Re-Performance Project Archival Methodologies
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ELECTRONIC MUSIC IS HERE comparatively extremely recent times, this thinking is supported by a project TO STAY – OR IS IT? while also nodding to earlier electronic undertaken by IRCAM and McGill Meg Travers, Western Australian musicians and composers by blending University [5]. These objects might Academy of Performing Arts, Edith later pieces with earlier ones. include: audio files, video files, Cowan University, Perth, Western The pieces were chosen from the composition notes, recordings of the Australia, Australia. electronic-industrial genre, and are work (both audio and video), details on E-mail: <[email protected]>. primarily by SPK, an Australian sound generation methods (including electronic/industrial band formed in the synthesized or physical sound sources) Dr Cat Hope, Western Australian late 1970s and noted in more recent and most importantly, details of any real- Academy of Performing Arts, Edith times due to the success of the group’s time processing, such that it might be re- Cowan University, Perth, Western mainstay, Graeme Revell, as a film developed in a later contemporary Australia, Australia. soundtrack composer after the band’s technology whilst retaining the same E-mail: <[email protected]>. dissolution [1]. The selection of SPK functionality. was not based on the considered For the composers of the mid to late Abstract “significance” of their work, but on other twentieth century, these issues are Musical composers frequently make use of new criteria. Firstly, that this was an compounded further by their temporal technologies in instrumentation. Whilst orchestral Australian group was deemed important, location on the cusp of the digital traditions remain strong and the instruments viable, what of the works of composers of electronic music as little literature exists on Australian revolution. These musicians used where the sound sources have fallen into disrepair, electronic music [2]. Second, the study analogue and early digital electronic obsolescence, or modern technology has changed required that the group be defunct, so devices as part of their sonic palette, and the sound so that it bears no relation to the original? that no developments of the technology the archiving of these objects is more Beyond collections of manuscripts and recordings, used for the performance of the music akin to museology than musicology. the practicalities of the re-performance of electronic had been undertaken. Nonetheless, as Much of the work already done on the music compositions have not been widely discussed, and no methodology for archiving the time passes and a new generation of preservation of twentieth century artefacts for re-performability exists. In time, as composers and performers continue to electronic music, such as the MUSTICA greater importance is placed on these works, the issue will become more difficult to retrospectively develop from these roots, ongoing music project [6], is principally related to the resolve. and technology developments may preservation of software, rather than demonstrate the artistic significance of hardware sound sources, digital data Keywords: electronic music, archiving, this genre in music history. rather than analogue. preservation, complex objects. The end result of the project was a As with the preservation of digital performance of a number of SPK’s data, three principal methodologies are works to an audience which included available for the archiving of Re-performance Project people who had seen SPK perform live electronically encoded information: Historically informed performance bases in the past, as well as others familiar • Migration – the migration of its credibility on three main tenets – with the genre. the digital artifacts to current • period instruments and playing technology. In a musical technique offer a different Archival Methodologies context, this might include timbral content to modern Studies in the field of archiving have sampling original instruments equivalents; long been considered purely as and sound sources as well as • this is structural to the culture methodologies of arranging history, but porting software source code to around the composer, no less more recently are interpreted as “a a new platform. important than the musical dialogue between the present and the • Emulation – running obsolete content; past” [3]. This concept is a key one in software in emulation or as • incorporating these features the interpretation of old technologies virtual systems on current rather than presenting the piece into a contemporary context, and digital hardware. This in context with the current requires an understanding of the cultural methodology would allow for sounds and culture results in a technological context, as well as desired the creation of analogue stronger performance. outcomes of the creator. Preserving the electronic instruments on ability to re-perform works, and not contemporary digital platforms, To understand what is required to simply the output of performance (such including emulated vintage successfully re-perform electronic music as scores and recordings), is the major synthesizers. that is even only a handful of decades element of the archiving, curation and • Re-interpretation – taking the old, an attempt needs to be made to re- preservation of the performing arts [4]. essence of the digital perform these works, one which involves For twentieth century works, the information and reconstructing investigating the sounds within the process of preserving the performability a version of it from that subset music, the sound sources and their of these compositions is complex, of data. This method could see construction, and testing digital involving not only electronic instruments the creation of “remixed” archiving methodologies to re-create of many varieties, but also computer versions of compositions – a them using contemporary technology. media, hardware and software, for later popular contemporary method, This paper outlines such a project. It composers working digitally. Giaretta with successful recordings takes a technical and practical look at the has proposed that each “object” that is released of remixes of digital curation requirements of part of the composition, or assists in composers such as Steve Reich electronic instruments and sound sources providing context to the work, would and Philip Glass. using music primarily from the 1980s – need to be identified and preserved, and Please reference as: [Author(s)-of-paper] (2013) [Title-of-paper] in Cleland, K., Fisher, L. & Harley, R. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium of Electronic Art, ISEA2013, Sydney. http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/9475 Page numbering begins at 1 at the start of the paper. Each of the methodologies requires a vintage instruments to sample within Instrumentation and Musicians specific set of materials available to Western Australia were fruitless, so the Industrial musicians have often enable their success. The principal issue Migration methodology could not be described their compositional process in for this project is that of the lack of investigated. Instead, pieces were terms of the equipment they use [9]. documentation on the specifics of performed using Emulation and Re- Tracing the instruments used by SPK instrumentation used by SPK for their interpretation methods. This was was not as simple as referencing their recordings and live performances. Whilst extremely unfortunate, as it has left the own documentation however, as little problematic, it is also not an unusual method recommended in historically exists today. situation with compositions of this genre, informed performance uninvestigated. It was clear from listening to and and provided a testing ground for the However it does highlight the potential viewing live and studio recordings by creation of sound sources by ear rather difficulties in practice of authentically SPK that they made use of a variety of than authentic archival sources. This re-staging a piece of electronic music instrumentation – from very differs from a project undertaken in 2005 from only 30 years ago. contemporary (at the time) analogue to convert the works of composer The value of following the Migration synthesizers and the first commercially Jonathan Harvey from hardware methodology was illustrated in 2008, available digital sampler, to found and instruments into software equivalents. In when composer Marc-André Dalbavie built “junk” percussion. Their live show that instance the composer was able to was faced with the difficulties associated also featured electric bass guitar (though provide details on the sound source with attempting a re-performance of his this is not apparent in their recordings). hardware and configuration, leading to Ars Electronica prize winning piece Little documentation exists on the specific software being found or Diadémes from 1986. Dalbavie specifics of SPK’s electronic instruments developed to produce virtualized discovered that the absence of a working beyond some references to their use of performance instruments [7]. Yamaha TX 816 synthesizer and the lack the EMS Synthi [10], but aural and Whilst Giaretta in Advanced Digital of suitability of the software emulators, visual investigation of their recorded Preservation describes a model using almost prevented the work from ever output provided enough information to migration as the sole strategy for the being presented as anything other than a identify their principle equipment. Video successful archiving