CORE Seminar Syllabus
This page contains the information about the seminar titled: MUGS 675D1/D2-001 Composer-Performer Orchestration Research Ensemble
Instructors: Prof. Stephen McAdams, Prof. Guillaume Bourgogne
Course Objectives: Over the course of this seminar, composers and performers will work together collaboratively and interactively to conceive of and solve orchestration-related problems for the specified acoustic ensemble of violin, bass clarinet, trombone, vibraphone and small percussion (no electroacoustics). Orchestration is taken in its broadest sense of the selection, combination and juxtaposition of sounds to achieve a specific sonic goal. The first main aim is to draw from each other's imaginations and expertise to create and perform one musical étude for each composer. There are no restrictions on style. The second main aim is to learn something about perceptual principles underlying orchestration practice and its realization in performance. An interactive inquiry-based learning approach is adopted in this course: students are expected to be proactive and to discover, create, and communicate knowledge on their own to the benefit of the whole class.
Content: The course will be organized in four phases.
The Introductory Phase will introduce the ACTOR project (Analysis, Creation, and
Teaching of Orchestration) and will cover the perception of timbre and the role of perceptual organization in successfully realizing specific orchestration aims. Specific issues in the performance and composition of music for the specified ensemble will also be raised.
In the Exploration Phase composers and performers will present seed ideas for artistic projects and a series of workshops will allow for interactive experimentation to refine the ideas and begin developing musical materials and appropriate notations.
In the interactive workshops of the Problem-solving Phase, composers will work directly with sections of their pieces and receive feedback from the performers and other composers.
The Realization Phase will involve refinement and rehearsal of the full pieces, which are expected to be about 8-10 minutes in duration.
The structure of each interactive workshop session in the Exploration and Problem-solving phases is to be decided on collectively by performers and composers.
Video recordings of the workshops and video interviews with the participants will allow for subsequent analysis in the ACTOR project.
The final output of the course is a concert of the études and a short, written paper of 5-10 pages double spaced on each person's experience of the whole process.
Additional considerations: The perceptual results of orchestration are highly dependent on how musicians interpret and realize them, the spatial positioning of instruments and the acoustics of the space in which they are heard. Musicians adjust relative levels, intonation, timing, and the timbre of their instruments to achieve or avoid blending together, to enhance or minimize distinction between different musical lines, or to reinforce or diminish contrasts, depending on the musical context. Performance studies thus need to be at the heart of the study of orchestration practice. The goals of the ACTOR project include studying composers’ and performers’ use of timbre in music performance as a means of musical expression, as well as characterizing how orchestration effects related to perceptual grouping are represented in scores, conceived and communicated to performers by conductors, and then achieved by performers and music producers through rehearsal and mixing. The intellectual and artistic contribution of both performers and composers are essential to improving the research work that is currently being done on orchestration, and through this course you can add to new knowledge and practice.
The differences in timbre, dynamics, and power among these instruments present a great deal of potential for exploration, but also many challenges to be dealt with.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructors.
Method and evaluation: One and half hours of lecture, discussion, workshop or rehearsal per week.
Grades will be based on:
1. active participation in classes and attendance [25%],
2. a short, written report and in-class oral presentation [10%] and submission of an annotated bibliography of relevant instrumental techniques and/or orchestration issues [5%] (end of Fall semester),
2. participation in video interviews [10%],
3. quality of the performances or compositions up to March 13, 2020 [40%]
4. a short, written paper [10%].
Expectations concerning evaluated components:
1. Participation in classes and attendance: Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. Absence without a valid excuse (doctor's note, death certificate, etc.) will result in subtraction of 3 points out of 100 of final grade for each session missed. Active participation is expected.
2. Written report and oral presentation: [Due 27 November, 6pm] For composers, a short, written report of 4-6 double-spaced pages should clearly lay out a proposal describing their compositional intentions for their piece and the annotated bibliography should include relevant technical references for this artistic goal. For performers, this report of 4-6 double-spaced pages should take stock of how the interaction with composers has pushed them to explore new techniques on their instruments and to consider the issues of achieving collective orchestration goals with the other players. Each student will make a 10-minute oral report of their impressions of the collaborative exercise and suggestions for how it might be improved for the second semester, to be discussed collectively.
3. Annotated bibliography: [Due 27 November, 6pm] Each student should compile a bibliography of 5-10 relevant texts that they have found on instrumental techniques and orchestration issues relevant to the issues addressed in class and briefly annotate each entry in terms of what they found useful or not in it.
4. Video interviews: Students will be interviewed and filmed over the course of the seminar to track how the collective approach works and to track the evolution of everyone's thinking about the orchestration problems being addressed and their potential solutions.
5. Quality of performances or compositions: This component will be judged on the basis of scores and the rehearsals up to March 13, 2020 for composers and of the performances for performers based on in-class rehearsals up to March 13, 2020.
6. Written paper: [Due 14 April] A short paper of 5-10 pages double-spaced describing what the interactive process brought to you as a musician, how it changed your thinking about what orchestration involves, what new ideas it gave rise to in your mind. We are looking for your personal response to this adventure, which will help us adjust future versions of it.
7. Out of class time: It is expected that individual and collective activities will continue outside of class time to ensure that the final results are of the highest artistic quality.
Course Outline
(Professors McAdams and Bourgogne reserve the right to change the schedule as a function of the flow of discussion and the needs of the class. The class will be informed as changes occur.)
FALL 2019 SEMESTER
Introduction phase [sessions for Weeks 1, 2, 4, 6 will be combined McGill/UdeM]
Week 1 - Sept 6: Introduction: The ACTOR Project, aims and process of the course [Stephen McAdams]
Week 2 - Sept. 13: Compositional issues in timbre and orchestration [Pierre Michaud, Jason Noble]
Week 3 - Sept. 20: Presentation by composers on potential seed ideas for projects [performers should bring their instruments]
[video interviews with composers in Week 3]
Week 4 - Sept. 27: Perceptual issues in timbre and orchestration [Caroline Traube, Stephen McAdams]
Week 5 - Oct. 4: Presentation by performers on potential seed ideas for projects [video interviews with performers in Week 5]
Week 6 - Oct. 11: Performance issues in timbre and orchestration [Guillaume Bourgogne, Jean- Michaël Lavoie, Julie Delisle]
Exploration phase
Week 7 - Oct. 18: Sound and gesture exploration using Thoresen's aural sonology notation. Weeks 8-12 - Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22: Workshops with performers and composers (some
sessions will concern all three composers and others will focus on single composers for more in-depth work)
[video interviews with performers and composers in Weeks 11 and 12 - cancelled in Fall 2019]
Week 13 - Nov. 29 In-class presentation of preliminary oral reports and discussion of process and discoveries. Submission of annotated bibliography of instrumental techniques on myCourses.
WINTER 2020 SEMESTER
Problem-solving phase
Weeks 14-19 - Jan. 10, 17, 24, 31, Feb. 7, 14: Workshops with performers and composers (some sessions will concern all three composers and others will focus on single composers for more in-depth work) [maybe alternating sessions with recording and then listening and discussing] [video interviews in Weeks 18 and 19]
Realization phase
Week 20-22 - Feb. 21, 28, Mar. 13, 20, 27, Apr. 3: Rehearsals with composers (some sessions will concern all three composers and others will focus on single composers for more in-depth work). Completed scores are due on March 7th, for sharing with the other four CORE groups in participating universities (UMontréal, UToronto, UBC, UCSD).
[video interviews in Weeks 25 and 26]
Week 26 - Apr. 8: Concert 1 at McGill, MMR, dress rehearsal 10:00am-12:00pm, concert 7:30pm
– Apr. 14: submission of final paper
– Apr. 15: Concert 2 at UMontréal, Salle Serge-Garant, dress rehearsal 4:30-7:30pm, concert 7:30pm