NOTES:

Rubric

25% Concert Piece
What : One 4’-6’ electroacoustic composition, submitted by the student and presented at a final concert/showing-of-work at the end of the semester.
Graded on the basis of: timely completion and delivery in concert-ready format, as well as the effectiveness with which the piece demonstrates some or all of the aesthetic concepts treated by the course.

30% (10% for each of three) Miniature Composition Assignments
What: Three one-minute compositions.
Graded on the basis of: embodiment of aesthetics requested for that assignment, within the restrictions indicated.

20% Final Paper
What: A short, ~1000-2000-word statement analyzing a piece, describing a concept or detailing an electroacoustic composition workflow that the student finds particularly interesting. Students may substitute or incorporate a visualization or other way of engaging with the piece if desired.
Graded on the basis of: effective usage of knowledge learned in the course, clear articulation of ideas about the concept or piece discussed (using language, charts or any other means the student finds most applicable/accessible), timely submission and effective citation of sources. An example article will be provided to indicate desired format for citations.

10% Graphic Score of Electroacoustic Piece
What : A graphic plan for the final composition mentioned above.
Graded on the basis of : evidence of a focussed attempt to visualize the planned composition. 15% Completion of Listening Journal What : A listening journal including responses to at least five of the assigned listenings. Graded on the basis of : evidence that the listenings were listened to and thought about.

15% Completion of Listening Journal
What : A listening journal including responses to at least five of the assigned listenings.
Graded on the basis of : evidence that the listenings were listened to and thought about.

REQUIREMENTS:

Week 1: The Sound Object Request Bring in a foley object for the first class (not a traditional musical instrument). Monday : Sound Objects Listening Luigi Russolo - The Awakening of a City Lesson Course introduction. S tudents begin exploring the sounds of their foley objects as well as some brought in by the instructor. Students amplify these objects with microphones. With guidance, they learn about microphone pickup pattern, proximity effect and placement. Wednesday : Recording Techniques Reading Chion, Michel. “Chapter I: In Search of the Sound Object.” from Guide to sound objects: Pierre Schaeffer and musical research . Trans. John Dack and Christine North. (1983). Lesson: Studio Etiquette An outline of the elctroacoustic studio and explanation of its basic components. A discussion of the etiquette a shared studio, and establishment of a group agreement with respect to its usage. Further exploration of microphone technique.

Week 2: Music Concrète Monday : Sequencing and Editing Listening Pierre Schaeffer - Études aux Chemins de Fer Lesson Managing multiple tracks, avoiding audio clicks and manipulating volume envelopes. Using hotkeys for fast workflow. Miniature Composition #1 Assigned Compose a one-minute mono piece using only the following parameters:  cutting; - sequencing; - multitracking; - fading; and - filters and equalization (to be covered this week). Wednesday : Equalization and Filtering Lesson Manipulating EQ and various types of filters to sculpt recorded sound.

Week 3: Acousmatic Music Monday : Critical Listening and Constructive Feedback, Edition #1 Miniature Composition #1 Due Lesson Listening to and critiquing each others’ work. Depending on class size, not all works will be heard. In that case, those critiqued will be selected randomly. Wednesday : The Debugging Way of Life Lesson A discussion of strategies for solving digital audio problems - and staying sane while doing it.

Week 4: Elektronische Musik Monday: Synthesizers Listening Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte Reading (begin, but do not feel obliged to get all the way through) Stockhausen, Karlheinz, and Jerome Kohl. "Electroacoustic performance practice." Perspectives of New Music (1996): 74-105. Lesson How to manipulate synthesizer parameters and presets to create new sounds. Wednesday: Controlling Synthesizers Listening Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples on the Moon Lesson The fundamentals of MIDI data: pitch, velocity and the notion of a note-off. Controlling MIDI loops in a DAW. How to debug a workflow involving MIDI. 8 Miniature Composition #2 Assigned Compose a 1-minute piece using exclusively digitally synthesized sound.

Week 5: Composing Concert Works Monday: Low-Frequency Oscillators and Modulating Effects Listening Dennis Smalley - Pentes Reading Smalley, Denis. "Spectromorphology: Explaining Sound-Shapes." Organised Sound 2.02 (1997): 107-126. Lesson Low-frequency oscillators, frequency, amplitude and phase-modulation effects. Wednesday: Graphic Sketches and Other Organizational Techniques Further Reading (skim it) Blackburn, Manuella. "The Visual Sound-Shapes of Spectromorphology: an illustrative guide to composition." Organised Sound 16.01 (2011): 5-13. Looking James O’Callaghan - Reasons (score) Trevor Wishart - Vox 5 (score) Lesson The dialogue between planning and execution in composition workflow. Graphic Score Assigned Create a graphic score planning out your 4-6’ composition.

Week 6: Soundscape Music Monday : Acoustic Ecology Miniature Composition #2 Due Listening Hildegarde Westerkamp - Kits Beach Soundwalk Reading Truax, Barry. Handbook for Acoustic Ecology (1984). http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/ handbook/index.html Lesson Acoustic niche theory. Then we go on a soundwalk, and develop some field recording skills! Wednesday : Archiving and Organizing Sound Files 8 Listening Hildegarde Westerkamp - Beneath the Forest Floor Lesson The World Soundscape Project: history and philosophy. Relatedly, approaches to organizing and categorizing all this new audio data you’ve collected into your computer. Miniature Composition #3 Assigned Go on your own soundwalk. Submit 1 minute of your favourite recorded material from it. You may sequence and process that recorded material, however, you should let most of it continue to evidence its sources - so your processing should not be totally transformative.

Week 7: Electroacoustic Composition and Popular Music Monday : Compression Listening Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk A Tribe Called Red - SILA ft Tanya Tagaq (from We Are the Halluci Nation ) Lesson How to use compressors, makeup gain, sidechain compression and expanders. Wednesday : Samplers Listening Amon Tobin - Isam John Oswald - Plexure Lesson How to use samplers in conjunction with MIDI to sequence sounds.

Week 8: Using Recognizable Sources Monday : Working with Vocalists and Instrumentalists Listening Trevor Wishart - Red Bird Reading Emmerson, Simon. "The relation of language to materials." The Language of Electroacoustic Music . Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1986. 17-39. Further Reading Landy, Leigh. “Sound Transformations in Electroacoustic Music." ( http:// www.composersdesktop.com/landyeam.html ) 1991. Lesson How to structure a recording session with another sound-maker. 8 Wednesday : Critical Listening and Constructive Feedback, Edition #2 Miniature Composition #3 Due Lesson Students show their work, starting with those who didn’t get a chance last time. Aesthetics are discussed.

Week 9: Sound Design Monday : Foley-Inspired Recording Techniques Watching Apocalypse Now , opening scene Star Wars IV: A New Hope any lightsaber scene Reading Andersen, Martin Stig. “Electroacoustic Sound and Audiovisual Structure in Film.” eContact! 12.4 Lesson Students re-create the Star Wars lightsaber effect by re-recording loudspeakers with a moving microphone. They they then experiment with recording sounds in rhythm with previously-recorded audio and video. Wednesday : Class Discussion on Narrative in Electroacoustic Music Graphic Score Due Lesson and Assignment Students pair up to begin providing feedback, ideas, and, as-needed, encouragement on each others’ work-in-progress, to continue as the work progresses toward the course’s final composition.

Week 10: Spatialization Monday : Delay, Delay-Line Reverb, and Resonators Listening Kaija Saariaho - Stilleben Lesson A brief explanation of auditory scene analysis. Then students manipulate panning, early reflections and diffuse reflections on delay-line reverb units to create different spaces within their recordings. Wednesday : Convolution Reverb Listening Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room 8 Lesson Students using convolution both to situate sounds in spaces and cross-synthesize sounds in novel ways.

Week 11: Drones and Ambiances Monday : Granulation Listening Barry Truax - Riverrun Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works, Volume I Reading Roads, Curtis. "The perception of microsound and its musical implications." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 999.1 (2003): 272-281. Lesson How to manipulate a granulator (implemented in Max/MSP, although students do not need to know how to build one for themselves!). Wednesday : Time-Stretching, Pitch-Shifting and Transient Adjustment Lesson How to manipulate audio using non-real-time functions.

Week 12: Performance Monday : Wiring the Studio for a Multi-Channel Setup Listening Natasha Barrett - He Slowly Fell and Transformed into the Terrain Review Stockhausen, Karlheinz, and Jerome Kohl. "Electroacoustic performance practice." Perspectives of New Music (1996): 74-105. Lesson Students learn the steps in preparing a studio for multichannel performance, including how to connect (and strategies for debugging) the audio interface, mixing board, monitors and DAW. Wednesday : Diffusion Listening Robert Normandeau - Le renard et la rose Reading (skim) MacDonald, Alistair. "Performance practice in the presentation of electroacoustic music." Computer Music Journal 19.4 (1995): 88-92. Watching Nikos Stavropoulos Tames the B.E.A.S.T: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=f539DyZ_SkY Lesson Live diffusion practice! Students take drafts of their two-channel pieces to an eight- channel system and diffuse them live.

Week 13: Mastering Monday : Mastering Reading Katz, Bob. “Chapter 8: Equalization Techniques.” from Mastering Audio: The Art And Science . Focal Press (2015). Lesson How to set up a master channel. Wednesday : Setting Forth Assignment Final Concert Piece Submission Lesson Possibility #1 (if concert possible during exam period) Discussion of current topics in electroacoustic music, including video music and generative music. Lesson Possibility #2 (if concert not possible) A final showing-of-work from the students.

Final Paper Due During Exam Period page