Proceedings of the Istanbul Spectral Music Conference
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Research Commons@Waikato founding, this globally established Publications festival’s mission remains the same— we are steadfastly dedicated to the pursuit of the curiosity that is so Robert Reigle and Paul Whitehead deeply rooted in humankind’s nature, (Editors): Spectral World Musics: and we continue to peer intrepidly far Proceedings of the Istanbul into the future. Our immediate objec- Spectral Music Conference tive: to once again foment a fruitful, fascinating dialog at the interface of Softcover, two CD-Audio discs, 2008, art, technology and society.” This is a ISBN 978-9944-396-27-1, 457 pages; praiseworthy mission statement. But Pan Yayıncılık, Barbaros Bulvarı, Ars Electronica’s intrepid peering into 18/4 Bes¸iktas¸ 3435 Istanbul,˙ Turkey; the future with Armageddon exhibits telephone (+90) 212-2275675; fax may have thwarted for the moment (+90) 212-2275674; electronic mail its immediate objective of fomenting [email protected]; dialog. The current reviewers were Web pankitap.com/. sometimes left at a nonplus. And Mr. Fontana’s prize-winning work, Reviewed by Ian Whalley understood as the focal sound state- Hamilton, New Zealand ment of the 2009 festival, suggests that music, for the time being, has This collection is an outcome of not yet recovered from its speech- the Spectral Musics Conference held lessness and articulated a response. at Istanbul˙ Technical University, Or, perhaps its response is to recoil 18–23 November 2003, organized primarily extracts rather than full and to recollect the harmony of the by Michael Ellison, Robert Reigle, works. The second disc, with eight spheres, reviving the atavistic human and Pieter Snapper. In welcoming tracks, has complete works from capacity to become one with the delegates to the University, the co- conference concerts. environment through hearing. One directors of the Dr. Erol Uc¨ ¸er Center Paper abstracts in Turkish are might see the visual art presented for Advanced Research in Music, provided at the beginning of the text as representational (horror scenarios) Professor Kamran Ince and Cihat without an English translation, and and music as evocative (utopia): Big As¸kın noted that hosting the first no abstracts are given at the begin- Ben and the sonic/visual projections international conference on spectral ning of each paper. Papers are divided on the AEC—both took place in music was a long-term goal of the into sections: Introductory Talk; the night, in the locale of wordless faculty (p. xi). Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion; dreams. The skill of hearing—at the A quick Internet search of the Spectral Ideas; Ethnomusicological neuronal level—has always enabled title gives the sense that proceedings Perspectives; Composers Discuss man and woman to meld with their have been distributed to various their Music; Spectral Compositions; surroundings. Man and woman in international music journals, but Performance Perspectives; and Impro- their cave at night, without light there have been few reviews to visation with Spectra. Transcriptions and without sight, were only in touch date; and, there seems to be limited of questions and answers sometimes through hearing, and through hearing, additional copies of the collection follow each paper presentation. “becoming” (to borrow a notion from now available. Without the benefit With no index apart from page Gilles Deleuze), becoming human. of attending the conference, this references to track listings on CD 1, We hope that the cultural utopia review is of the published material no signposting in the body of the text evoked by Mr. Fontana from the alone. as to section divisions, and no English midst of our world’s dark night is The proceedings open with track abstracts, the collection becomes not just sentimental retrospection, listings for the two audio discs in- something of a detective novel to rather a contribution to drawing cluded, followed by written notes of navigate for the uninitiated. us into a new and lighter period uneven length and quality about each Computer Music Journal readers of becoming—humane, humanist, track. The 17 tracks on CD 1 relate will probably be aware of spectral human. to the paper presentations, and are synthesis techniques, or the process Publications 93 of manipulating spectral data with cluded and discussed along with “art field: Ana-Maria Avarm, Iancu Du- physical modeling synthesis pack- music.” mitrescu, Cornelia Fales, and Tristan ages. More generally, for those un- This inclusive approach brought Murail. The wide-ranging discus- familiar with the field of spectral together a variety of perspectives that sion covers influences on composers’ music, two issues of Contempo- may not otherwise meet, and also en- works, sources and perspectives rary Music Review (19/2 and 19/3, gaged a range of people in an ongoing drawn on, and the significance of 2000), edited by Joshua Fineberg, are interest in continuing academic work spectral music in relationship to worthwhile reading as a primer. In that might otherwise be left to lan- broad scholarly work. Despite the addition, William A. Sethares’s Tun- guish in isolated aspects of academia. seeming lack of focus at times, there ing, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale (MIT The diversity of the outcomes is evi- are keen insights here, such as prac- Press, 2004) provides an interesting dent in the grouping of offerings under titioners’ concepts of spectral music technical perspective. different sections. It is refreshing to being mainly focused on how you For the benefit of lay people, see an event attended by composers, get it rather than the outcome, and spectral music is a compositional musicians, and theoreticians drawn how, in a subjective sense, spectral approach through which decisions from such different aesthetics, and work is grounded in a primitive force are made based on the analysis of part of the charm of the collection is that provides a counterpoint to ab- sound spectra. While acknowledging the sheer juxtaposition of approaches straction and artificiality in art music that definitions in the field seem to and cultural diversity brought to composition. This section is then a be partly problematic, spectral music bear, even if some of the offerings tantalizing taste of things to come. is more an attitude to sound, rather seem to share little interest in explor- The Spectral Ideas section includes than an aesthetic. One approach to ing commonality in approaches and six papers, beginning from a keynote spectral composition originated in perspectives. address by Joshua Fineberg. “What’s France in the early 1970s at the In- Of course, the danger in this type In a Name” is a solid introduction to stitut de Recherche et Coordination of situation is that juxtaposition some of the history, perspectives, and Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) and leads to little else, leaving readers practices that the term now includes, the Ensemble l’Itineraire,´ particularly to make sense out of it all in terms and it is here that he reiterates through the work of Gerard´ Grisey of commonalities. Some of the more the notion of spectral music being and Tristan Murail. In contrast to this interesting papers presented are then primarily an attitude, and also notes structural approach, the Romanian those that attempt to combine dif- how a spectral element in music is spectral tradition is more concerned fering perspectives, regardless of how something universal that all people with looking at sound in perfor- successful the outcomes might be. instinctively respond to (p. 41). Bert mance, so includes the transitory Robert Reigle’s concise introduc- Van Nerck follows with “Spectralism: aspects of timbre and non-harmonic tory talk gives the intent of the From Historical Embedment to components—focusing on the sub- inclusive nature taken by the con- New Perspectives,” a short paper on jective sense of sound as dynamic ference organizers, placing the work Western music concerns; and Mine experience rather than grounding not only in specialist domains but in Dogantan-Dack˘ delivers “Timbre as work in the scientific study of sound. the wider field of music making, and an Expressive Dimension in Music,” To put the focus of the two perspec- noting the importance of timbre as a an insightful offering, particularly her tives crudely, the French approach common concern in music-making. comments on electroacoustic music uses spectra to make the structure Also noted is how the spectral schools (p. 68) and musical character (p. 70). of the work, extending the sound, from France and Romania as major John Dack’s “Spectral Music and as it were; and the Romanian ap- aesthetic movements are allowed to Schaefferian Methodology” will be proach arrives at structure through lead dialogue, by acting as a conduit useful for those looking for a method transformations of spectra. for dialogue across disciplines. of analysis and composition; and the The Spectral Musics Confer- Interdisciplinary Panel transcripts final two papers by David Gerard ence extended the term through on spectral music follow Mr. Reigle’s Matthew (“Spectral Music and High a broader definition to include all introduction, including analytical, School Students”) and Tildy Bayar music that foregrounds timbre as ethnomusicological, and phemono- (“Music Inside Out: Spectral Music’s either an important element of struc- logical perspectives. Moderated by Chords of Nature”) are useful ex- ture or musical language, allowing Joshua Fineberg, the conversation in- amples of the application of spectral aspects of world music to be in- cludes many leading exponents in the techniques in Western music. 94 Computer Music Journal Ethnomusicological Perpective, invaluable for those wanting to know could not have been added to this the title of the second collection of something of the compositional tech- section. papers, is a fitting contrast in context, niques of spectral music, and there A Postlude includes impressions starting with an engrossing keynote are many delights to be found here.