Hearing Form in Phenomenological Music: An Analysis of Molly’s Song 3 – Shades of Crimson by Rebecca Saunders
Composition, Articles Joshua Rosner Composition, Articles Joshua Rosner

Hearing Form in Phenomenological Music: An Analysis of Molly’s Song 3 – Shades of Crimson by Rebecca Saunders

The music of Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967) is all but absent from theoretical and musicological discourse with the notable exceptions of two recent publications: Dubiel’s (2017) analysis of Crimson and McMullan-Glossop’s (2017) application of color theory terminology to describe Saunders’ timbral and textural approach to composition. An active composer since the early 1990s and the 2019 recipient of the Von Siemens Prize, Saunders’ work is written in a distinct idiom, drawing equally upon “postwar German fastidiousness and expressionism and experimental, Cageian concentration…” (Service, 2012). Her music is marked by the exploration of noise, pitch, and silence, the use of extended instrumental techniques, and uncommon combinations of instruments. Traditional music theoretical analytic techniques are insufficient to fully describe the prominent features of Saunders’ music: timbre, texture, noise, and silence. 

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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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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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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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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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Seven Beginnings
Articles, Research-Creation Jason Noble Articles, Research-Creation Jason Noble

Seven Beginnings

Seven Beginnings (2019), for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, and cello, was composed as a deliverable of my ACTOR postdoc. The piece builds upon the trend of speech transcription in recent music, with a focus on spectral transcription and cross-modal composition. But far from being a technical étude, it is a very personal piece with a very specific motivation behind its materials and methods.

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