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Sie befinden sich hier:
  1. Forschung
  2. Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology
  3. TENOR Zurich
Mehr zu: TENOR Zurich

Thursday, 4 April

  • Information Desk
  • Installations
  • 9:00-09:45h
  • 9:45-10:00h
  • 10:00-11:00h
  • 11:00-12:20h
  • 12:20–13:30h
  • 13:30-15:00h
  • 15:00-15:30h
  • 15:30-17:00h
  • 17:00h
  • 18:30h
  • 20:00h

Information Desk

  • Opening hours – Main Entrance Hall, Hörsaal 1 (3.K01, Ebene 3)

    Thursday, 4 April: 8:00h – 11:00h
    Friday, 5 April: 9:00h – 10:00h
    Saturday, 6 April: 9:00h – 10:00h

    For registration outside of the opening hours of the information desk, please contact Leandra Nussbaumer at the conference office & lounge at Kaskadenfoyer (5.K04, Ebene 5).

Installations

  • Installations running through-out the conference – various locations

    Running through-out the conference – Kunstraum (5.K12, Ebene 5)
    Neutral Friend, Unknown Enemy
    Installation by Juan Manuel Escalante

    The Generation of Maps
    Installation by Juan Manuel Escalante

    Running through-out the conference – Aktionsraum (5.K06, Ebene 5)
    Tres avatares del silencio: Antígona en su lógica de ensueño (2024)
    Installation by Mauricio A. Meza Ruiz
    Performance: Saturday 6 April, 18:30h

    Running through-out the conference – ICST-Kompositionsstudio (3.D02, Ebene 3)
    Study for a Cosmic City
    Installation by Julian Scordato

9:00-09:45h

Coffee – Hörsaal 1 (3.K01, Ebene 3)

    9:45-10:00h

    Welcome – Hörsaal 1 (3.K01, Ebene 3)

      10:00-11:00h

      • Keynote: Laura Zattra – Hörsaal 1 (3.K01, Ebene 3)

        Laura Zattra
        Adjunct Professor, Rovigo Conservatory of Music, Department of Applied Music; Vicenza Conservatory of Music, Department of Electronic Music; Research Associate, IRCAM (Paris)

        Unexplored Archives, Philology and Real People – How to study ‘sound-based art’ through sketches (design thinking, embryonic projects, first meetings, software programming) 
        My presentation will consider the importance of 'methodologically organising' the musicology of the creative processes, where the projects’ ambition be the preservation of works using sound technology, the history of a centre or a biography, or the documentation of a piece for future reperformances. I will start with some personal reflections that illustrate the theoretical place I find myself in after 20 years of research in private and institutional, material and immaterial archives. I will briefly illustrate some of the projects I have been involved lately and pinpoint their meeting points: (1) my research on what we can deduce from the (past and present) composers’ personal archives and what do archives tell us about the persons who have collected and organised them, about their own ‘workshop’ (for a book chapter in Xenakis: Back to the roots, ed. by Reinholf Friedl,Thomas Grill and Michelle Ziegler, in press); 2) my philological reconstruction of the creative process of Recitativo (1961) by Camillo Togni (book chapter in a book dedicated to Camillo Togni, in press); 3) my research and article presented at the Performing Live Electronic Music project developed at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) of the ZHdK in 2022 about the work of Lanza/Valle and Clara Iannotta (in press); 4) finally, the project I am part of at IRCAM (Paris) entitled RAMHO (Recherche et Acoustique Musicales en France : une Histoire Orale), coordinated by François-Xavier Féron (by December 31, 2023, 33 people had been interviewed, for a total of 145 hours of audio recording), with a focus in my presentation on John Chowning.  

        Thus, starting from my personal position, I would like to open the discussion to a broader discourse. In a precious historical moment where the musicology of electroacoustic music is experiencing a very lively and fertile growing, it is indeed necessary that: 1) musicology be felt as a mixed method of study; 2) the scholar always be explicit, in each essay, article, thesis, in the complete indication of the sources that he or she finds himself or herself considering, having the courage to write those pages that are perhaps extremely 'boring' for the reader, but that serve on the contrary both to the writer and to the more attentive reader, in order to show what has been considered and what is missing, and to being able to go over and hypothetically "redo" the experiments, to avoid the reader going back to look for the same things or redoing the same mistakes. The examples I will share are all based on the idea of ‘sketching’, that is, the broader concept (existing already in the philosophy of art) which reevaluates the concept of sketch, or ‘drawing’, not only as an object or a document, but in general as a moment for designing preliminary steps, phases to capture any inspirations, ideas, embryonic projects, first meetings, software programming.

      11:00-12:20h

      • Session 1 – Hörsaal 1 (3.K01, Ebene 3)

        Paper Session Chair: Georg Hajdu

        11:00h
        The Composer Photograph: A Framework Towards Describing Overtones in Animated Notation
        Authors: Helen Svoboda, Cat Hope

        This paper explores a set of notational possibilities for overtones on the double bass. Engaging animated notation approaches across two compositions, Wormwood (2022) and Ice Bubbles (2023), an imaginative solution is sought to address some of the issues and confusion surrounding traditional overtone scoring for string instruments. Photographs taken by the composer are engaged as sketches to form a starting point for both works, and as a source for visual information for the representation of particular overtone pitch sets and timbre. This is intended to create a more intuitive method for the depiction of instrument preparations and effects. In Wormwood, insect patterns photographed in the bark of a tree were drawn and put into motion on a computer. Ice Bubbles begins with a map of a floating ice island that is treated as territory for a boat journey from one shore to another. These starting points provide an overarching theme for the design of further details, resulting in two works that prompt new and unfamiliar creative decisions from the performer, responding to focussed compositional parameters in real time. This paper outlines the aims and processes of what we term the ‘composer photograph’ for a double bass performance of these works by the composer.

        11:20h
        FORMS: Generative Visual Music Through Graphic Notation and Spectrogram Synthesis
        Author: Santiago Vilanova Ángeles

        This paper presents an in-depth analysis of FORMS, an extensive generative visual music research project that blends graphic notation with spectrogram synthesis. Rooted in the principles of generative music, FORMS encompasses a broad spectrum of digital art projects, unified by a unique software framework. The research bifurcates into two pivotal domains: spectrogram synthesis via digital image sonification and graphic notation tailored for musical instruments. This comprehensive study sheds light on the transformative capabilities of visual-to-auditory conversions in contemporary generative music, providing novel perspectives on animated algorithmic notation systems and some of their possible artistic applications.

        11:40h
        Evaluation of Digital Musicianship in Higher Education Through Playing and Creating Digital Scores
        Authors: Solomiya Moroz, Craig Vear, Fabrizio Poltronieri

        This paper presents an evaluation of digital musicianship with digital scores. Primary data was gathered during the DigiScore ‘Roadshow’ of North American universities’ music departments in 2023 and an extended research workshop in Avellino, Italy, 2023. The activities consist of interactive lectures and practice-based workshops that involve students by asking them to reflect on the nature of their digital musicianship through digital scores. In defining digital musicianship we adopt Hugill’s definition of musicianship as “a person’s ability to perceive, understand and create sonic experiences” and expand upon this with Brown’s Sound Musicianship. Through the lectures and workshops, we gathered data using online interactive polls and questionnaires in person. This data gathering was divided into: a) skills; b) contexts, cultures & literacy; c) musical identity & creative practice; and d) perception & awareness of (digital) music. In the paper, we present an analysis of this data and correlate it with observations from these sessions. In our discussion, we point to the interconnectedness of the sub-categories and also draw a connection between digital musicianship and creativity.

        12:00h
        Immanence: Envisioning Music in a Post-Anthropocentric World Through VR Representation
        Author: Chloë Sobek

        Immanence is a work created for Renaissance violone, field recordings and electronics. This paper outlines the process of creating the digital animated notation, virtual reality (VR) score for the work. The score also functions as an immersive environment in which the audience experiences the audio-visual work via a VR headset. Additionally, I argue that a VR score that functions as an immersive experience has the potential to reinforce the broader conceptual concerns of a musical work. Moreover, it could further suggest a necessary expansion of the parameters by which be we define what music is and how it is represented, leading to new understandings and reflections on VR and musical composition. These ideas are underpinned by a response to Australian musician Jim Denley’s provocations on contemporary music making, an ongoing commitment to considerations of post-anthropocentrism and a need to question predominantly humanist tenets that are still embedded across Western art music; the hope being that this paper could provide new methodologies for creating post-anthropocentric musical works.

      12:20–13:30h

      • Lunch – Lunchroom, Zurich University of the Arts

        You will receive a voucher for the catering services on campus on your first day at the conference. The voucher is valid for lunch on Thursday, 4 April and Friday, 5 April. If you have not received a voucher, please contact Leandra Nussbaumer.

      13:30-15:00h

      • Workshop 1 (interactive) – Konferenzraum (5.K03, Ebene 5) / Workshop 2 (interactive) – Hörsaal (5.T09, Ebene 5)

        Workshop 1 (interactive) – Konferenzraum (5.K03, Ebene 5)
        Embodied Sketching for Neural Synthesis
        Authors: Nicola Privato, Giacomo Lepri

        Stacco is an instrument-score with embedded permanent magnets. It attracts and repels magnetic spheres and detects the changes in its magnetic fields upon interaction. It is designed to perform with neural synthesis models such as RAVE, in which sound features are represented and distributed within entangled multidimensional sonic spaces. Stacco allows drawing and embedding scores into the interface itself, and by bridging gesture and notation, it overcomes some of the inherent limitations of traditional notational methods as applied to neural synthesis. Building upon the user study described in our paper submission, we propose a workshop in which participants will be invited to compose and perform embodied sketches for neural synthesis models by drawing, embedding and layering tracing paper sheets on top of Stacco’s surface.
         

        Workshop 2 (interactive) – Hörsaal (5.T09, Ebene 5)
        The Tyranny of the Common-Time Beat: A Speech-Based Composition Workshop
        Authors: Angela Brennecke, Martin Gordon

        In this workshop, we will explore how human speech can be used as an external non-musical influence to help music creators to break away from typical common-time 4/4 metrics. The workshop participants will learn how to explore and understand human speech as an asymmetric heterometric temporal structure, as well as how to use human speech as a basis for asymmetric rhythm in music composition. As part of the workshop, we will showcase examples following our composition technique and guide the participants to create their own compositions following our technique. At the end of the workshop we want to review generated pieces and reflect on the applicability and extensibility of our technique with the participants.

      15:00-15:30h

      Coffee Break

        15:30-17:00h

        • Workshop 1 (interactive) – Konferenzraum (5.K03, Ebene 5) / Workshop 2 (interactive) – Hörsaal (5.T09, Ebene 5)

          Workshop 1 (interactive) – Konferenzraum (5.K03, Ebene 5)
          Embodied Sketching for Neural Synthesis
          Authors: Nicola Privato, Giacomo Lepri

          Stacco is an instrument-score with embedded permanent magnets. It attracts and repels magnetic spheres and detects the changes in its magnetic fields upon interaction. It is designed to perform with neural synthesis models such as RAVE, in which sound features are represented and distributed within entangled multidimensional sonic spaces. Stacco allows drawing and embedding scores into the interface itself, and by bridging gesture and notation, it overcomes some of the inherent limitations of traditional notational methods as applied to neural synthesis. Building upon the user study described in our paper submission, we propose a workshop in which participants will be invited to compose and perform embodied sketches for neural synthesis models by drawing, embedding and layering tracing paper sheets on top of Stacco’s surface.
           

          Workshop 2 (interactive) – Hörsaal (5.T09, Ebene 5)
          The Tyranny of the Common-Time Beat: A Speech-Based Composition Workshop
          Authors: Angela Brennecke, Martin Gordon

          In this workshop, we will explore how human speech can be used as an external non-musical influence to help music creators to break away from typical common-time 4/4 metrics. The workshop participants will learn how to explore and understand human speech as an asymmetric heterometric temporal structure, as well as how to use human speech as a basis for asymmetric rhythm in music composition. As part of the workshop, we will showcase examples following our composition technique and guide the participants to create their own compositions following our technique. At the end of the workshop we want to review generated pieces and reflect on the applicability and extensibility of our technique with the participants.

        17:00h

        • Opening Posters & Installations + Demo – Kaskadenhalle (5.K500, Ebene 5)

          Posters:

          Multimodal Implications of Compositional Sketching: Semi-Controlled Tracking Focused on Musical Time
          Author: José L. Besada

          Compositional sketches often incorporate particular layouts with a diagrammatic value, which, sometimes, are not strictly specific to musical practices and notation. These representations, which may adopt diverse geometrical configurations, can be analyzed through the lenses of cognitive linguistics as material anchors for conceptual blends. Real-time tracking of composers’ interaction with diagrams may help therefore to better understand creative reasoning during compositional practices; my ongoing project 3C-TEMPO mainly focuses on conceptualizations of musical time. From this perspective, I carried an experience with composers Abel Paúl, Rafael Murillo Rosado, and Núria Giménez Comas. They had to write or draft four short pieces for three percussion players (ca. 30–90 seconds) with optional electronics during 30 minutes each. For each piece, they were provided with one diagrammatic material borrowed from preexistent compositional practices (by Boulez, Grisey, Saariaho, and Xenakis) and were requested to consider it as an input for managing their musical creativity with no further explanation. They were left alone during 30 minutes of compositional work. Once time was up, I recorded short interviews in which they explained to me their compositional choices with a particular emphasis on the way the diagrammatic input had an influence on their creative strategies. The day after, composers were asked to perform again the same tasks. In addition, for each diagram, they received a page explaining the origin of the geometric input. Although I told them that they did not have to imitate the style of the revealed composers, they were asked this time to always consider the diagrammatic materials as a representation of musical time. My poster provides a preliminary discussion about the main results of this experience.

          Metrically Malleable Notation
          Author: Bernd Härpfer

          Conventional notation consists of sequences of notes and rests that fit into a metrical framework. This framework is interchangeable, and the same rhythmic durations are differently notated in different metrical contexts. They are thus also differently interpreted. This notational aspect of the well-known phenomenon of metrical ambiguity thus has a technical and a psychological level. I turn the notion of metric ambiguity around into a space of possible metric interpretations and similarly of possible notations, which I call, according to Justin London, metric malleability. I have developed a quantitative heuristic model of the metric malleability of cyclic rhythms based on an analysis and a categorization of its constituting aspects (www.wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/bernd-haerpfer-metric-malleability). An application integrates this model in a framework for exploring metric malleability as notation variants of pulse-based rhythms. The software creates Lilypond scripts to print rhythms in varying metric contexts, graded by plausibility according to the model. The poster provides a straightforward introduction to the concept and the notational output of the application, highlighting the aspects that span the dimensions of metric malleability. One aspect is the hierarchic architecture of a metric framework, the metric type. A general categorization separates simple and mixed metric types. The former consist of isochronous metric periods on all metric levels, whereas the latter feature categorically different periods on at least one level that consist of different numbers of periods of a faster, isochronous level (e.g. 2 + 2 + 3). A second dimension is the variation of size relations between combined rhythmic and metric cycles, e.g. by augmenting the rhythmic or metric structure or by combining cycles of different cardinalities. The third aspect that multiplies the variety of possible notations is metric rotation, that is, rhythmic phase shift related to the metric framework. A current beta version of the software will be presented together with the poster. Updated information on the state of software development and publication will be available at haerpfer.net/research. 

          Motion Capture Data As Machine-Readable Notation To Capture Musical Interpretation: Experimenting With Movement Sonification and Synthesis
          Authors: Julien Mercier, Irini Kalaitzidi

          Musical notation can be described as an abstract language that composers use so that performers may interpret a score. Such notation comes before interpretation, is re- producible, and although it contains hints targeted at the performer on how to interpret, the actual performance is uniquely situated in time and space. The only way to record and re-experience a sound performance is to use microphones, which transform acoustic waves into an electrical signal and usually lose at least some spatial dimension in the process. This may be hindering in the field of experimental music, where physical limits of sound material may be put to the test. In this short paper, we discuss how motion capture could be an alternative to or an expansion of the acoustic recording of a performance involving movement. By recording the performer’s movements, some of the dimensions that make their interpretation singular (i.e. character, accentuation, phrasing, and nuance) are retained. A method capturing sound through movement may be interesting in the context of sound synthesis with deep learning and hold potential advantages over current methods using MIDI or acoustic, which either lack dimensions or are very sensitive to noisy data. We briefly discuss rationale, practical and theoretical foundations for the development of potentially innovative outputs.

          Divine Rationality: Computational Transcription of Chants and Parametric Structuring in Historicized Composition
          Authors: Dániel Péter Biró, Peter van Kranenburg

          Our ongoing research into computational ethnomusicology, undertaken first in the project Computational Ethnomusicology and continuing in the projects Tunes and Tales and Sounding Philosophy, has allowed for a better understanding of the roles of scales, melodic contour and tuning in Jewish, Islamic and Christian chant traditions. While this research has also given way to new modes of notating chant cultures via computational means, it has also had a profound effect on the creation of what Dániel Péter Biró has termed historicized composition, a way of creating compositions that respond to, in this case, the historical development of chant traditions. To this end, the methodologies used for computational transcription of these chant traditions have been incorporated in compositional sketches and in innovative notational frameworks for new vocal music compositions. The following paper explores the methodology of this research, its technical properties and resulting compositional output, presenting examples from vocal and instrumental compositions completed between 2014 and 2022. Finally, we propose future work in these interdisciplinary research areas.

          Granular Poem Project: A Digital Score Based on Deconstruction of Chinese Idioms
          Authors: Yuan Zhang Xinran Zhang, Xiaobing Li

          We have established a reusable and iterative digital score system, with Chinese four-character idioms at its core, enabling a collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence around selected idioms. Each entity engages in imagination and computation in its own unique way, facilitating spontaneous improvisation based on the mutual outputs. In this system, we have incorporated two models that we independently developed and trained: an AI-assisted modern Chinese poetry generation system and an AI-assisted piano MIDI generation system. Simultaneously, human participation in this musicking process takes two forms. First, human performers interpret graphic scores designed for the selected idioms, engaging in improvisations. Second, audience representative contribute by providing real-time feedback through EEG brainwave signals, actively participating in the creative process. This system explores and expands the ways in which composers create with the assistance of computational tools. Humans and artificial intelligence, converging around a shared theme, dance in mutual reflection on the aesthetic level, making the process itself profoundly poetic. Also, it is the deep involvement of both humans and artificial intelligence that establishes this digital score and gives it its unique characteristics.

          Xnk and Hands2MIDIChannels: New Software Tools for Composers and Improvisers
          Author: Carlos Mauro

          In the evolving landscape of 21st-century music, composers are turning to software tools to enhance creative workflows and improve composing efficiency. This paper introduces two novel tools independently developed by the author: Xnk and Hands2MIDIChannels. Xnk is a deterministic graphic music notation parser that processes .PNG images to produce a .TXT file suitable for the bach.roll object in MaxMSP. By merging qualities of abstract graphics and traditional notations, Xnk provides an alternative approach for composers in music sketching and composition. Meanwhile, Hands2MIDIChannels allocates MIDI events corresponding to a keyboard instrument to specific MIDI channels based on the hand that triggered the event. This allocation is derived by cross-referencing the original MIDI file with a synchronized video capturing the performer’s hand movements over the keyboard. Notably, this tool offers invaluable utility to composers, improvisers, and musicians with disabilities. It enhances compositional efficiency by automating hand-based event assignation, enabling the swift transformation of improvisations into readable scores. The paper will explore the technical aspects, justification, current limitations, and potential avenues for both tools.

        18:30h

        • Concert 1 – Konzertsaal 1 (7.K05, Ebene 7)

          Programme

          Craig Vear & Fabrizio Poltronieri – Solaris: and AI-Jazz Quartet (2024)

          for performer, hybrid drum kit, piano automat and 8-channel sound system
          Craig Vear, hybrid drum kit
          Solaris-AI on piano automat

          Helen Svoboda – Ice Bubbles (2023)
          for solo double bass, projections and electronics
          Helen Svoboda, double bass

          Jaslyn Robertson – Rosenhöhe (2023)
          a tactile score for two performers and electronic tape track
          Jaslyn Robertson, synthesizers
          Helen Svoboda, double bass

          - break - 

          Simon Hellewell – Perception Check (2020)
          for two pianos
          Florian Altwegg, piano
          Eleni Mitrousia, piano

          Horacio Vaggione – Shifting Mirrors (2016)
          for alto saxophone and electronic device (version for 6 tracks)
          María Luisa Cuenca, alto saxophone

          Cat Hope and Robert Ek – Wolf (2023)
          for bass clarinet, modular synthesizer and the Music in Motion system
          Robert Ek, bass clarinet and electronics

          Sound engineering
          Leandro Gianini, sound engineer
          Milena Winter, sound engineer

        20:00h

        Dinner – Konzertfoyer (7.K500, Ebene 7)