming. Through the techniques and projects developed in this book, the reader will learn how to create sound design scenarios that generate classes of sounds with controlled unpredictability and unlimited variety of output. This adventure will reveal new ways to work with additive synthesis, frequency modulation, analysis-transformation synthesis, drum machines, Black MIDI, and spatialization for binaural listening.
Between the Tracks by
This collection of writings on electronic music goes outside the canon to analyze influential works by under-recognized musicians. The contributors, many of whom are composers and performers themselves, offer their unsung musical heroes the sort of in-depth examinations usually reserved for more well-known composers and works. They analyze music from around the world and across genders, race, nationality, and age, discussing works that range from soundscapes of rushing water and resonating pipes to compositions by algorithm. Subjects include the collaboration of performer and composer, as seen in the work of Anne La Berge, Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian, and others; the choice by Asian composers Zhang Xiaofu and Unsuk Chin to embrace (or not) Eastern themes and styles; and how technologies used by composers created the sound of the works, as exemplified by B lent Arel's use of voltage-control components as compositional tools and Charles Dodge's resynthesizing of the human voice.
The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music by
Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide range of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische Musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. The first edition of this book won the 2009 Nicolas Bessaraboff Prize as it brought together researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology to provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topics and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. This updated and expanded second edition includes four entirely new chapters, as well as new original statements from globally renowned artists of the electronic music scene, and celebrates a diverse array of technologies, practices and music.
Circuit-Bending by
Fans will get bent out of shape if they miss the first book to cover circuit-bending-"bending," for short-the method by which an electronic toy or a device such as a keyboard is short-circuited and modified to create an entirely different sound Written by the inventor of the technology, this book covers the tools of the trade, shows how to build a bending workshop, and reveals secrets that will have readers of all levels making sweet music in no time Readers learn basic bends, body contacts, and other bending skills, as well as ways to create bent instruments from a variety of popular toys and electronic devices Features some of the author's own unique creations
Electric Sound by
With a truly global perspective, this vivid and readable narrative provides a comprehensive overview of the history of electronic music. KEY TOPICS: The author draws upon his combined experience as composer, performer, researcher, entrepreneur, and teacher to provide insight into every aspect of electronic music, including the music itself, the instruments, and the business. Based on more than 150 interviews with leaders in the field, this book allows readers to understand how and why the musicians, engineers and businessmen did what they did to develop the modern synthesizer to its current state.
Electroacoustic Music in East Asia by
This book illuminates the development of electronic and computer music in East Asia, presented by authors from these countries and territories (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan). The scholars bring forward the cultural complexities and conflicts involved in their diverse encounters with new music technology and modern aesthetics. How electronic music attracted the interest of composers from East Asia is quite varied - while composers and artists in Japan delved into new sounds and music techniques and fostered electronic music quite early on; political, sociological, and artistic conditions pre-empted the adoption of electronic music techniques in China until the last two decades of the twentieth century. Korean and Taiwanese perspectives contribute to this rare opportunity to re-examine, under a radically different set of cultural preconditions, the sweeping musical transformation that similarly consumed the West. Special light is shed on prominent composers, such as Sukhi Kang, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Toru Takemitsu, and Xiaofu Zhang. Recent trends and new directions which are observed in these countries are also addressed, and the volume shows how the modern fusion of music and technology is triangulated by a depth of culture and other social forces. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Music Review.
Electronic Music and Sound Design Volume 1 by
Structured for use in university courses, the book is an overview of the theory and practice of Max/MSP, with a glossary of terms and suggested tests that allow students to evaluate their progress. Comprehensive online support, running parallel to the explanations in the book, includes hundreds of sample patches, analyses, interactive sound-building exercises, and reverse engineering exercises. This book will provide a reader with skill and understanding in using Max/MSP for sound design and musical composition.
Electronic Music and Sound Design Volume 2 by
This is the second in a series of three volumes dedicated to digital synthesis and sound design. It is part of a teaching method incorporating a substantial amount of online supporting materials: hundreds of sound examples and interactive examples, programs written in Max, as well as a library of Max objects created especially for this book. Structured for use in university courses, the book is an overview of the theory and practice of Max/MSP, with a glossary of terms and suggested tests that allow student
Energy Flash by
Ecstasy did for house music what LSD did for psychedelic rock. Now, in Energy Flash, journalist Simon Reynolds offers a revved-up and passionate inside chronicle of how MDMA ("ecstasy") and MIDI (the basis for electronica) together spawned the unique rave culture of the 1990s. England, Germany, and Holland began tinkering with imported Detroit techno and Chicago house music in the late 1980s, and when ecstasy was added to the mix in British clubs, a new music subculture was born. A longtime writer on the music beat, Reynolds started watching--and partaking in--the rave scene early on, observing firsthand ecstasy's sense-heightening and serotonin-surging effects on the music and the scene. In telling the story, Reynolds goes way beyond straight music history, mixing social history, interviews with participants and scene-makers, and his own analysis of the sounds with the names of key places, tracks, groups, scenes, and artists. He delves deep into the panoply of rave-worthy drugs and proper rave attitude and etiquette, exposing a nuanced musical phenomenon. Read on, and learn why is nitrous oxide is called "hippy crack."
Expanding the Horizon of Electroacoustic Music Analysis by
Innovations in music technology bring with them a new set of challenges for describing and understanding the electroacoustic repertoire. This edited collection presents a state-of-the-art overview of analysis methods for electroacoustic music in this rapidly developing field. The first part of the book explains the needs of differing electroacoustic genres and puts forward a template for the analysis of electroacoustic music. Part II discusses the latest ideas in the field and the challenges associated with new technologies, while Part III explores how analyses have harnessed the new forces of multimedia, and includes an introduction to new software programme EAnalysis, which was created by the editors as the result of an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant. The final part of the book demonstrates these new methods in action, with analyses of key electroacoustic works from a wide range of genres and sources.
Formalized Music, Thought and Mathematics in Composition by
Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition is a book by Greek composer, architect, and engineer Iannis Xenakis in which he explains his motivation, philosophy, and technique for composing music with stochastic mathematical functions.
Generating Sound & Organizing Time by
"Generating Sound & Organizing Time is about the astonishing things you can do--and the insights you can find--when you work at the atomic sample-by-sample structure of digital audio. Whether you are a musician, sound designer, composer, or an experimentalist interested in creating music and tools to generate and modulate audio, our aim is to reveal how working at the sample level is not only easier to reason about, but also far more open to demystify and unleash the immense possibilities of digital audio signal processing. To do this we use gen~, which lets us work directly at the sample level through visual patching (or by coding if you prefer) and hear results immediately after every edit. That means you can crack open the algorithms of oscillators, filters, audio effects and so on that are inaccessibly black-boxed in most music software, and explore your own variations through experimentation and hybridization. This book is also about developing useful things to think with: design patterns, techniques and subcircuits to help you bring new musical signal processes to life. Starting from the simplest beginnings we'll see how very many seemingly unrelated synthesis and sound processing algorithms come down to a pretty small number of common circuits and patterns reapplied in a few different ways (without needing much math or code), as we develop: algorithmic rhythm generators, beat slicers, Euclidean sequencers; morphing LFOs, wave shapers, bit-crushers and gliding quantizers; chaotic systems, stepped and smoothed noise and chance operations; a wide palette of filters and delay effects; a plethora of phase and frequency modulation algorithms; formant, pulsar and polyphonic granular synthesizers of various kinds; bandlimited virtual analog and wavetable oscillators capable of intensive modulation; and more in the large collection of patching examples provided with the book."--Publisher description.
Handmade Electronic Music by
Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking provides a long-needed, practical, and engaging introduction to the craft of making - as well as creatively cannibalizing - electronic circuits for artistic purposes. With a sense of adventure and no prior knowledge, the reader can subvert the intentions designed into devices such as radios and toys to discover a new sonic world. At a time when computers dominate music production, this book offers a rare glimpse into the core technology of early live electronic music, as well as more recent developments at the hands of emerging artists. In addition to advice on hacking found electronics, the reader learns how to make contact microphones, pickups for electromagnetic fields, oscillators, distortion boxes, and unusual signal processors cheaply and quickly. This revised and expanded second edition is extensively illustrated and includes a DVD featuring eighty-seven video clips and twenty audio tracks by over one hundred hackers, benders, musicians, artists, and inventors from around the world, as well as thirteen video tutorials demonstrating projects in the book. Further enhancements include additional projects, photographs, diagrams, and illustrations.
An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics by
Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was one of the central figures in the development of British experimental electronic music. Having declined a place at the Royal College of Music to become a music balancer at the BBC, she went on to become the cofounder and first director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Oram left the BBC in 1959 to pursue commercial work in television, advertising, film, and theater, to make her own music for recording and performance, and to continue her personal research into sound technology - a passion she had had since her childhood in rural Wiltshire. Her home, a former oasthouse in Kent, became an unorthodox studio and workshop in which, mostly on a shoestring budget, she developed her pioneering equipment, sounds, and ideas. A significant part of her personal research was the invention of a machine that offered a new form of sound synthesis - the Oramics machine. Oram's contribution to electronic music is receiving considerable attention from new generations of composers, sound engineers, musicians, musicologists, and music lovers around the world. Following her death, the Daphne Oram Trust was established to preserve and promote her work, life, and legacy, and an archive created in the Special Collections Library at Goldsmiths, University of London. One of the Trust's ambitions has been to publish a new edition of Oram's one and only book, 'An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics', which was originally published in 1972. With support from the Daphne Oram Archive, the Trust has now been able to realize this ambition. 'An Individual Note' is both curious and remarkable. When commissioned to write a book, she was keen to avoid it becoming a manual or how-to guide, preferring instead to use the opportunity to muse on the subjects of music, sound, and electronics, and the relationships between them. At a time when the world was just starting to engage with electronic music and the technology was still primarily in the hands of music studios, universities, and corporations, her approach was both innovative and inspiring, encouraging anyone with an interest in music to think about the nature, capabilities, and possibilities that the new sounds could bring. And her thinking was not limited to just the future of the orchestra, synthesizer, computer, and home studio, but ventured, with great spirit and wit, into other realms of science, technology, culture, and thought. 'An Individual Note' is a playful yet compelling manifesto for the dawn of electronic music and for our individual capacity to use, experience, and enjoy it. This new edition of 'An Individual Note' features a specially commissioned introduction from the British composer, performer, roboticist, and sound historian Sarah Angliss.
Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music by 
In Search of a Concrete Music by
Pierre Schaeffer's In Search of a Concrete Music (À la recherche d'une musique concrète) has long been considered a classic text in electroacoustic music and sound recording. Now Schaeffer's pioneering work--at once a journal of his experiments in sound composition and a treatise on the raison d'être of "concrete music"--is available for the first time in English translation. Schaeffer's theories have had a profound influence on composers working with technology. However, they extend beyond the confines of the studio and are applicable to many areas of contemporary musical thought, such as defining an 'instrument' and classifying sounds. Schaeffer has also become increasingly relevant to DJs and hip-hop producers as well as sound-based media artists. This unique book is essential for anyone interested in contemporary musicology or media history.
Japanoise by
Noise, an underground music made through an amalgam of feedback, distortion, and electronic effects, first emerged as a genre in the 1980s, circulating on cassette tapes traded between fans in Japan, Europe, and North America. With its cultivated obscurity, ear-shattering sound, and over-the-top performances, Noise has captured the imagination of a small but passionate transnational audience. For its scattered listeners, Noise always seems to be new and to come from somewhere else: in North America, it was called "Japanoise." But does Noise really belong to Japan? Is it even music at all? And why has Noise become such a compelling metaphor for the complexities of globalization and participatory media at the turn of the millennium? In Japanoise, David Novak draws on more than a decade of research in Japan and the United States to trace the "cultural feedback" that generates and sustains Noise. He provides a rich ethnographic account of live performances, the circulation of recordings, and the lives and creative practices of musicians and listeners. He explores the technologies of Noise and the productive distortions of its networks. Capturing the textures of feedback--its sonic and cultural layers and vibrations--Novak describes musical circulation through sound and listening, recording and performance, international exchange, and the social interpretations of media.
The Language of Electroacoustic Music by
Since the inception of electroacoustic music in 1948, much has been written about technical developments. This book is one of the first to examine aesthetic issues central to this rapidly developing genre. It brings together composers from leading academic departments and studios in Britain, the United States, Canada and Paris with a wide range of approaches and opinions, resulting in a study which is likely to have a marked impact on current debates on the future of electroacoustic music. The book is divided into three sections. The first, Culture and Language, considers the relationship between music and the listener's perception and expectation. Materials and Lanugage looks at the types of materials available to composers and the way in which the internal structure of the sound can have implications for the overall structure of a piece. The final section, The Influence of New Technology, considers the relationship between computer systems and the music they are helping to create.
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life was the first comprehensive history of the disc jockey, a figure who has become a powerful force shaping the music industry--and since its original publication, the book has become a cult classic. Now, with five new chapters and over a hundred pages of additional material, this updated and revised edition of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life reasserts itself as the definitive account of DJ culture, from the first record played over airwaves to house, hip hop, techno, and beyond. From the early development of recorded and transmitted sound, DJs have been shaping the way we listen to music and the record industry. Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton have tracked down the inside story on some of music's most memorable moments. Focusing on the club DJ, the book gets first-hand accounts of the births of disco, hip hop, house, and techno. Visiting legendary clubs like the Peppermint Lounge, Cheetah, the Loft, Sound Factory, and Ministry of Sound, and with interviews with legendary DJs, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life is a lively and entertaining account of musical history and some of the most legendary parties of the century.
Make: Analog Synthesizers by
Dive hands-on into the tools, techniques, and information for making your own analog synthesizer. If you're a musician or a hobbyist with experience in building electronic projects from kits or schematics, this do-it-yourself guide will walk you through the parts and schematics you need, and how to tailor them for your needs. Author Ray Wilson shares his decades of experience in synth-DIY, including the popular Music From Outer Space (MFOS) website and analog synth community. At the end of the book, you'll apply everything you've learned by building an analog synthesizer, using the MFOS Noise Toaster kit. You'll also learn what it takes to create synth-DIY electronic music studio. Get started in the fun and engaging hobby of synth-DIY without delay. With this book, you'll learn: The differences between analog and digital synthesizers Analog synthesizer building blocks, including VCOs, VCFs, VCAs, and LFOs How to tool up for synth-DIY, including electronic instruments and suggestions for home-made equipment Foundational circuits for amplification, biasing, and signal mixing How to work with the MFOS Noise Toaster kit Setting up a synth-DIY electronic music studio on a budget
Making Music with Sounds by
Making Music with Sounds offers a creative introduction to the art of making sound-based music. It introduces the elements of making compositions with sounds and facilitates creativity in school age children, with the activities primarily for 11-14 year old students. 　It can also be used by people of all ages becoming acquainted with this music for the first time. Sound-based music is defined as the art form in which the sound, rather than the musical note, is the basic unit and is closely related to electronic music and the sonic arts. The art of sound organisation can be found in a number of forms of music--in film, television, theatre, dance, and new media. Despite this, there are few materials available currently for young people to discover how to make sound-based music. This book offers a programme of development starting from aural awareness, through the discovery and organisation of potential sounds, to the means of generating and manipulating sounds to create sequences and entire works. The book's holistic pedagogical approach to composition also involves aspects related to musical understanding and appreciation, reinforced by the author's online pedagogical ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS II).
Maryanne Amacher: Selected Writings and Interviews by
The first ever book on American composer and sound-art pioneer Maryanne Amacher, with letters, manifestos, notes and more elucidating her eclectic thinking on sound and perception Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) was a composer of large-scale fixed-duration sound installations and a highly original thinker in the areas of perception, sound spatialization and aural architecture. She is frequently cited as a pioneer of what has come to be called "sound art," although her thought and work challenges assumptions about the limitations of that genre. Maryanne Amacher: Selected Writings and Interviews represents the first ever book-length collection devoted to the composer, whose life and work are as vast as they are as yet unknown. From personal notes and letters to program notes, manifestos and unrealized project proposals, the documents are framed by longer interviews with Amacher that discuss corresponding periods of her life. Because Amacher worked across nearly every imaginable media format, this book will be of tremendous interest to theorists and practitioners in media and communications, urban design, contemporary art history, music studies, sound studies, film, radio, art criticism and performance studies.
Microsound by
Below the level of the musical note lies the realm of microsound, of sound particles lasting less than one-tenth of a second. Recent technological advances allow us to probe and manipulate these pinpoints of sound, dissolving the traditional building blocks of music -- notes and their intervals -- into a more fluid and supple medium. The sensations of point, pulse (series of points), line (tone), and surface (texture) emerge as particle density increases. Sounds coalesce, evaporate, and mutate into other sounds. Composers have used theories of microsound in computer music since the 1950s. Distinguished practitioners include Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. Today, with the increased interest in computer and electronic music, many young composers and software synthesis developers are exploring its advantages. Covering all aspects of composition with sound particles, Microsound offers composition theory, historical accounts, technical overviews, acoustical experiments, descriptions of musical works, and aesthetic reflections. The book is accompanied by an audio CD of examples.
Musical Inventions by
People have been playing music on homemade instruments for thousands of years. But creating new instruments is much more than an art form. When you want to make a note sound higher or lower, you have to change the sound waves coming out of the instrument. That's science! When you explore the way different materials produce different sounds, that's engineering. When you speed up or slow down a song, you're counting beats -- using math. And technology makes electronic instruments and devices to record and play back music possible.
Ocean of Sound by
"Ocean of Sound" begins in 1889 at the Paris Exposition when Debussy first heard Javanese music performed. A culture absorbed in perfume, light and ambient sound developed in response to the intangibility of 20th century communications. David Toop traces the evolution of this culture, through Erik Satie to the Velvet Undergound; Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix. David Toop, who lives in London, is a writer, musician and recording artist. His other books are "Rap Attack 3 "and "Exotica,"
On Sonic Art by
In this newly revised book On Sonic Art, Trevor Wishart takes a wide-ranging look at the new developments in music-making and musical aesthetics made possible by the advent of the computer and digital information processing. His emphasis is on musical rather than technical matters. Beginning with a critical analysis of the assumptions underlying the Western musical tradition and the traditional acoustic theories of Pythagoras and Helmholtz, he goes on to look in detail at such topics as the musical organization of complex sound-objects, using and manipulating representational sounds and the various dimensions of human and non-human utterance. In so doing, he seeks to learn lessons from areas (poetry and sound-poetry, film, sound effects and animal communication) not traditionally associated with the field of music.
The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music by
With the ongoing development of algorithmic composition programs and communities of practice expanding, algorithmic music faces a turning point. Joining dozens of emerging and established scholars alongside leading practitioners in the field, chapters in this Handbook both describe the stateof algorithmic composition and also set the agenda for critical research on and analysis of algorithmic music. Organized into four sections, chapters explore the music's history, utility, community, politics, and potential for mass consumption. Contributors address such issues as the role ofalgorithms as co-performers, live coding practices, and discussions of the algorithmic culture as it currently exists and what it can potentially contribute society, education, and ecommerce. Chapters engage particularly with post-human perspectives - what new musics are now being found throughalgorithmic means which humans could not otherwise have made - and, in reciprocation, how algorithmic music is being assimilated back into human culture and what meanings it subsequently takes. Blending technical, artistic, cultural, and scientific viewpoints, this Handbook positions algorithmicmusic making as an essentially human activity.
Reminded by the Instruments by
David Tudor is remembered today as an extraordinary pianist of post-war avant-garde music who worked closely with composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen and as a founding figure of live-electronic music. His bold reinterpretation of Cage's Variations II and his idiosyncraticperformances using homemade modular instruments inspired a whole generation of musicians. But his reticence, his unorthodox approaches, and the diversity of his creative output - which began with the organ and ended with visual art - have kept Tudor a puzzle.Reminded by the Instruments sets out to solve the puzzle of David Tudor by applying Tudor's own methods for approaching the materials of others to the vast archive of materials that he himself left behind. Author You Nakai deftly patches together instruments, electronic circuits, sketches, diagrams,recordings, letters, receipts, customs declaration forms, and testimonies like modular pieces of a giant puzzle to reveal a new perspective on Tudor's creative process. Rejecting the established narrative of Tudor as a performer-turned-composer, this book presents a lively portrait of an artistwhose work always merged both of these roles. In reading Tudor's electronic devices as musicological 'texts' and examining his dissection of electronic circuits, Nakai transcends discourses on sound and illuminates our understanding of the instruments behind the sounds in post-war experimentalmusic.
Sonic Art by
Written by an active composer, performer and educator, Sonic Art: An Introduction to Electroacoustic Music Composition provides a clear and informative introduction to the compositional techniques behind electroacoustic music. It brings together theory, aesthetics, context and practical applications to allow students to start thinking about sound creatively, and gives them the tools to compose meaningful sonic art works. In addition to explaining the techniques and philosophies of sonic art, the book examines over forty composers and their works, introducing the history and context of notable pieces, and includes chapters on how to present compositions professionally, in performance and online. The book is supported by an online software toolkit which enables readers to start creating their own compositions. Encouraging a 'hands on' approach to working with sound, Sonic Art is the perfect introduction for anyone interested in electroacoustic music and crafting art from sounds.
Sound Art : Concepts & Practices by
Sound Art offers the first comprehensive introduction to sound art written for undergraduate students. Bridging and blending aspects of the visual and sonic arts, modern sound art first emerged in the early 20th century and has grown into a thriving and varied field. In 13 thematic chapters, this book enables students to clearly grasp both the concepts behind this unique area of art, and its history and practice. Each chapter begins with an exploration of key ideas and theories, followed by an in-depth discussion of selected relevant works, both classic and current. Drawing on a broad, diverse range of examples, and firmly interdisciplinary, this book will be essential reading for anyone studying or teaching the theory, history, appreciation, or practice of sound art.
Sound Art : Sound as a Medium of Art by
Essays and images that map art's new sonic cosmos, illustrated in color throughout.This milestone volume maps fifty years of artists' engagement with sound. Since the beginning of the new millennium, numerous historical and critical works have established sound art as an artistic genre in its own right, with an accepted genealogy that begins with Futurism, Dada, and Fluxus, as well as disciplinary classifications that effectively restrict artistic practice to particular tools and venues. This book, companion volume to a massive exhibition at ZKM | Karlsruhe, goes beyond these established disciplinary divides to chart the evolution and the full potential of sound as a medium of art. The book begins with an extensive overview by volume editor Peter Weibel that considers the history of sound as media art, examining work by visual artists, composers, musicians, and architects alike. Subsequent essays examine sound experiments in antiquity, sonification of art and science, and internet-based sound art. Contributors then survey the global field of sound art research and practice, in essays that describe the past, present, and future of sound art in Germany, Japan, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Canada, Turkey, Australia, and Scandinavia. The texts are accompanied by an extensive photographic documentation of the ZKM exhibition. Texts by Achille Bonito Oliva, Dmitry Bulatov, Germano Celant, Seth Cluett, Christoph Cox, Julia Gerlach, Ryo Ikeshiro und/and Atau Tanaka, Caleb Kelly, Brandon LaBelle, Christof Migone, Laszl Moholy-Nagy, Daniel Muzyczuk, Tony Myatt, Irene Noy, Giuliano Obici, Carsten Seiffarth und/and Bernd Schulz, Ba_x015F_ak _x015E_enova, Linnea Semmerling, Morten S ndergaard, Alexandra Supper, David Toop und/and Adam Parkinson, Peter Weibel, Dajuin Yao, Siegfried Zielinski
Sound Composition by
"....a collection of writings with accompanying sound examples detailing the composition of musical works where the organisation of the sounds themselves is of primary importance. The book is based on various illustrative lectures originally presented by the author on the completion of particular compositional projects. Its focus is on the musical structuring of the works."--Back cover.
The Soundscape by
The soundscape--a term coined by the author--is our sonic environment, the ever-present array of noises with which we all live. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith's hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the "sound imperialism" of airports, city streets, and factories. The author contends that we now suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and a proportionate diminishing of our ability to hear the nuances and subtleties of sound. Our task, he maintains, is to listen, analyze, and make distinctions. As a society we have become more aware of the toxic wastes that can enter our bodies through the air we breathe and the water we drink. In fact, the pollution of our sonic environment is no less real. Schafer emphasizes the importance of discerning the sounds that enrich and feed us and using them to create healthier environments. To this end, he explains how to classify sounds, appreciating their beauty or ugliness, and provides exercises and "soundwalks" to help us become more discriminating and sensitive to the sounds around us. This book is a pioneering exploration of our acoustic environment, past and present, and an attempt to imagine what it might become in the future.
Step by Step : Adventures in Sequencing with Max/MSP by
Step sequencers are a special treat: they offer a simplified approach to composition that can be the basis for fun and creative music-making. Using the Max/MSP visual programming language, Gregory Taylor provides the recipes for over a dozen step sequencers that range from basic to surprisingly deep. In doing so, he also presents Max as the perfect toolkit for creating these addictive devices.
Structure and Synthesis by
An anthology of pioneer sound artist Mark Fell's work charting his defiantly unorthodox thinking on time, structure, technology, and the relation between academic and popular electronic music. In this extensive anthology, Mark Fell, a pioneering artist known for his sound installations and his musical work solo and as part of SND and Sensate Focus, assembles a collection of diverse materials charting his defiantly unorthodox thinking on time, structure, technology, and the relation between academic and popular electronic music. An amalgam of workbook and manifesto, featuring a collection of interleaved statements, diagrammatic scores, and instructional texts, Structure and Synthesis is a direct engagement with Fell's original thinking and his continual provocations in regard to "experimental" music. Alongside reflections on theory and practice, the volume includes exercises for dismantling musical expertise, habits, and intuitions, documenting Fell's explorations of the peripheries of rhythm, shape, and time in perception and performance. Long-term collaborator designer Joe Gilmore provides a striking graphic context for Fell's evolving thinking and the methods and structures he has developed through his solo and collaborative work.
Understanding the Art of Sound Organization by
The first work to propose a comprehensive musicological framework to study sound-based music, a rapidly developing body of work that includes electroacoustic art music, turntable composition, and acoustic and digital sound installations. The art of sound organization, also known as electroacoustic music, uses sounds not available to traditional music making, including prerecorded, synthesized, and processed sounds. The body of work of such sound-based music (which includes electroacoustic art music, turntable composition, computer games, and acoustic and digital sound installations) has developed more rapidly than its musicology. Understanding the Art of Sound Organization proposes the first general foundational framework for the study of the art of sound organization, defining terms, discussing relevant forms of music, categorizing works, and setting sound-based music in interdisciplinary contexts. Leigh Landy's goal in this book is not only to create a theoretical framework but also to make the work more accessible--to suggest a way to understand sound-based music, to give a listener what he terms "something to hold on to," for example, by connecting elements in a work to everyday experience. Landy considers the difficulties of categorizing works and discusses such types of works as sonic art and electroacoustic music, pointing out where they overlap and how they are distinctive. He proposes a "sound-based music paradigm" that transcends such traditional categories as art and pop music. Landy defines patterns that suggest a general framework and places the studies of sound-based music into interdisciplinary contexts, from acoustics to semiotics, proposing a holistic research approach that considers the interconnectedness of a given work's history, theory, technological aspects, and social impact. The author's ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS, www.ears.dmu.ac.uk), the architecture of which parallels this book's structure, offers updated bibliographic resource abstracts and related information.
Wild Sound by
"We haven't even made it to breakfast!" was a phrase often used by composer Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) to shorthand her critical and partial approach to knowledge production across the vast artistic, technical, and scientific discourses with which she worked. The same could be said about her own musical thought, which encompassed original presentational formats in existing and speculative media and approaches to sound and listening that conjoined real and imagined social worlds. Wild Sound: Maryanne Amacher and the Tenses of Audible Life discerns meeting points between frameworks for life that emerged from Amacher's multidisciplinary study of sound and listening: within acoustical spectra, inside human bodies and ears, across cities and edgleands, hypothetical creatures and virtual, fictive or distanciated environments. These figurations guide interpretative study of six signal projects: Adjacencies (1965/1966); City-Links (1967-1988); Additional Tones (1976 / 1988), Music for Sound-Joined Rooms (1980), Mini Sound Series (1985) and Intelligent Life (1980s) and countless sketches, notes and unrealized projects. Author Amy Cimini explores Amacher's working methods with an interpretive style that emphasizes technical study, conceptual juxtaposition, intertextual play, and narrative transport.
