Alyssa Michaud Department of Music Research Schulich School Of
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AFTER THE MUSIC BOX: A HISTORY OF AUTOMATION IN REAL-TIME MUSICAL PERFORMANCE Alyssa Michaud Department of Music Research Schulich School of Music McGill University, Montreal August 2019 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology © Alyssa Michaud 2019 i TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... v Résumé .......................................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Music and Technology: An Overview ........................................................................................ 7 Research Methods and Chapter Breakdown ............................................................................. 20 Who are the Mechanics? ........................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 1: The Player Piano: From Domestic Machine to Expressive Instrument ...................... 31 Early Advertisements ................................................................................................................ 42 Changing Rhetoric .................................................................................................................... 54 The Piano-Player as a Labour-Saving Device .......................................................................... 70 Chapter 2: The Reproducing Piano: Capturing and Recreating “Living Presence” ..................... 83 Endings and Beginnings ........................................................................................................... 91 Selling the Reproducing Piano.................................................................................................. 96 Inside the “Marvelous Mechanisms” ...................................................................................... 108 Pianists Recommend the Reproducing Piano ......................................................................... 128 Chapter 3: Techno-Pop and Mechanization as Aesthetic ........................................................... 137 Kraftwerk’s International Success .......................................................................................... 139 German Automata: Two Themes in Kraftwerk Reception History ........................................ 143 ii Yellow Magic Orchestra: Technology and Identity in Eastern Techno-Pop .......................... 161 Chapter 4: Vocaloid’s Online Culture: Community and Creativity ........................................... 177 Vocal Synthesis and Computer Music Before Vocaloid ........................................................ 179 Amateurs and Computer Music .............................................................................................. 181 Virtual Singers Find a Virtual Home: NicoNico Douga and Amateur Users ......................... 184 Supercell: A NicoNico Success Story..................................................................................... 199 Chapter 5: Holograms Take the Stage: Automation and Performative Fandom ........................ 207 Vocaloid: Puppet, Superstar, Idol? ......................................................................................... 215 Hatsune Miku and Live Concerts in North America .............................................................. 222 Vocaloid at NicoNico Chokaigi .............................................................................................. 239 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 251 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 259 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1: Advertisement for Angelus Orchestral Piano Player. ................................................ 31 Figure 1-2: Aeolian recital advertisement ..................................................................................... 48 Figure 2-1: Sketch of New York Symphony Orchestra concert, November 1917 ..................... 833 Figure 2-2: Ampico Christmas advertisement .............................................................................. 99 Figure 2-3: The Ampico research laboratory .............................................................................. 120 Figure 2-4: The Ampico golf club experiment ........................................................................... 121 Figure 4-1: Screencap of NicoNico scrolling comments over video of Ievan Polkka .............. 1888 Figure 4-2: Songrium’s Music Star Map .................................................................................. 1933 Figure 5-1: Pages from Miku Expo 2018 call book .................................................................. 2377 Figure 6-1: Welte-Mignon recital advertisement ........................................................................ 251 iv v ABSTRACT After the Music Box: A History of Automation in Real-Time Musical Performance investigates the reception and use of automation in music over the past century. Employing methods from musicology and media studies, I examine the shifting discourse around music technologies in the early years before their functions and meanings had solidified, and locate the human agency underpinning each automated process. This dissertation explores three historical moments that illuminate the relationship between automation and human music-making: player piano technology in the early twentieth century, synthesizers and sequencers in the mid-twentieth century, and vocal synthesis technology in the early twenty-first century. In chapters 1 and 2, I examine three related piano-playing devices. Drawing on advertising materials, trade publications, and discussions in the popular press, I investigate the anxiety around these new technologies and examine early efforts at defining the purpose of these machines. I correct certain historical misconceptions about player pianos, restore an understanding of the importance of human creativity in the use of these devices, and situate these instruments in the context of other labour-saving technologies. Chapter 3 analyzes the reception history of two early techno- pop groups, in order to map anxieties about dehumanized music-making onto the globalized landscape of 1970s pop music. Finally, in chapters 4 and 5, I investigate Vocaloid singing synthesis software and holographic concerts. Examining Vocaloid performances in the context of research on creative online communities and fan culture, I argue that the contributions of users online and the structured participation of fans at concerts are evidence of a new type of performance enabled by automation in the twenty-first century. This study argues for an vi understanding of human agency in performances that include automation, and shows the importance of amateur music-making in the development of new music technologies. vii RÉSUMÉ Après la boîte à musique : une histoire de l’automation dans la performance musicale en temps réel prend pour objet de recherche la réception et l’usage de l’automation dans la musique au cours du dernier siècle. Faisant appel à des méthodes empruntées à la musicologie ainsi qu’aux études médiatiques, j’examine la transformation du discours entourant les technologies musicales au cours de leurs toutes premières années d’existence, cette période qui précède la cristallisation de leurs fonctions et de leurs significations, et j’y situe la démarche humaine qui sous-tend chaque processus d’automation. Cette thèse explore trois périodes historiques qui font la lumière sur la relation entre l’automation et la création musicale par l’humain : la technologie des pianos mécaniques au début du vingtième siècle, les synthétiseurs et les séquenceurs au milieu de ce même siècle, ainsi que la technologie de synthèse vocale au début du vingt-et-unième siècle. Au cours des chapitres 1 et 2, j’examine trois modèles comparables de pianos mécaniques. À partir de matériaux publicitaires, de publications commerciales et de discours tirés de la presse populaire, je me penche sur l’anxiété générée par ces nouvelles technologies et sur les efforts faits en vue de définir la fonction de ces machines. J’y corrige certaines incompréhensions historiques au sujet des pianos mécaniques, rétablis une certaine compréhension de l’importance accordée à la créativité humaine en lien avec l’utilisation de ces appareils, et situe ces derniers dans un contexte technologique favorable à la facilitation du travail. Dans le chapitre 3, j’analyse l’histoire de la réception de deux groupes qui furent parmi les premiers à proposer une musique techno pop, de manière à identifier les différentes formes d’anxiété engendrées cette fois par la déshumanisation de la création musicale dans le panorama globalisé de la musique populaire des années 1970. Enfin, dans les chapitres