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City Research Online City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Bell, Jonathan (2016). Audio-scores, a resource for composition and computer- aided performance. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Guildhall School of Music and Drama) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/17285/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Audio-Scores: A Resource for Composition and Computer-Aided Performance Jonathan Bell Final submission DMus February 2016 ii Abstract This submission investigates computer-aided performances in which musicians receive auditory information via earphones. The interaction between audio-scores (musical material sent through earpieces to performers) and visual input (musical notation) changes the traditional relationship between composer, conductor, performer and listener. Audio-scores intend to complement and transform the printed score. They enhance the accuracy of execution of difficult rhythmic or pitch relationships, increase the specificity of instructions given to the performer (for example, in the domain of timbre), and may elicit original and spontaneous responses from the performer in real-time. The present research is inspired by, and positions itself within traditional European notational practices. Through a reflection on the nature and function of notation in a variety of repertoires, this study examines how my own compositional research – and its reliance on audio-scores — relates to and differs from the models considered. Following the realisation of pieces investigating complex rhythms and the use of recorded samples as borrowed/found material, results have proven to be highly effective with a group of vocalists, with works in which audio-scores facilitated the precise realisation of microtonal material. Audio-scores also proved particularly useful in site- specific ‘immersive’ concerts/installations. In these settings, audio-scores mitigate challenges associated with placing musicians at an unusual distances from one another, e.g. around the audience. This submission constitutes an original contribution to knowledge in the field of computer-aided performance in that it demonstrates how musical notation and current ubiquitous audio technologies may be used in tandem in the conception and performance of new works. Recent findings include a Web application currently being developed at IRCAM. The application is based on a local server and allows the synchronous delivery of audio/screen-scores via the browser of the performers’ smarphones, tablets, or computers. Keywords: audio-score, click track, composition, computer- aided performance, earpiece, microtonality, music, notation, performance, screen-score, server, voice. iii iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. xiv 1 NOTATION ................................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Notation and composition-centred practices .................................................... 6 1.1.1 The influence of notation on composition in its historical context ................ 6 1.1.2 Meta-music, composition-centred abstract systems ............................................ 7 1.1.3 On the role of intuition in my own practice ........................................................... 10 1.1.4 Notation as transcription ............................................................................................... 12 1.2 Performance-centric notational practice ......................................................... 12 1.2.1 Limits of composition as transcription .................................................................... 12 1.2.2 Lattice/continuum ............................................................................................................ 13 1.2.3 Tablature .............................................................................................................................. 15 1.2.4 ‘Transparent notation’ versus performance, text versus script ................... 17 1.2.5 The status of notation after the decline of the Urtext paradigm ................... 19 1.3 Aspects of the function of notation ..................................................................... 21 1.3.1 In my own work ................................................................................................................. 21 1.3.2 Notation: resemblance versus representation ..................................................... 22 1.3.3 Rhythmic notation and meaningful ambiguity .................................................... 26 2 MORTON FELDMAN, BRIAN FERNEYHOUGH: .............................................. 31 Two significant influences .................................................................................... 31 2.1 A comparative study ................................................................................................ 31 2.2 Feldman and Ferneyhough, two antitheses sharing common values inherited from the post-war avant-garde ............................................................... 32 2.3 Relationships between material, duration and form ................................... 33 2.3.1 Feldman and the notion of scale ................................................................................. 34 2.3.2 Ferneyhough’s perpetual short-term articulation .............................................. 36 2.3.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 36 2.4 Generated/found material .................................................................................... 37 2.5 Compositional systems and free choice ............................................................ 38 2.5.1 Ferneyhough’s approach ............................................................................................... 38 2.5.2 Feldman’s approach ......................................................................................................... 40 2.6 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 41 3 AUDIO-SCORES: A HISTORICAL SURVEY ....................................................... 43 3.1 Development of the score ...................................................................................... 43 3.2 When notation pushes the limits of what is realisable ................................ 43 3.3 Conceiving a click track: Berlioz, Carl Stalling, Emmanuel Ghent ........... 45 3.4 Different Types of Auditory Signals ................................................................... 46 3.4.1 Synchronisation with video .......................................................................................... 46 3.4.2 Synchronisation with fixed-media ............................................................................. 47 3.4.3 Synchronisation between performers ..................................................................... 47 3.4.4 Spatial separation ............................................................................................................. 48 3.4.5 Performing without a score .......................................................................................... 48 3.4.6 Microtonality ....................................................................................................................... 49 v 3.4.7 Material generated through spontaneous responses of the performer .... 51 4 RHYTHMIC INVESTIGATIONS .......................................................................... 55 4.1 Three Painted Walls and a Marble Ground (2014) ......................................... 55 4.1.1 Relation to painting, drawing upon extra-musical sources ............................ 55 4.1.2 Placement in the performance space and technical requirements ............. 56 4.1.3 Rhythmic hoquetus inherited from medieval music. ......................................... 58 4.1.4 Rhythmic fundaments ..................................................................................................... 59 4.1.5 Score and parts ................................................................................................................... 59 4.1.6 Tempo fluctuations ........................................................................................................... 61 4.1.7 Loops and their development ...................................................................................... 61 4.1.8 Three Painted Walls and a
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