Between Computer Automation, Voltage Control and Literature: A portrait of Peter Zinovieff

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-418
Author(s):  
Marc Battier
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Electronic Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Voltage Control ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Sound Processing ◽  
Computer Automation ◽  
And Performance

The life and times of Peter Zinovieff (1933–2021) have been amply commented upon and there are numerous testimonies of his role on developing electronic music as well as his strong impact on musicians throughout the 1970s. However, besides his important role in developing synthesisers, sound processing and various other devices, he is now recognised as a significant pioneer in music with computers. His collaboration with Harrison Birtwistle’s opera The Mask of Orpheus has been deemed an important contribution to contemporary music in Great Britain. Finally, his late return to composition and performance shows his lifelong attachment to innovation and experimentation in music.

Distributed Creativity

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
Collaborative Creativity ◽  
Collaborative Working ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
And Performance

Creative practice in music takes place in a distributed and interactive manner embracing the activities of composers, performers and improvisers—despite the sharp division of labour between these roles that traditional concert culture often presents. Two distinctive features of contemporary music are the greater incorporation of improvisation and the development of integrated and collaborative working practices between composers and performers. By blurring the distinction between composition and performance, improvisation and collaboration provide important perspectives on the distributed creative processes that play a central role in much contemporary concert music. This volume explores how collaboration and improvisation enable and constrain these creative processes. Organized into three parts, thirteen chapters and twelve shorter Interventions present diverse perspectives on distributed and collaborative creativity in music, on a range of collaborations between composers and performers, and on the place of improvisation within contemporary music, broadly defined. The thirteen chapters provide more substantial discussions of a variety of conceptual frameworks and particular projects, while the twelve Interventions provide more informal contributions from a variety of practitioners (composers, performers, improvisers), giving direct insights into the pleasures and problems of working creatively in music in collaborative and improvised ways.

Culture-specific production and performance characteristics: An interview study with ‘Teutonic’ metal producers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Peter Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Qualitative Interview ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Performance Characteristics ◽  
Specific Production ◽  
Music Production ◽  
International Reputation ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Original Interpretation ◽  
Distinguishing Features

Viking metal, Teutonic metal, Mesopotamian metal – labels of this kind are common in fan discourse, media and academia. Whereas some research has investigated such labels and related them to the artist’s stage presentation, music videos, artwork and lyrics, there is still a lack from the perspectives of music production and performance as to how such culturally and geographically associated labels differ musically. This article explores culture-specific production and performance characteristics of Teutonic metal, focusing on how metal from Germany differed from British and US-American productions in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time metal spread to Continental Europe and German speed metal achieved an international reputation for its original interpretation of metal. The study is based on a qualitative interview design with three record producers who were crucial for the rise of German metal labels and their bands: Harris Johns for Noise Records, Siggi Bemm for Century Media and Charlie Bauerfeind for Steamhammer. The findings suggest that performances differed between bands from Germany, America and Great Britain regarding timing, rhythmic precision, ensemble synchronization and expressiveness. Likewise, production approaches varied due to distinct preferences for certain guitar amplifiers, drum tunings, microphone techniques, mixing concepts and studio acoustics. Despite such culture-specific differences, it proved difficult for the interviewed producers to identify distinguishing features. Genre conventions seem to have a stronger impact than cultural origin overall.

Percussion Theatre: a body in between

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jennifer Torrence
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
The Body ◽  
John Cage ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
And Performance

What does the musician become when sound and instrumental thinking are no longer privileged as the foundation of a musician's practice? In what ways does an emphasis on the musician's body cause music to approach art forms such as theatre and performance? After a generation of pioneering work from Mauricio Kagel, Dieter Schnebel, John Cage and many others, where is the theatrical and the performative in music today? How do its recent developments shape, alter, constitute a musician's artistic practice? Through her research, Jennifer Torrence argues that this type of music demands the musician assume a different understanding and relation to their instrument and therefore a different relation to their body. This relation calls for new ways of making and doing (new artistic practices) that foreground the body as a fundamental performance material. Through an emphasis on the body, the musician emerges as a performer. This exposition is a reflection on the research project Percussion Theatre: a body in between. This project is comprised of a collection of new evening-length works that approach the theatrical and performative in contemporary music performance. These works are created with and by composers Wojtek Blecharz, Carolyn Chen, Neo Hülcker, Johan Jutterström, Trond Reinholdtsen, François Sarhan, and Peter Swendsen. The exposition contains reflections on recent developments in contemporary music that mark a mutation of the executing musician into a co-creating performer, as well as images, artefacts, videos, and texts that unfold the process of creating and performing the work that constitutes this project. The ambition of this exposition is that through the exposure of a personal artistic practice an image of a larger field may come into focus.

Vítězslava Kaprálová: a remarkable voice in 20th-century Czech Music

Tempo ◽  
2000 ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
Eugene Gates ◽  
Karla Hartl
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
International Society ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Czech Music ◽  
Unusual Phenomenon ◽  
Bohuslav Martinu ◽  
And Performance

It was with enormous pride in the achievements of his 23-year-old protégé Vítězslava Kaprálová that Bohuslav Martinů wrote the following in his review of the 1938 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival, held in London:The very first item on the programme of the Festival was Military Sinfouictta by Vitězslava Kaprálová – an opening with great promise for both the festival and the composer. Her performance was awaited with interest as well as some curiosity – a girl with a baton is quite an unusual phenomenon – and when our ‘little girl conductor’ (as the English newspapers called her) appeared before the orchestra, she was welcomed by a supportive audience. She stood before the orchestra with great courage and both her composition and performance earned her respect and applause from the excellent BBC orchestra, the audience, and the critics. … Kaprálová's international debut is a success, promising and encouraging.

Contemporary Music Network—A Discussion

Tempo ◽  
1976 ◽  
pp. 7-14
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Current Season ◽  
Single Base ◽  
Full Cost

The idea for a scheme that was eventually to become the Contemporary Music Network emerged from an assessment by Annette Morreau in 1970 of the amount and quality of contemporary music performances taking place in Britain. Predictably, London presented a large number of concerts, whilst in the regions very little contemporary music was performed. In an attempt to maximize rehearsal time and artistic effort, a touring scheme was suggested whereby London concerts should be linked to tours. The idea was that these tours should be planned in co-operation with the emerging Regional Arts Associations, who would suggest suitable promoters and share the deficit. Practical problems relating particularly to the widely varying types of contemporary music (jazz, electronic, music-theatre, improvised etc.) made the establishment of a single ‘base’ in each region unrealistic, and it soon became obvious that not every Association could afford to contribute substantially to the scheme. In view of the importance of making such tours possible, and the varying levels of finance throughout the country, the Council agreed to cover the full cost of fees and travel, whilst the local promoter would be left to pay all other costs. In the current season, a total of 97 concerts is being given by 13 performing groups.

scholarly journals Synthesizers, Virtual Orchestras, and Ableton Live: Digitally Rendered Music on Broadway and Musicians’ Union Resistance

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (03) ◽  
pp. 273-304
Author(s):  
LIAM E. GIBBS
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Electronic Music ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Production Values ◽  
Downward Pressure ◽  
Acoustic Instruments ◽  
Union Local ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Industry Professionals ◽  
Previous Scholarship

AbstractAs Broadway musicals embrace contemporary popular music styles, orchestrators must incorporate the digital technologies necessary for producing convincing simulations of genres like hip hop and electronic music. At the same time, as production values soar, producers work to minimize their budgets, often putting downward pressure on the size of the orchestra. Although digital and electronic music technologies can expand the sonic register of the Broadway orchestra, they can also replace traditional acoustic instruments and save money. The Broadway musicians’ union, Local 802, has regularly sought to control the use of digital technologies and ensure that live musicians produce as much music as possible. Thus, Local 802's advocacy for the employment of their members can limit the sounds heard on Broadway.The following narrative considers three digital technologies—synthesizers, virtual orchestras, and Ableton Live—and examines case studies and controversies surrounding their use in Broadway orchestras and implications for liveness in performance. Informed by interviews with industry professionals, author observation of pit orchestras in rehearsal and performance, archival research, popular and industry media, and previous scholarship, I argue that the union's entrenched interests and antiquated regulations can stifle musical innovation on Broadway by resisting the use of digital music technologies.

Tectonics Glasgow, 1–3 May 2015

Tempo ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (274) ◽  
pp. 62-64
Author(s):  
Matthew Hammond
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Electronic Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Symphony Orchestra ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Free Improvisation ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Orchestral Works ◽  
The Common ◽  
Music Programming

Ilan Volkov's Tectonics series continues to break new ground in contemporary music programming and curating. Tectonics has now seen its third edition in Glasgow, where Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and has also sprung up in other locations to which he has connections – beginning in his home city of Tel Aviv, the series has spread also to Reykjavik, Adelaide and New York. The common theme is a blend of new commissions (usually orchestral works), important recent works, and performances from figures from other areas of avant-garde music making – free improvisation, electronic music and the outer fringes of noise and metal.

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