Lettres John Chowning, François Bayle, Daniel Teruggi, Jon Appleton, Gérard Assayag, Richard Kronland Martinet, Mitsuko Aramaki, Sølvi Ystad
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Lettres John Chowning, François Bayle, Daniel Teruggi, Jon Appleton, Gérard Assayag, Richard Kronland Martinet, Mitsuko Aramaki, Sølvi Ystad To cite this version: John Chowning, François Bayle, Daniel Teruggi, Jon Appleton, Gérard Assayag, et al.. Lettres. Computer Music Journal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press), 2017, 41, pp.15 - 20. 10.1162/COMJc00410. hal-01688998 HAL Id: hal-01688998 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01688998 Submitted on 26 Apr 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Letters John Chowning, François Bayle, Daniel Teruggi, Jon Appleton, Gérard Assayag, Richard Kronland-Martinet, Mitsuko Aramaki, Sølvi Ystad Computer Music Journal, Volume 41, Number 2, Summer 2017, pp. 15-20 (Article) Published by The MIT Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/662531 Access provided by CNRS BiblioSHS (19 Jun 2017 15:43 GMT) Letters [Editor’s note: To complement the tones. I was stunned; the sounds were Yamaha’s consideration of their first late Jean-Claude Risset’s obituary as sparkling and lively as was he. all-digital family of synthesizers. in this issue’s News section, we Risset showed me how, with careful It has often been a topic of dis- solicited these letters of tribute from listening and attention to small de- cussion why Risset, and then I, individuals who knew him well. The tails, he had produced sounds that first focused on the simulation of letters were received in December were dynamic and fluid, with all of the acoustic orchestral instruments. The 2016 and January 2017. As they allure of acoustic sounds. I was struck answer reveals the strategy within reveal, we say farewell to not only a especially by the fact that he based Risset’s long-term goal and the so- giant of our field but also a splendid only one of the simulations—the phistication of his thinking about human being.] brass tones—on computer analysis; what is the sound of an acoustic most he had created using his ear as instrument—what is its “timbre.” his guide. His reliance upon his ear There are several reasons, and from Jean-Claude Risset—A Source was so important to me because I did the point of view of psychoacoustic not have a scientific education and and perceptual research, the first is While it is with ineffable sadness rich technical background as did he, obvious. (1) The sounds are ideal that I write these words following but we did share the ability to listen simulation targets (control) as they the death of Jean-Claude Risset, I also and hear critically. Encouraged by one are so ingrained and easily identified, feel joy and wonder in having known another’s work and having similar in- providing the researcher a sense of him, as I reflect on his musical and terests in research and composition, the perceptual proximity of test tones scientific contributions to the field especially increasing our understand- to target tones. (2) An instrument of computer music and the forma- ing of perception with the controls cannot be represented by a single tive beginning of our professional that Mathews’ program provided tone, as there are infinite possible association and long friendship. us, we were filled with hope for a variations through pitch, loudness, Jean-Claude Risset and I met for medium that was virtually unknown duration, articulation, etc. Risset felt the first time at Stanford University in in the larger world of contemporary very strongly that understanding the the spring of 1967, two years after we music. contextual complexity of an instru- began our work with computers, he at On December 18 of the same ment’s timbre from the very outset Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) and year, 1967, I visited Risset at BTL. I was essential to achieving nuanced I at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence played for him what I had discovered musical expression. (3) Orchestral (AI) Laboratory. He had traveled to only weeks before when I selectively instruments have been highly refined Los Angeles for a conference and then increased vibrato depths and rates through generations of craftsmen to to the Stanford AI Lab, where we of a sinusoid to audio frequencies meet the expressive requirements met (certainly at night, when I was that modulated the frequency of a of the evolving musical landscape. allowed to use the computer system second sinusoid, producing tones Risset felt ours was a similar path, as an unfunded researcher). I knew of having many or few partials, both understanding as much as possible Risset from Max Mathews, but I had harmonic and inharmonic. He copied of this rich platform, especially at no idea what I was in for. I played for the MUSIC IV algorithm and my data, the perceptual level, from which to him my demonstrations of moving recognizing the efficiency in gener- refine the sounds of this new dig- sounds in a quadraphonic loudspeaker ating time-dependent spectra using ital domain. From this platform, space. He knew about the all-pass frequency modulation synthesis. (An he stepped into the realm of pure feedback delay, a key component inveterate note taker, he also marked imagination and creation that was, of the artificial reverberator in my the date, which otherwise I would not as Mathews had explained in his fa- demonstration, as it was developed know, as I had no training in research mous paper, unbounded by technical by M. R. Schroeder, a colleague of and my lab notes were undated.) He limitations. Mathews at BTL, but he had not encouraged me in my pursuit of this Risset’s first composition for com- heard until then the spatial richness work at a time when few others did. puter was incidental music for the of a four-channel projection. Several years later I used this algo- play Little Boy,fromwhichheas- Then he played for me his experi- rithm to synthesize brass-like tones sembled Computer Suite from Little ments in the synthesis of instrument based on the insight he had gained Boy (1968). In this work, he made in his earlier computer analysis. The full use of his elegant instrument quality and efficient computation of simulations, the recipes for which doi:10.1162/COMJ c 00410 these simulations were critical in he published in An Introductory Letters 15 Catalogue of Computer Synthesized rooted in the early years of discovery, for Jean-Claude Risset a frequent base Sounds (1969). the description and excitement of of support, a place and also a bond of But it is in Mutations (1969) where which was always an essential part friendship. his earlier studies paid off, where of our lectures. He gave purpose and Brightly shining evidence of this, at pure imagination and creation took direction to the many students and the other extremity of our life paths: hold, where he created his breakout colleagues who were attracted to him. his Elementa,composedtosalute work that would leave its imprint His knowledge was encyclopedic, but the 50th anniversary of musique on his works that followed (as well what he revealed to us was always in concrete.` as on my own). At an extraordinary context, illuminating and enriching I loved his exigency, his impecca- moment of insight and invention, our thoughts, our research, our music. ble rigor, his proud modesty. Risset composed the spectrum of He left us with his own music and And I share his infinite project: asoundsuchthatthefrequencies writings, beautiful and profound—he ...mettre en scene` des ren- of its partials are derived from the is gone, but he did not disappear. contres intimes entre sons pitch space of which it is a part. acoustiques, traces audibles He created inharmonic spectra, in John Chowning which at one instant the partials Marseille, France (27 November d’un monde materiel´ visible, et sons immateriels qui suggerent cohere as idiophones imprinted with 2016) and Palo Alto, California, USA ´ ` un monde illusoire, imagine, une the pitch material and at another (8 January 2017) ´ they detach and flee independently autre realit´ e,´ purement interieure´ et sonore through time, diaphanous and supple, providing an intimate structural link Through a shortcut in space-time, [...to stage intimate encounters between pitch and timbre—defying Jean-Claude Risset was given very between acoustic sounds, audible their common definition as being early access to the bull’s-eye of the traces of a visible material world, independent characteristics of a tone. target: that of the mystery of music. and immaterial sounds that Risset had unlocked timbre, or the Still, it took a subtle mixture suggest an illusory, imagined quality of a sound, from the idea of of aptitudes for wonder and also world, another reality, purely a physical source, real or imagined, scientific clairvoyance to grasp, in inner and sonorous] creating complex structured sound the same look, the deployment of spectra that cannot exist in the forms in both the concrete space of —Risset in Du songe au son: natural world but that embrace the the world and the abstract dream of Entretiens avec Matthieu deep roots of “pitch” in a millennium listening. Guillot (Perspectives