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Computer Music: History, Synthesis, Composition
Summer 2003

Me: Arun Chandra
email: arunc@evergreen.edu
phone: 867-6077
office: COM 308A

Required Texts (in the bookstore), and Strongly Suggested

  Computer Music by Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse (required)
  Practical C Programming by Steve Oualline (required)
  Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Attali (required)
  Linux for beginners, or any introduction to the Linux operating system for users (strongly suggested)

Listening Log

Please listen to each piece three times on three separate days. While listening, please listen! (i.e., do not play the piano, reformat your hard drive, do yoga, wash the dishes, etc.)

After each listening, please write one page of text about what you remember of the piece. Try to describe what the piece did, and not what it made you think about: try to describe ``it'' and not ``your reactions to it''.

Please write your one page without rereading your previous texts, i.e., do not ``refresh your memory'' about what you had heard.

After you have written three pages of text about the piece, re-read all three pages, and write a fourth page describing the differences between your writings and perceptions.

Bring in your writings on Thursdays, and be prepared to share some of your observations.

At the end of the quarter, I expect each of you to turn in 40 pages (!) of text to me, four pages on each piece.

Karlheiz Stockhausen: Gesänge der Jungeling
Herbert Brun: Dustiny
Gottfried Michael Koenig: Sound Figures (Klangfigüren)
Carla Scaletti: sunsurgeautomata
Insook Choi: The Frog in the Machine
Kenneth Gaburo: Antiphony IV: Pearl-white moments
Arun Chandra: Crocker, for three percussionists, voice, and two-channel computer-synthesized sounds
Jerry Tabor: engaging Causey
Barry Truax: Dominion, for chamber orchestra and grainulated sounds
Paul Koonce: Pins

Seminar reading material (Wednesday evenings)

All readings are available on the web, except for Noise (Jacques Attali).

Week 1: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Week 2: Benjamin (2nd session)
Week 3: Herbert Brün: Wayfaring Sounds
Week 4: Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer: The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception
Week 5: John Cage: Experimental Music
  John Cage: Experimental Music: Doctrine
Week 6: Pierre Boulez: Technnology and the Composer
Week 7: Gottfried Michael Koenig: Composition Processes
Week 8: Theodor Adorno: Music and Language: A Fragment
Week 9: Jacques Attali: Noise
Week 10: Attali (2nd session)

Projects

Project 1:
Write a program that generates a 1-minute soundfile with a sequence of 10 tones in it. The tones should each have a different pitch, duration, and envelope.

Project 2:
Write a program that generates a 2-minute soundfile, and shows how sounds are mixed together. Use only the AM algorithm. Let your project show how many ways the AM algorithm can be used to generate significantly different sounds.

Project 3:
Same as project 2, but only use the FM algorithm. Again, explore how many different ways the FM algorithm can be used to generate significantly different sounds.

Project 4:
Write a program that creates a 3-minute soundfile, using only granular synthesis. Explore the variety of ways in which you can create and mix sounds. Try using ideas for compositional algorithms for organizing the sounds.

Project 5:
Write a program that generates a 3-minute composition, using any or all the techniques we've discussed. This should be in stereo, and use panning techniques.

Papers

Write two short papers.

  1. Describe in graphic form the architecture of a computer-generated composition.

    Let time be shown moving from left to right. Approximately lay out the ``sections'' of the piece (i.e., the first section last about 1 minute, the second lasts about 3, etc.).

    Your graphic should show: What are the strongest (loudest? fastest? densest?) and weakest (softest? slowest? emptiest?) parts of the composition? The graphic should show how the ``shape'' of the composition change over time.

  2. Write a short (4-5 page) paper about a sound-synthesis algorithm. Do research on the algorithm, and explain its history, its uses by composers, and its potential for further use.

Approximate week-by-week schedule

Week
1 June 23 Mon Introduction to Linux, logins, navigating the OS
Fundamentals of digital synthesis
Tue Readings: Dodge: Chap 1: Fundamentals of Computer Music
Oualline: Chap 1, 2, 3
Wed Seminar: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Thurs Readings: Dodge: Chap 3: Fundamentals of Digital Audio
2 June 30 Mon Dodge: Synthesis fundamentals
Tue Oualline: Chap 5&7: Decision and control statements, More control statements
Wed Seminar: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Thurs Holiday (no class)
3 July 7 Mon Project I due
Dodge: Chap 5: Synthesis using distortion techniques
Tue Oualline: Chap 8: Variable scope and functions
Wed Seminar: Herbert Brün: Wayfaring Sounds
Thurs
4 July 14 Mon Paper I due (graphic architecture)
Tue Oualline: Chap 12: Simple pointers
Wed Seminar: Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer: The Culture Industry
Thurs Project II due.
5 July 21 Mon Listening to Project II.
Dodge: Chap 8 Granular Synthesis
Tue Oualline: Chap 9 The C Preprocessor
Wed Seminar: John Cage: Experimental Music and Experimental Music: Doctrine
Thurs
6 July 28 Mon Ideas for Paper II due.
Dodge: Chap 11: Composition with Computers
Tue Oualline: Advanced types: structures and typedefs
Wed Seminar: Pierre Boulez: Technnology and the Composer
Thurs Project III due.
7 August 4 Mon Listening to Project III.
Tue Student presentations of paper work.
Wed Seminar: Gottfried Michael Koenig: Composition Processes
Thurs
8 August 11 Mon Paper II due: Synthesis Algorithms
Tue Oualline: Chap 13: File input and output
Wed Seminar: Theodor Adorno: Music and Language: A Fragment
Thurs Project IV due.
9 August 18 Mon Listening to Project IV.
Tue
Wed Seminar: Jacques Attali: Noise
Thurs
10 August 25 Mon
Tue
Wed Seminar: Jacques Attali: Noise
Thurs Project V due.
Fri Evaluations and final listening session 1pm-5pm


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