Newsletter no. 35
Newsletter no. 35
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
Dear ACTOR members,
We trust you had a rejuvenating winter break. After a brief hiatus, we're excited to return with updates from the ACTOR community. Our team is hard at work planning and organizing appealing initiatives and events for our fellow ACTOR members. Stay tuned for more!
TOR Spotlight:
Le timbre composite des œuvres vocales et instrumentales de Luigi Dallapiccola depuis ses "Six chants d’Alcée
The Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR) is proud to announce the publication of ACTOR member Pierre Michel's extensive article on Luigi Dallapiccola's music! The article is published in French and will be subsequently translated into English for its later publication on the TOR. Pierre's article explores the role of timbre and orchestration in Dallapiccola's compositions for voice and ensemble from the 1950's onward. This is an immensely valuable resource on Dallapiccola's compositional strategies informed by Webernian aesthetics, and we are happy to have it as part of our Timbre and Orchestration Resource.
Teaching Timbre Topics
The TOR's newest resource, Teaching Timbre Topics (TTT), is now live!
Teaching Timbre Topics is a pedagogical resource that organizes teaching materials drawn from timbre-themed courses taught at ACTOR partner institutions. These materials are organized in modules that can be used in the design of entire courses on timbre and orchestration, or as standalone units within a course. By clicking the above link you will find three TTT modules on the themes of Defining Timbre, Analysis of Timbre, and Applications of Timbre and Timbral Analysis. Each module includes objectives, reading resources, suggestions for assignments. The materials are meant to be scalable according to student level: teachers may select resources, activities, and assignments depending on the desired depth of the topic to be covered. These materials provide both a comprehensive summary of current pedagogy on timbre, instrumentation, and orchestration (especially across universities in North America) and a contribution to advancing and mobilizing knowledge of timbre and its research.
Many thanks to Lena Heng and Kelsey Lussier for creating these materials, and Mitra Khodadadi for developing them on the TOR site!
Publications
New research involving ACTOR members has been published.
ACTOR student member Jithin Thilakan has published an article on musical blending based on the recordings created by the Odessa-III project in the Detmold Concert House.
Thilakan, Jithin, B. T. Balamurali, Jer-Ming Chen, and Kob, Malte. Classification of the perceptual impression of source-level blending between violins in a joint performance. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, 7, 62. https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2023050
The first publication from the ACTOR project Timbre in Popular Song, a poster presented at the 2022 Music Encoding Conference, is now available online:
Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Matthew Zeller, Leigh VanHandel, Nicholas Shea, Christopher William White, Jeremy Tatar, Jade Roth, and Nicole Biamonte. “Encoding and Analyzing the Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus,” in 2022 Proceedings of the Music Encoding Conference, ed. Ai Lynn Ang, Jennifer Bain, and David Weigl, 139-144. Humanities Commons, 2023. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:59315/
This has a lot of overlap with the ACTOR project report available at https://timbreandorchestration.org/writings/project-reports/timbre-in-popular-song, but stay tuned for a much more substantial article forthcoming in Music Theory Online at the end of March 2024:
Nicholas Shea, Lindsey Reymore, Christopher William White, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Matthew Zeller, and Nicole Biamonte, “Diversity in Music Corpus Studies,” Music Theory Online 30.1 (2024)
For the full bibliography, please visit ACTOR publications.
Presentation
ACTOR Speaker Series
The recording of Dr. Matthew Morrison's talk - The Timbre of Early Blackface in the Making of (Black) Americana - presented on December 7, 2023 as part of the ACTOR Speaker Series: Afrological Perspectives on Timbre & Orchestration is now available on our website and YouTube Channel.
Doctoral Degree
Congratulations to ACTOR collaborator and newly graduated Dr. Jorge Ramos for completing his doctorate studies! In Dr. Ramos' words:
To my supervisors, Dr. Alison Kay, Dr. Diana Salazar, Dr. Gilbert Nouno and Dr. Rubens Askenar for all the commitment, wisdom, support, and guidance which I will treasure with all my heart. Your guidance meant so much at a critical time in my development and helped me to take my work in exciting new directions.
ACTOR Timbre & Orchestration Summer School
Costs have been revised. See below.
12-15 July
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Application Deadline: February 15, 2024
The second edition of the ACTOR (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration) Timbre & Orchestration Summer School will be held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, July 12-15, 2024.
TUTORS & TOPICS
Timbre Worlds (Emily Dolan, Brown University)
Music Analysis and Timbre (Daphne Tan, University of Toronto)
Ethnomusicology of Orchestration (Michael Tenzer, University of British Columbia)
Deciphering Timbre Through the Prism of Acoustics and Psychoacoustics (Caroline Traube, Université de Montréal)
Sound as Material: Perspectives on a Timbral Discourse (Anthony Tan, University of Victoria)
PROGRAM
In addition to three days of tutorial sessions (July 12-14), students will have the opportunity to present in a Poster Session on July 15, as well as attend the Plenary session of the Y6 ACTOR Workshop, and join tutors in informal discussion sessions.
PARTICIPANTS
We welcome graduate, advanced undergraduate students, postdocs, and early-career researchers in any field of music-related research with keen interest in timbre and orchestration.
COSTS
Selected participants will be notified by March 15, 2024 and invited to register. Two pricing options are available:
Option 1: $677.50 CAD – includes: tuition, accommodation in the Totem Park Residence for four nights (check in: July 11, check out: July 15), breakfast and lunch for four days (July 12-15), and one dinner (date TBD).
Option 2: $414.34 CAD – includes: tuition, breakfast and lunch for four days (July 12-15), and one dinner (date TBD)
Updated February 5, 2024
More information: https://www.actorproject.org/timbre-and-orchestration-summer-school/vancouver-2024
Residence at Academy for Contemporary Music
19-23 February
Hochschule Luzern
From February 19-23 ACTOR Member Fabien Lévy will be composer in residence at the Academy for Contemporary Music of the Hochschule Luzern - Musik along with composers Dieter Amman and Nadir Vassenaa. During this residency, several of Fabien's pieces will be rehearsed by participating students culminating with a portrait concert on February 22 at 7:30pm in the Blackbox Kosmos theater in Lucerne, Switzerland. Read more
ACTOR Virtual Office Hours
Got questions about upcoming ACTOR-related funding and professional opportunities?
Stop by the ACTOR Virtual Office Hours for ACTOR student members and ask ACTOR Postdocs Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez and Ben Duinker.
Held every Thursday from 12:00-1:00pm EST, the initiative aims to inform ACTOR student members about upcomingl ACTOR-related events in which students can present their research.
Zoom Link
Zoom Meeting ID: 830 9179 5949
Call for proposals - Revue musicale de l'OICRM
We're thrilled to announce a unique opportunity to publish a special issue on the bilingual Revue musicale de l'OICRM at the Université de Montréal. ACTOR member Jimmie LeBlanc is the editor of the journal. This is an invitation for proposals exploring various facets of the project. Please extend this invitation to all of the students who participated in any of the rounds of CORE. What we're seeking:
General reflections:
About the project, encompassing research-creation approaches and their pedagogy, as well as the project’s conception, organization, evolution, and potential continuation.
From composers, performers, conductors, analysts, or pedagogues detailing their involvement and productions.
Analyses:
Of specific pieces.
Comparing different compositional/performance approaches among participants.
Comparing different pedagogical approaches adopted across institutions.
Interested in contributing?
Submit a 250-400 word proposal (in French or English) outlining your contribution to Stephen McAdams (stephen.mcadams@mcgill.ca) by April 30, 2024. Proposals will be evaluated by the editorial team (Stephen McAdams, Jimmie LeBlanc, and Joshua Rosner).
Timeline:
Proposal submissions due by 30 April 2024.
Full article requests sent by 15 June 2024.
Article submission deadline: 28 February 2025.
Peer review and revisions until 31 July 2025, with a targeted publication date in February 2026.
We're very excited to put this issue together and cannot wait for your contributions! Feel free to contact Jimmie (Jimmie.LeBlanc@umontreal.ca) or Joshua (Joshua.Rosner@mail.mcgill.ca) with any questions.