Timbrenauts: Creative Explorations in Timbre Space
Project Reports Yuval Adler and Berk Schneider Project Reports Yuval Adler and Berk Schneider

Timbrenauts: Creative Explorations in Timbre Space

“Timbrenauts” is a cross-institutional collaborative student research-creation project. We employed experimental designs from timbre perception research to generate data models that will inform the creation of new musical compositions for an atypical instrumental duo of cello and trombone, while leveraging extended techniques rarely explored in traditional musical repertoire. In this TOR module, we discuss our motivations, data collection process, similarity judgment experiment, and the resulting data we want musicians to use as a basis for their creative output.

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Space as Timbre (SAT) Research-Creation Project Report
Project Reports, Research-Creation Pedram Diba et al Project Reports, Research-Creation Pedram Diba et al

Space as Timbre (SAT) Research-Creation Project Report

The primary objective of the Space As Timbre (SAT) project is to conduct meticulous experiments on orchestration solutions and playing techniques, to achieve timbral effects that closely approximate the perceptual characteristics of diverse acoustical spaces. To this end, SAT endeavors to illuminate the intricate interplay between the spectral content of a sound, its resynthesis through orchestration, and the resulting perception of the quality of the acoustical space where the sound seems to have been produced.

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Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Attributes to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning
Project Reports Jason Winikoff and Lena Heng Project Reports Jason Winikoff and Lena Heng

Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Attributes to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning

How do Luvale musicians tune their drums with heat and tuning paste? How does this tuning process change a drum’s timbre? How do practitioners describe these timbres? And what acoustic properties are encoded in these semantic, descriptive terms? In this collaborative and interdisciplinary module, we address these questions through the case study of a two-step tuning process among Luvale drummers in Zambia.

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Orchestrational narrative in Gustav Holst’s The Planets
Dialogues Kit Soden, Jade Roth, and Gemma New Dialogues Kit Soden, Jade Roth, and Gemma New

Orchestrational narrative in Gustav Holst’s The Planets

In this Dialogue, New discusss the unique instrumental combinations and timbres that Holst employs to evoke the distinct characteristics of each movement. She delves into the challenges of balancing the various sections of the orchestra, crafting effective phrasing, and interpreting the composer's intentions to create a cohesive and compelling performance.

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On Shaping Sound and Expressivity
Dialogues Stephen McAdams, Kit Soden, and Tianyi Lu Dialogues Stephen McAdams, Kit Soden, and Tianyi Lu

On Shaping Sound and Expressivity

Tianyi Lu shares her approach to conducting and the role of timbre and orchestration in evoking emotions and immersing audiences in the musical experience, offering a unique perspective on the art of conducting.

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Timbre, Style, and Musical Expression
Dialogues Stephen McAdams, Kent Nagano, et al Dialogues Stephen McAdams, Kent Nagano, et al

Timbre, Style, and Musical Expression

In this interview, Kent Nagano, then Artistic Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), shared his thoughts on the essential role of timbre in music, the power of imagination in interpreting scores, and the art of communicating musical ideas to the orchestra.

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The Composite Timbre of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Vocal and Instrumental Works Since the Sex Carmina Alcei
Articles Pierre Michel Articles Pierre Michel

The Composite Timbre of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Vocal and Instrumental Works Since the Sex Carmina Alcei

In the aftermath of World War Two, Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975) was famous for a few major works that conveyed a humanist message, particularly the Canti di Prigionia (1938-1941) and the opera Il Prigioniero (1944-1948), which rank among his better-known works to this day. The composer’s personality should, however, not be reduced to this one aspect of his output. Likewise, we should not merely see him as a practitioner of twelve-tone techniques inherited from Schoenberg and Webern, a facet that has been extensively explored by theoreticians and historians of music.

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Orchestration of Sonorities in Renaissance Polyphony
Amazing Moments in Timbre Ben Duinker Amazing Moments in Timbre Ben Duinker

Orchestration of Sonorities in Renaissance Polyphony

We might think about how a single voice part within a composition expresses a mode (one of the prevailing systems governing the organization of pitch in this period), or how multiple voice parts move against one another (counterpoint, from the Latin contrapunctus—literally means note-against-note), creating successions of intervals. This essay focuses on the amazing moments ensconced in those intervals: the way they are arranged, the spaces between them, and ultimately, the sonorities they create.

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Exploring the Alchemy of Orchestration: A Conversation
Dialogues Stephen McAdams and Roger Reynolds Dialogues Stephen McAdams and Roger Reynolds

Exploring the Alchemy of Orchestration: A Conversation

Roger Reynolds is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of music composition at the University of California, San Diego. In 1989, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the string orchestra composition, Whispers Out of Time. His more than 150 compositions have been exclusively published by Edition Peters New York for over five decades.

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Colour and Folklore  in Tailleferre’s Petite Suite
Dialogues Jade Roth and Nicolas Ellis Dialogues Jade Roth and Nicolas Ellis

Colour and Folklore in Tailleferre’s Petite Suite

Nicolas Ellis is Music Director of the Orchestre National de Bretagne, Principal Guest Conductor of Les Violons du Roy, as well as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Orchestre de l’Agora, which he founded in Montreal in 2013. Known for his versatility in a vast repertoire, Nicolas has distinguished himself with the Orchestre de l’Agora by the conception of concerts with a dramaturgical approach.

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The History and Future of the Tuba Family: Material-, Resonance-, and Performance-Based Perspectives
Articles Jack Adler-McKean Articles Jack Adler-McKean

The History and Future of the Tuba Family: Material-, Resonance-, and Performance-Based Perspectives

This paper proposes an examination of the intersections of materiality, acoustics, and musical performance practice through the prism of instruments of the tuba family. Investigation into the symbiotic relationship between instrumental evolution and performance practice is a crucial facet of any study of timbre and orchestration.

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A Quick Start Guide for Combining Electronic and Instrumental Orchestration
Project Reports Eliot Britton and Anthony Tan Project Reports Eliot Britton and Anthony Tan

A Quick Start Guide for Combining Electronic and Instrumental Orchestration

This module offers a streamlined resource for emerging composers seeking to introduce live electronics into their instrumental orchestration practice. Accessible and user-friendly software and hardware platforms offer a pathway for emerging or (technologically curious expert) composers to experiment with electronics in a low risk, low-cost context.

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Online Guide to Room Acoustics for Musicians
Project Reports Malte Kob Project Reports Malte Kob

Online Guide to Room Acoustics for Musicians

This project spurred the development of an internet-based guide for musicians that describes, in layperson terms, the fundamentals of acoustic features of musical instruments, stages, and performance/rehearsal rooms using visual and auditory examples. The guide also aims to explain what and how parameters can be assessed along with the audio recordings to document a musical performance.

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Dance and Timbral Exploration (DaTE)
Project Reports Athena Loredo, Bob Pritchard, and Keith Hamel Project Reports Athena Loredo, Bob Pritchard, and Keith Hamel

Dance and Timbral Exploration (DaTE)

The DaTE project investigated the use of dance tracking to control electroacoustic processing of acoustic timbres. To this end, the project involved a composer/ programmer, a dancer, a flautist, and a cellist, and used the UBC-developed Kinect Controlled Artistic Sensing System (KiCASS) to track the dancer and generate movement/position data. T

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The Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus
Project Reports Nicole Biamonte, Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Nicholas Shea, Matthew Zeller, Christopher William White, Jeremy Tatar, Jade Roth, and Kelsey Lussier Project Reports Nicole Biamonte, Lindsey Reymore, Ben Duinker, Leigh VanHandel, Nicholas Shea, Matthew Zeller, Christopher William White, Jeremy Tatar, Jade Roth, and Kelsey Lussier

The Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus

This project analyzes the understudied parameters of timbre and texture and their interactions with musical form in a new popular-music corpus, Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS). This study addresses two problems in popular-music scholarship: lack of research on timbre and texture, and underrepresentation of non-male and non-white artists in both popular music and its scholarship.

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Blend
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker

Blend

Blend is achieved when two or more timbres appear to “fuse” together. A particular blend of multiple timbres occupies a continuum between total fusion (completely blended) and total heterogeneity (not blended at all).

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Klangfarbenmelodie
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert

Klangfarbenmelodie

A compositional technique where a musical line or melody is split between several instruments, rather than being played by a single instrument. Each instrument plays a note or a short succession of notes, creating a continuous melody with a constantly changing timbre or "tone colour.”

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Masking
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker

Masking

Suppose you enter a restaurant with a friend, mid-conversation. As you enter, you are greeted by the background noise of other patrons’ conversations. You and your friend begin to speak louder so you can hear one another. You’ve just experienced masking, a very familiar yet fascinating phenomenon that many of us encounter every day without even noticing.

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Spectral Envelope
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert

Spectral Envelope

In the process of analyzing the spectrum of a sound, it is sometimes useful to describe its spectral properties in terms of energy distribution rather than individually mapping all its components. In so doing, we invoke the concept of spectral envelope, a curve that can be obtained by successively connecting the peaks of the partials shown in the frequency representation of the sound (i.e., with frequency on the x-axis and energy or amplitude on the y-axis). Spectral envelopes are important factors in timbre perception. They reflect the acoustic properties of an object that produces sound in terms of the energy distribution across the frequency spectrum.

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Spectrogram
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert and Ben Duinker

Spectrogram

Just as a frequency spectrum makes it possible to analyze the partials and noise components that make up a sound, a spectrogram can be used to visualize the evolution of these components of a sound over time. The first modern device able to produce such a representation of sound was the “sound spectrograph,” developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1940s [1]. A spectrogram has a very intuitive way of displaying its parameters. Just as in a musical score, time is represented on the x-axis, frequency on the y-axis, and energy/amplitude is determined by the intensity/hue of the colors.

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Timbre Space
Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert Timbre Lingo, Essays Amélie Bernier-Robert

Timbre Space

A sound’s timbre can be represented by a point inside a conceptual timbre space, a space where the axes are usually defined by the principal attributes (e.g., spectral centroid, attack time) that one would implicitly use to perceive or conceive any timbre in a given context. Timbre spaces are obtained using a statistical method called multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), which generates a simplified multidimensional map from a series of perceptual distances between pairs of timbres (as measured in perceptual experiments). The experimenter then deduces the attributes (acoustic descriptors) that best describe the axes obtained. Timbre spaces provide us with complementary information to the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of timbre perception, and can also be a very useful compositional tool.

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Path of Miracles - A Multitrack Recording in 3D Audio
Project Reports Martha de Francisco Project Reports Martha de Francisco

Path of Miracles - A Multitrack Recording in 3D Audio

In late August of 2022, the rich sonority of the historical Chapelle du Grand Séminaire de Montréal presented the acoustical canvas for a multifaceted choral recording and research project. Under the baton of Andrew Gray, Montreal choir Voces Boreales performed Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles for mixed chorus (2005) and percussion, a musical pilgrimage for 17 voices, inspired by the millennial Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

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Icicle — Robert Aitken
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Kelsey Lussier Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Kelsey Lussier

Icicle — Robert Aitken

Icicle (1977) for solo flute, by Canadian composer, conductor, and flautist Robert Aitken, captures a quintessentially winter soundscape with its highly variable timbral palette. Audible right from the beginning of Nina Assimakopoulos’s 2021 recording, Icicle is saturated with timbres that evoke such cold, wintry imagery as glistening icicles and blowing snow. The wintry timbres in Icicle are created by various extended playing techniques.

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Tension and the Cello — Kaija Saariaho’s Petals
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Sheanna Wirasinghe Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Sheanna Wirasinghe

Tension and the Cello — Kaija Saariaho’s Petals

Kaija Saariaho’s Petals (1988) transforms the cello into a diverse musical instrument capable of creating countless varying sounds. Her organization of sounds produces two distinct timbral profiles that alter throughout the work, governing its two-part structure. Different music variables, including temporal perception, sound characteristics, spectral density, and attack, are employed by each profile to construct several binaries that either produce a state of tension or relaxation. The superimposition of profiles towards the end of Petals begets the work’s climax by maximizing tension. Saariaho therefore develops a narrative that explores opposing approaches to the creation and dissolution of tension through timbre.

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Death, Sex, and the Semitone in Monteverdi’s “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo”
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays J Marchand Knight Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays J Marchand Knight

Death, Sex, and the Semitone in Monteverdi’s “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo”

In this edition of Amazing Moments in Timbre, I will explore the timbral representation of sex (and maybe death) in “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo,” the final love duet between Poppea and Nerone in Monteverdi’s opera (on a libretto by Busenello), L’incoronazzione di Poppea. Martha C. Nussbaum, in Upheavals in Thought (2012), describes the duet as “an extraordinary depiction of lovemaking,” presumably in part because of the tension and release created by the numerous harmonic clashes and resolutions in the piece. Meanwhile, music librarian and blogger Pessimisissimo interprets the dissonance as follows:

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Passaggio and Register in the Singing Voice
Timbre Lingo, Essays J Marchand Knight Timbre Lingo, Essays J Marchand Knight

Passaggio and Register in the Singing Voice

Passaggio, an Italian word translating to passage or transition, is the bane of many a classical singer and the secret weapon of folk-inspired vocalists like Dolores O’Riordan, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan. In English we often refer to this as “the break.” One of the main goals of classical vocal technique is smoothing out register breaks. This requires finesse, patience, and perseverance. It is a process that cannot be rushed because singing in the passaggio for extended periods of time can mentally and physically tax even experienced singers, causing serious vocal fatigue.

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A Taxonomy of Orchestral Grouping Effects Derived from Principles of Auditory Perception
Reprints Stephen McAdams et al Reprints Stephen McAdams et al

A Taxonomy of Orchestral Grouping Effects Derived from Principles of Auditory Perception

An analysis of orchestration treatises and musical scores reveals an implicit understanding of auditory grouping principles by which many orchestration techniques give rise to predictable perceptual effects. We present a novel theory formalized in a taxonomy of devices related to auditory grouping principles that appear frequently in Western orchestration practices from a range of historical epochs.

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The Alchemical Wedding — Liza Lim
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Linglan Zhu Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Linglan Zhu

The Alchemical Wedding — Liza Lim

In The Alchemical Wedding (1996), for large ensemble, Australian composer Liza Lim seeks contact points between “seemingly disparate musical entities” (1996)—a pursuit reflected in the work’s title. This virtual contact is evidenced by the work’s peculiar instrumentation, where the Chinese Er-hu and Indonesian Angklung are pitted against a large Western ensemble. Reflecting the cultural fusion of composer’s upbringing between Australia and various Asian countries, The Alchemical Wedding represents a marriage of musical possibilities through the collision of Asian and Western instruments and aesthetics.

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Pour l’image — Philippe Hurel
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Linglan Zhu Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Linglan Zhu

Pour l’image — Philippe Hurel

The opening section of the ensemble piece Pour l’image by Philippe Hurel is underpinned by a series of orchestration approaches that work in concert to generate large-scale musical transition. The first prominent transition happens in the first 15 measures, traversing from a complex timbral agglomerate to a transparent polyphonic texture. The second transition happens in mm. 22-45 where a harmonically and timbrally dissonant texture gradually condenses into a passage of consonant chordal echoes.

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Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP) Interactive Project Report
Project Reports, Research-Creation Musicians Auditory Perception Research Team Project Reports, Research-Creation Musicians Auditory Perception Research Team

Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP) Interactive Project Report

The purpose of the Musician’s Auditory Perception (MAP) project is to collect qualitative data via sonic ethnography in order to promote and analyze, both literally and metaphorically, (a) sonic collaboration between auditory learners, (b) modes of sound information gathering, and (c) the creative expression of musicians, while disrupting common pedagogic methods that reinforce hierarchical education practices.

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Masque de Fer: Extended Drum Kit Techniques Module
Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Martin Daigle & Gabriel Couturier

Masque de Fer: Extended Drum Kit Techniques Module

"Masque de fer" (Iron Mask) is a module for exploring extended techniques on the drum kit, created by Gabriel Couturier and Martin Daigle who were awarded the ACTOR Project’s Collaborative Student Project Grant. The recording session generated an open-access extended technique resource that includes a stereo mix, the entire recording session, and the stems in 96 kHz or in 48 kHz. This session was filmed from the first-person point of view to allow researchers and composers to step into the world of the drum kit performer. This tool will allow composers to familiarize themselves with the sound possibilities which are presented in the research.

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The many facets of musical listening: Auditory perception mechanisms and learned experiences
Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang Project Reports, Collaborative Student Project Lena Heng & Mengqi Wang

The many facets of musical listening: Auditory perception mechanisms and learned experiences

Composers make use of their knowledge of different orchestration techniques in creating certain effects and sonic outcomes. These effects may be comprehended by listeners to a greater or lesser extent depending on the amount of shared understanding with the musical tradition, style of music, and other factors. In this project, we look at how the success of these effects depends on both prior knowledge and experience, and how they are perceivable by listeners. Successful orchestration is built upon the fact that regardless of the instruments used or the musical or cultural connotations of the music, they adhere to universal mechanisms of auditory perception and cognition.

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Vibrato
Timbre Lingo, Essays Theodora Nestorova Timbre Lingo, Essays Theodora Nestorova

Vibrato

Sound is vibration! Repeated, continuous vibration of the air creates sustained sounds. Within sustained sounds, vibration modulations are a natural component of both vocal and instrumental music. Patterns of vibration modulations are perceived by the human ear, and we call them vibrato. Vibrato is commonly accepted to be a distinctive feature of musical sound, inextricably tied to artistic expression and timbre.

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Timbre as an Impassioned Argument: Maconchy’s String Quartet No. 10
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Carter Miller Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Carter Miller

Timbre as an Impassioned Argument: Maconchy’s String Quartet No. 10

In a brief article from 1971, British composer Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–94) stated that the string quartet is “above all best suited to the expression of the kind of music I want to write – music as an impassioned argument.” Maconchy’s highly dissonant String Quartet No. 10 (1972) exemplifies this compositional philosophy.

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Cinq danses profanes et sacrées — Henri Tomasi
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Annie Liu Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Annie Liu

Cinq danses profanes et sacrées — Henri Tomasi

The sound of today’s bassoon far exceeds the range and intensity of its ancestors, and recent music written for the bassoon has increased in variety and complexity accordingly. Extended techniques for bassoon, including multiphonics and timbral trills, create entirely new and almost uncharacteristic timbres, ones that listeners cannot even identify as bassoon sounds. Thus, the timbral lexicon for bassoon could use some updates.

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Cellophane — FKA twigs
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Nicholas Burton Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Nicholas Burton

Cellophane — FKA twigs

A tragic ode to perseverance and rebirth, “Cellophane” tackles the intense emotions of a public celebrity romance scrutinized by online critics. In “Cellophane,” repetitive lyrical content such as “didn’t I do it for you?” express twigs’s disbelief in her own crumbling relationship while other lyrics (e.g., “they want to see us, want to see us apart”) relate to the taxing nature of online comments.

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Musical collaborations, timbre, and recorded sound
Dialogues Viktor Lazarov and Martha de Francisco Dialogues Viktor Lazarov and Martha de Francisco

Musical collaborations, timbre, and recorded sound

The piano sound that we hear on a recording is a combination of the pianist’s performance, the characteristic sounds of the instrument, and the context of the space where it is recorded, to which the pianist is constantly reacting. The recording philosophy that is applied is an additional factor that contributes to the overall impression.

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Technology and Timbre
Articles, Research-Creation Jorge Ramos Articles, Research-Creation Jorge Ramos

Technology and Timbre

Moving Sources explores the relationship between instrumental orchestration and electronics primarily through the means of spectral analysis and subsequent electronic-informed timbre-blending techniques such as filtering, reverberation, granular synthesis, pitch freezing, envelope generators, noise, delays and spatialization.

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Koan — James Tenney
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Chris Lortie and Yuval Adler Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Chris Lortie and Yuval Adler

Koan — James Tenney

In 1971, American composer James Tenney wrote the solo violin piece Koan as part of his Postal Pieces. The score is contained entirely on a postcard consisting of only seven measures. A string quartet arrangement of Koan, written by Tenney in 1984, retains the original violin line but adds a further harmonic context in the remaining three instruments.

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The "Paradoxical Complexity" of Sound Masses
Articles, Research-Creation Jason Noble Articles, Research-Creation Jason Noble

The "Paradoxical Complexity" of Sound Masses

Beginning with simple elements of sound, composers can use their expertise to craft compositional systems that may be enormously complex and far beyond the comprehension of most listeners. But by the end, I think it is a magical thing if it comes around to become perceptually simple again: a musical organism with processes, gestures, and gestalts that are readily appreciated and comprehended.

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different forms of phosphorus — Karola Obermüller
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Lindsey Reymore Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Lindsey Reymore

different forms of phosphorus — Karola Obermüller

Jaqueline Leclair’s album Music for English Horn Alone, released in October 2020, represents a landmark for the versatile—but often underestimated—English horn. In particular, the album showcases the colorful timbral palette of the instrument through both traditional modes of playing and extended techniques. This is the first part of two blogs addressing pieces on Leclair’s new album.

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Instrumental synthesis
Timbre Lingo, Essays Julie Delisle Timbre Lingo, Essays Julie Delisle

Instrumental synthesis

Instrumental synthesis is a technique for composition and orchestration first developed in the 1970s. It is a founding principle of French spectral music, represented at that time mainly by the composers Tristan Murail, Hugues Dufourt, and Gérard Grisey. This type of compositional process could not have existed without the technological progress in musical acoustics made in the previous decades…

La synthèse instrumentale est une technique d’écriture et d’orchestration développée principalement dans les années 1970-1980. C’est le principe fondateur du courant de la musique spectrale, né en France et principalement représenté par les compositeurs Tristan Murail, Hugues Dufourt et Gérard Grisey à cette époque. Ce procédé compositionnel n’aurait pas pu exister sans les progrès technologiques en acoustique des dernières décennies.

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