Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference 2013, SMC 2013, Stockholm, Sweden Visions of sound: The Centro di Sonologia Computazionale, from Computer Music to Sound and Music Computing Sergio Canazza Giovanni De Poli Alvise Vidolin CSC-DEI, Univ. Padova CSC-DEI, Univ. Padova CSC-DEI, Univ. Padova [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT and hardware devices (filters, computers) conducted by Pa- duan researchers have since then produced state-of-the art Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) scientific re- results from both the technological and musical standpoints, search was the premise for subsequent activities of musi- and have generated collaborations with several renowned cal informatics, and is still one of the main activities of the contemporary composers. CSC engineering skills have been Centre. Today CSC activities rely on a composite group used to build electronic and digital instruments, augmented of people, which include the Center board of directors and reality systems, immersive video-games, and measuring personnel, guest researchers and musicians, and particu- instruments. It has also led to advances in such widely larly on master students attending the course “Sound and differing fields as sound design, musical cultural heritage Music Computing” at Dept. of Information Engineering preservation and promotion, and cognitive/physical reha- (DEI), which is historically tightly linked to the CSC. The bilitation. dissemination of scientific results as well as the relation- The CSC is carrying out a project for the preservation ship between art and science is hard and surely not trivial. and restoration of electrophone equipments and audio doc- With this aim, this paper describes an exhibition that illus- uments. An important (from both scientific and dissemi- trated the history of CSC, from the scientific, technolog- nation points of view) moment in this project was the re- ical and artistic points of view. This exhibition is one of alization of an exhibition by the University of Padova, in the first examples of “a museum” of Computer Music and collaboration with the SaMPL Lab of the Conservatory “C. SMC researches. Pollini”: Visions of sound. Electronic music at the Uni- versity of Padova, open from April 3 to July 18, 2012 at 1. INTRODUCTION the exhibition halls of the Botanical Garden. The exhibi- tion showed the history of the computer music produced in Since the invention of musical instruments, art and tech- Padova and was assisted by various events, including a se- nology have stimulated and benefit one another. The crafts- ries of educational seminars held by CSC researchers and manship required to make a violin is a classic example, some concerts. The dissemination of the Computer Music but the invention of music-writing techniques was also an history is hard and complicated, because of its multi-faced achievement, often based on complex mathematics, which nature. It is necessary to emphasize the communication enabled musicians in the late Middle Ages to create intri- of all its different aspects, in particular it is important that cate combinations of sounds. general public understand also the genesis of the computer Over the centuries, Padova institutes, musicians and schol- music works. This paper presents our experience. ars have helped to revolutionize the science and art of sound. The exhibition illustrated the history of CSC, from scien- During the late 20th century, the Centro di Sonologia Com- tific, technological and artistic points of view. From the putazionale 1 (CSC, Center of Computational Sonology) first experiments by Teresa Rampazzi and by the group of Padova University (Italy) and the Electronic Music class Nuove Proposte Sonore (NPS) in the sixties, the close col- at the Conservatory “Cesare Pollini” in Padova gave birth laboration among the Conservatory, the CSC and the Com- to a unique scientific, technological, and artistic experi- puting Centre of the University, to the present, it was possi- ence, which stemmed from individual collaborations and ble to expose historic equipments, as the original magnetic multidisciplinary exchanges. tape recorder used by Teresa Rampazzi, a Synthi AKS, Between the 1970s and 1990s, CSC emerged as one of an ARP 2500 (now the last example in Italy), and the 4i the world leading centres for research into “Computer mu- System, devices which allowed the realization of the elec- sic”. The design and development of software programs tronic music of the last decades, art music as well as con- 1 CSC was founded by Giovanni Battista Debiasi (1928-2012): this sumer music. It was also possible to listen to some major paper is humbly and affectionately dedicated to his memory, a leading researcher and an outstanding teacher whose brightness and kindness we works realized at the CSC, e.g., Prometeo by Luigi Nono, will always remember. Perseo e Andromeda by Salvatore Sciarrino, and Medea by Adriano Guarnieri: for this latter musical work the original Copyright: c 2013 Sergio Canazza et al. This is an open-access article distributed multi-channel installation was recreated, for the first time under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which after its premiere` in 2002 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided The exhibition was enriched by numerous interactive in- the original author and source are credited. stallations, specially designed and realized by researchers 639 Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference 2013, SMC 2013, Stockholm, Sweden development of computer music in the world (the musical works realized in CSC are listed at http://csc.dei. unipd.it/musical_productions.html). At the same time, with its own set of electronic equipment (filters, digital signal processors, computers) specially designed and programmed by researchers at the Department of Informa- tion Engineering, it is a striking witness to the technologi- cal era and its evolution in recent decades (Sec. 4). CSC, today directed by Giovanni De Poli, was founded by Giovanni Battista Debiasi (fig. 1). In 1957 Giovanni Battista Debiasi, at the University of Padova, proposed an original work about an electronic organ based on photodi- odes. This was the first step of a multidisciplinary future for electric/electronic engineering and music in Padova. In the early seventies Debiasi carried out research on speech analysis and synthesis, in collaboration with Gian Antonio Figure 1. Giovanni Battista Debiasi, Vicenza (Italy), 4th Mian and Carlo Offelli [2, 3]. In the eighties and nineties, June 1928 – Padova (Italy), 24th June 2012. in advance to the international scientific community, De- biasi studied issues related to the preservation and restora- tion of cultural musical heritage. He trained hundreds of students: his research fields are now everywhere, in Italy and in the world, and this gives the sign of the importance that he played in the birth and development of Sound and Music Computing (see, at least, [1, 4, 5]). Fig. 2 shows the system panels for recording, sound syn- thesis and processing in 1979: this system was also used in the Summer Schools organized in CSC and that were con- sidered as world references in the field of computer music. Among the various hardware systems of CSC, particularly important from the history and the musicology points of Figure 2. System panels for recording, sound synthesis view, was the project – granted by the Laboratory for Com- and processing in 1979. puter Music at the La Biennale (LIMB) in Venice, in col- laboration with IRCAM in Paris – that led to the realization of the 4i System (fig. 3 and Sec. 7). at CSC – which today is with the Department of Informa- CSC has been mainly a centre of promotion and cultural tion Engineering (DEI) – to introduce visitors to the world diffusion of music informatics since its foundation. Thanks of sound, applications of technology, the result of the novel to close collaboration among experts of various disciplines, research in the Sound and Music Computing field, in par- it has been possible to create an interdisciplinary group, ticular immersive reality systems, preservation and restora- which has become an international reference in the field, tion of musical cultural heritage, information systems for and has come to be part of contemporary music history. enhanced learning and for rehabilitation of disabled peo- Activities of CSC can be grouped into four main areas: ple. scientific research, music research, production and perfor- This exhibit aims at showing the deep connections be- mance of music works, teaching and dissemination. tween academic research and the multifaceted world of The rapid evolution known by computers and microelec- sound, and their influences on both art music and popular tronic devices in the second half of the last century has music, especially from the Seventies. led to the development of several sound synthesis methods This exhibition was important (i) as a moment of cultural (Sec. 5) and to reduction the processing times, allowing reflection, because it has led to the comparison of the dif- to recover the performer-instrument relationship and then ferent research areas that have occurred since the sixties to reintroducing the causality between gesture and sound typ- the present, and (ii) as a stimulus to overcome the prob- ical of the musician with his/her instrument. This evolu- lems related to the preservation and restoration of cultural tion permitted to integrate the electronic medium with tra- heritage music the CSC. ditional instruments, mixing freely the sound of mechan- In Sec. 2 the history of the Centre is concisely summa- ical devices with sound processing generated during the rized. Then all the sections of the exhibition are detailed, as performance: arising the live electronics performer, which an example of dissemination to a general public, reported allowed to recover the absence of the performer typical of here for consideration by the SMC community.