A report on the University of California San Diego Fall 2022 ACTOR and its continuation into 2023
Project Blog | Project Updates
A report on the University of California San Diego Fall 2022 ACTOR and its continuation into 2023
Submitted by Roger Reynolds Emeritus University Professor, Music Department, UCSD
In the Fall of 2022, I co-taught a seminar on the ACTOR project with Rand Steiger. There were seven UCSD grad students enrolled.
Wang, Zehao
Henson, Matthew
Ko, Jiyoung
Konick, Zachary
Stallings, Jonathan
Taylor, Alexander
Zheng, Ni
The group also included ACTOR visitor Yuval Adler, who participated energetically and usefully, while also undertaking archival responsibilities. We have not yet seen the results of his archiving yet, and hope that this will be possible soon.
Attached is the syllabus for the course as well as the preparatory summer reading list (far) below.
Five of those enrolled composed “Timbre Etudes” for the specified septet of instruments for the CORE project. We specified three mandatory criteria:
Admirable musicality
Relevance to designated perceptual, cognitive, or evaluative terminology discussed in seminar
The inclusion of an electro-acoustic dimension that is integral to the purposes of the Etude.
On February 11-12, The wasteLAnd Ensemble from Los Angeles, conducted by Nicholas Deyoe, visited the UCSD campus and recorded the five student etudes (Henson, Ko, Stallngs, Taylor, and Zheng), along with parallel works composed by the instructors (Reynolds and Steiger).
All seven works will be premiered on 21 May at the Conrad Music Center’s Experimental Theater on 21 May by wasteLAnd, conducted by Nicholas Deyoe.
Although the seminar meetings we had in the Fall were lively and productive,. Various illnesses and then a campus wide graduate student strike, hobbled the seminar’s ability to convene.
However, we believe that much was learned and shared, and, indeed, all seven proposed Etudes were completed and recoded.
Between now and the late May concert, all involved will be developing the electro-acoustic dimensions of their works, utilizing the recordings already in hand. Not only the seminar instructors (Steiger and Reynolds), but three additional UCSD Music Department Faculty are available for counselling as needed: Shahrokh Yadegari, Miller Puckette, and Tom Erb.
Those members of the seminar not composing etudes [Wang and Konick] proposed analytic papers comparing two of the Etudes generated from the Seminar. These reports promise to be substantive and broad-based in their considerations.
As an example of a Proposal for the analytic papers that will be submitted after the concert, here is Zach Konick’s:
ANALYSIS PROPOSAL EXAMPLE
Can the listener experience and learn the Klangfarbenmelodie in a pure state, prior to added affects?
Are other elements aside from timbre and the intended perceptual or cognitive application present and affecting the perception of Klangfarbenmelodie? (Is the element of pitch static or in motion? If in motion, how does this affect our perception of the Klangfarbenmelodie prior to extra perceptually affecting applications?)
The importance of memory systems — taught/learned behaviors or naturally expected memory systems? (Henson - masking to predict Klangfarbenmelodie, and Stallings - rhythmic applications to alter how one hears the Klangfarbenmelodie).
Role(s) of electronics in all of this?
For Henson’s work, specifically:
Durations of masked vs clearly presented activities.
Quantity of distinctive modulations occurring within masked event periods (and their perception or lack thereof).
Is the listener expected to perceive a masked string of multiple distinct changes or only one swift progression (degree of change) at a time? Would the masked activity be subtly perceived sonically, to allow for recognition of multiple transformative events within one masked period? Otherwise, how would we know if we have transported from A - B - C - D, rather than just A - D? Are B and C in such a case, necessary logical developments in a timbral progression? Would duration of passed time inform the degree of supposed change events?
(It could be interesting if the masking becomes gradually diminished to subtly reveal the timbral progression again.)
Relative amplitude of masked vs masking events, toward understanding the role of masking (simple imperceptibility vs timbral augmentation); in other words, the degree of presence of the masked events. — Masking as completely covering a layer perceptually, vs masking as suppressing a layer as a smaller component of a timbral composite? (Research logistic question: Can I isolate the masked vs masking in spectral analyses to understand what is contributing the composite sonic totality?)
Formal delineators of sonic streams (e.g., melody as instigation of a stream?)?? *(Not yet certain this will be of strong significance).
Masking acting as delineating foreground / background (and imperceptibility?).
Masking as disruption vs masking as revealing a new identity.
Informational masking - distraction through the material presentation (dynamics, amount of and type of information presented). - e.g., will the melodic activities potentially act as informational masking to the timbral progressions?
For Stalling’s work:
Nature of the isorhythm? How clearly perceptible is the rhythm itself?
Does the rhythm outline a clear sense of beginning and ending - have a clear sense of identity?
How long is the rhythmic strand and the Klangfarbenmelodie statement? (If too long, they would likely lack a sense of perceptual identity.
How are the Klangfarbenmelodie / rhythm phrased? Are there accentuations applied to the rhythmic statement? If so, particular timbres are emphasized overtime and perhaps form their own macro-temporal Klangfarbenmelodie. Would this then be perceptible as in the perception of macro-temporal pitch melodies?
** Can the listener follow the klangfarbenmelodie line both with and without rhythmic activity present?
Approach toward the study:
The difficult aspect will be exactly how I will perform my analysis. However, this will need to be studied through other perceptual research papers. As of now, once I have the final score and recording, it will be based on my own analytical opinion through my perceptual experiences and formal observations with the recordings and scores.
For the preliminary article, in which I will engage with score sketches alone, I will be assessing my line of questions above, to gather the necessary information in order to begin considering precisely the nature of each Klangfarbenmelodie statements, and how the particular added perceptual and cognitive elements are likely to affect this feature in detail. This will offer a strong basis in order to begin my perceptual studies in the later round of analyses.
If any of you have any further questions, concerns, comments or suggestions for this, please let me know.
COMPOSITION PROPOSAL EXAMPLE
In order to provide some general orientation vis-a-vis the outcome of the Etude project,
I include here the notes for a presentation I made in the Fall to our gathered seminar:
Overall Plan showing the three Layers and their structural interactions.
