Controllers as Musical Instruments, Controllerism as Musical Practice – Practices of a new 21st Century musical culture – Guillermo de Llera Blanes Dissertação em Ciências Musicais na especialidade de EtnomusicoloGia , A , CAL CULTURE PRACTICES OF 2017 Guillermo de Llera Blanes CONTROLLERS AS MUSICAL 21ST CENTURY ,MUSI INSTRUMENTS, CONTROLLERISM AS MUSICAL PRACITCE, Setembro, 2017 1 Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Musicais, especialidade de Etnomusicologia, realizada sob a orientação científica do Professor Doutor João Soeiro de Carvalho. 2 Dedicated to my promised one and to the little Controllerists at home. Acknowledgements It is with the utmost gratitude that I thank my brother, the anthropologist Ruy Blanes for his unwavering support, sympathetic guidance and most of all, his humor. His knowledge was a lifeline, for I could always count on his informed opinion, but his greatest aid was in letting me make my own mistakes, and then hinting at various ways to resolve them. It showed me that he was convinced that I was capable of finding my way out of the dead ends, and would overcome the trials and tribulations of writing a thesis. Thank you for believing in me, my brother. To my dear advisor, professor João Soeiro de Carvalho, I have nothing but words of gratitude. You showed unbridled gusto in my research and helped me trod along with unending patience, aware of my limitations in time, experience and knowledge. It was with great delight that I experienced our joint (ad)venture, and I am indebted to you for your kindness, your wisdom and your empathy. I extend my appreciation to professor Salwa Castelo-Branco for teaching me about the importance of adding value to the field and taking risks in my research. It ‘struck a chord’ with me, and convinced me that work valuable to the field, was work well done. I also extend my gratitude to professor Paula Gomes Ribeiro whose interest in my work was instrumental in convincing me of its worth. To Yannick, Joep and José, I thank you for your participation in this thesis, and wish you well in your musical journeys. To Batida and Jùjú; two ‘birds of a feather’, it was with the greatest of pleasures that I lived our time together, and I take solace in knowing that we will share many more. To all others who have had a part - great or small - in the course of this thesis, you have given me much; and I thank you. 3 Abstract Controllers as Musical Instruments, Controllerism as Musical Practice – Practices of a new 21st Century musical culture – Guillermo de Llera Blanes Keywords: technicity, authenticity, appropriation, musical flow, electronic music, cross-cultural processes, globalization This thesis consists of an ethnomusicological approach to the development of Controllers as musical instruments, and conceptualizes Controllerism as a musical practice. I make a case for a revision in organology that includes Controllers, and other instruments of the computer society, by seeking out commonalities and providing comparative analyses between historical instruments and modern Controllers. I then provide definitions of the term Controllerism; by discussing its origins, history, musical logics, strains of musical practice, and current technological explorations. By situating the Controller and Controllerism in a cultural and historical timeline, I have traced informing logics that have led to the development of this new instrument and musical practice. Ethnography has been undertaken with informants from Europe, America and Japan in order to ascertain generalized understandings of the instrument and musical practice; and participatory action research undergone in three separate artist residencies with the intent of determining common perspectives and concerns of international Controllerists. A Portuguese case-study has provided a unique glimpse, by comparison, of this emerging art-form and growing mind-set in modern music. Esta tese é uma aproximação etnomusicológica ao desenvolvimento dos controladores como instrumentos musicais, e conceitualiza o chamado Controllerism como uma prática musical. Defendo a ideia de uma revisão no campo da organologia que inclua os controladores e outros instrumentos da computer society, procurando pontos em comum e providenciando análises comparativas entre instrumentos históricos e controladores modernos. Apresentarei definições do termo Controllerism; discutindo as suas origens, história, lógicas musicais, vertentes de prática musical, e as atuais explorações tecnológicas. Situando o controlador e o Controllerism numa linhagem cultural e histórica, identifico as lógicas que levaram ao desenvolvimento deste novo instrumento e desta nova prática musical. Para tal, elaborei uma etnografia com informantes da Europa, América e Japão com o objetivo de compreender noções comuns sobre o instrumento e a prática musical; fiz também pesquisa participativa em três residências artísticas, com a intenção de determinar perspetivas e preocupações comuns entre Controllerists internacionais. Finalmente, através de um estudo de caso em Portugal, providencio uma visão única, comparativamente falando, desta forma de arte emergente e estilo de vida na música moderna. 4 Lists of figures, tables and video URLs Figure 1 - Dilon Djinji showing his grandchildren how to make a tin can guitar ................................................................ 32 Figure 2 - Sound System speakers in Jamaica ................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 3- “Cassava Piece” by Augustus Pablo. .................................................................................................................... 52 Figure 4 - Augustus Pablo's "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown" album. ................................................................. 52 Figure 5 - The four seminal versions of the "Cassava Piece" released between 1973 and 1974. ..................................... 53 Figure 6 – Organization of “King Tubby meets the Rockers Uptown” into Tracks, Parts and colour coded Effects. ......... 56 Figure 7 - Dub Matrix for "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown" ................................................................................. 58 Figure 8 - Screen capture of the Pro Tools session to Pharell William's 2014 hit “Happy” ............................................... 62 Figure 9 - Kaida notations, explanations and block subdivisions ....................................................................................... 66 Figure 10 - Theme & Variation extrapolations of original fixed composition .................................................................... 67 Figure 11 - Notation and block subdivisions for the "Amen Break". ................................................................................. 68 Figure 12 - Theme & Variation extrapolations of original sample ..................................................................................... 69 Figure 13 - The most sampled song of all time, "Amen, Brother" ...................................................................................... 70 Figure 14 - Schematized graphic displays organized by song samples ............................................................................... 71 Figure 15 - Samples used in the composition of “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt” .................................................... 72 Figure 16 - Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" borrows extensively from TLC's "No Scrubs" ..................................................... 74 Figure 17 - Sampling layer depths for Mark Robson's "Uptown Funk” .............................................................................. 75 Figure 18 - Mapping out the connections at the Mafra Palace .......................................................................................... 79 Figure 19 - Connections between the baton keyboard (Console) and the bells in the National Palace of Mafra ............. 80 Figure 20 - Excerpt from the North drum cylinder mapping displaying annotations pertaining Bell nr.5 (Do') ................ 81 Figure 21 - Drum cylinders beneath the connected frames that carry the signal to the upper floor ................................ 81 Figure 22 - Drum Cylinder and pins that action the levers and send the signal to the upper floor ................................... 81 Figure 23 - Wire distribution from the North Frame until Bell nr.5 including vertical and horizontal angle pathways ..... 82 Figure 24 - A MiDi signal passing through various points of redistribution and triggering ................................................ 83 Figure 25 – MiDi mapping for an orchestration made entirely with samples on a MIDI Fighter 3D .................................. 84 Figure 26 - Imogen Heap ................................................................................................................................................... 86 Figure 27- Seaboard Rise .................................................................................................................................................... 87 Figure 28 - Sunhouse's Sensory Percussion sensor ............................................................................................................ 88 Figure 29 – Midi Fighter ..................................................................................................................................................... 90 Figure