Timbre Geeks Networking (TGN) 2025
ACTOR's Training and Mentoring Committee is pleased to announce our annual Timbre Geeks Networking (TGN) event, which will be held online on January 17, 12:00-2:00.
Timbre and Orchestration Summer School
The Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) project is pleased to announce that third edition of the Timbre & Orchestration Summer School will be held at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, June 03-07, 2025
ACTOR Y7 Workshop 2025 — Geneva, Switzerland
It is official! We are pleased to confirm that the Y7 workshop will take place at the Haute école de musique in Geneva, Switzerland, 7-9 July 2025.
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will meet four times over the course of this semester. All are invited to attend any or all of the meetings, whether or not you have been in previous semantics meetings.
Orchestration Pedagogy Workshop
The ACTOR Project Training and Mentoring Committee is organizing the first Workshop on Orchestration Pedagogy. The event will focus on various approaches to teaching orchestration through demonstrations, discussions, and the examination of orchestration syllabi.
McGill Doctoral Colloquium
Colloquium on November 27.
Viktor Lazarov, “Creating and Analysing Baroque Performance Practice on the Piano,” Lecture-recital
Valérian Fraisse FROM SOUND ART TO SOUNDSCAPE: A research-creation approach for designing and evaluating public space sound installations
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will meet four times over the course of this semester. All are invited to attend any or all of the meetings, whether or not you have been in previous semantics meetings.
McGill Doctoral Colloquium
Colloquium on November 20.
Louis-Michel Tougas (Composition), “Issues and Cognitive Limits of Polyrhythm: A Multidisciplinary Approach”
Theodora Nestorova (Applied Performance Science), “Vocal Vibrato Variability: Novel Analytical Tools & Diagnostic-Pedagogical Approaches in Diverse Genres”
Cimbalom on the Stage
The intention of the workshop named "Cimbalom on the Stage" is to introduce the cimbalom as a fully fledged concert instrument whose specific sounds and far-reaching possibilities are increasingly coming to be appreciated in the world of both traditional and contemporary music. Daniel Skála, one of the most striking cimbalom players in the world today, along with leading player of the young generation Matěj Číp, will introduce the cimbalom in its paramount performance form.
Workshop on voice, timbre, metaphors and materiality in contemporary music
Following Nina Eidsheim’s Distinguished Lecture "Metaphor as material practice" on November 11, 2024, this joint CIRMMT/ACTOR workshop will focus on vocal and instrumental timbre in relation to the metaphors used to describe them and to the concept of materiality in contemporary music.
McGill Doctoral Colloquium
Colloquium on November 20.
Jade Roth, “Orchestration Semantics: How Tailleferre’s Orchestration Conjures Imagery in the Ballade (1920)”
Functional orchestration: principles, recent findings, prospects
Functional orchestration is an approach to orchestration (orchestration practice as well as music theory and orchestration analysis) that attempts to link orchestration techniques with perceptual effects by considering their musical and perceptual goals (functions).
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will meet four times over the course of this semester. All are invited to attend any or all of the meetings, whether or not you have been in previous semantics meetings.
Arts, Humanities, and Interdisciplinary Methodologies Workgroup
The Arts, Humanities, and Interdisciplinary Methodologies workgroup will hold its first meeting on Wednesday, September 25th at 10:00 AM EST.
We will reserve time to discuss projects at any stage, from conception to completion.
All are welcome!
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will meet four times over the course of this semester. All are invited to attend any or all of the meetings, whether or not you have been in previous semantics meetings. If you’d like more detail about what the topics below are, I recommend looking at the Y6 meeting documentation, and you’re also welcome to message/email Jason and I with questions.
All meetings are on Mondays at 1pm Eastern for this semester, based on the results of the general availability poll. We will take notes and record at all meetings. If there’s one you’d like to be at but can’t attend, let us know, and we’ll keep you updated/in the loop.
All meetings will be hosted on Zoom.
September 16, 1pm Eastern - Semantics Pedagogy Project
October 21, 1pm Eastern - Cross-linguistic Semantics Project
November 25, 1pm Eastern - Data Organization and Tool Development
December 9, 1pm Eastern - General meeting; updates & discussion
Best,
Lindsey Reymore (LREYMORE[at]asu.edu) and Jason Noble (jason.noble[at]umoncton.ca)
Elegies
Kjel Sidolski, organist and master student in composition at University of Montréal, will perform his piece Élégies at Église Saint-Édouard in Montréal (6500, rue de Saint-Vallier), in the context of the Religious Heritage Days.
ACTOR Y6 Workshop 2024 — Vancouver
The Year 6 Annual Workshop will be hosted by the School of Music of the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It will be held in a hybrid format (online/in person). This year, the workshop will be preceded by a three-day edition of the second Timbre and Orchestration Summer School (TOSS).
The event page can be found here.
Timbre and Orchestration Summer School | Vancouver
The Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project is pleased to announce our second Timbre and Orchestration Summer School (TOSS2), held at the University of British Columbia’s School of Music in Vancouver, Canada, July 12–15, 2024.
Timbre Semantics Workgroup Meeting
Hello all!
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will be holding a Zoom meeting on Thursday, June 13 at 12:30pm Eastern time. You will be able to join the meeting here: https://asu.zoom.us/j/5352528724
All are welcome, whether or not you have been to a previous semantics workgroup meeting.
If you would like to share a project update, brainstorm an idea, or put a call out for collaborators (this can be as formal or as informal as you'd like), email Lindsey Reymore at lreymore@asu.edu. We’ll also be sharing informal updates and discussing future projects for the workgroup.
Hope to see you there!
Timbre Semantics Workgroup Meeting
Timbre Semantics Workgroup Meeting
Hello all!
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will be holding a Zoom meeting on Thursday, May 9 at 11:00am Eastern time. You will be able to join the meeting here: https://asu.zoom.us/j/5352528724
All are welcome, whether or not you have been to a previous semantics workgroup meeting.
If you would like to share a project update, brainstorm an idea, or put a call out for collaborators (this can be as formal or as informal as you'd like), email Lindsey Reymore at lreymore@asu.edu. We’ll also be sharing informal updates and discussing future projects for the workgroup.
Hope to see you there!
Concert “Vacillations harmoniques en six tableaux”
Hello everyone,
There will an upcoming concert co-organised by the QUASAR saxophone quartet and ACTOR called "Vacillations harmoniques en six tableaux", featuring premieres by 6 McGill composers (2 from our lab). The concert will take place in the MMR (Elizabeth Wirth Building, -2) on Thursday May 9 at 7:30pm. After several months of research, meetings and creative workshops, the QUASAR musicians and composers are ready to present the fruit of this new collaboration.
PROGRAMME (free admission)
Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez - Ebb and Flow (Premiere, 2024)
Chelsea Komschlies - Beneath the Old Power Plant (Premiere, 2024)
Anita Pari - A Flickering Glow (Premiere, 2024)
Lila Wildy Quillin - Amortisseur Harmonique (Premiere, 2024)
Jonas Regnier - En s'effaçant (Premiere, 2024)
Louis-Michel Tougas - Cinq miniatures (Premiere, 2024)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1461265471172078?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Timbre and Orchestration Analysis Workgroup Meeting
The Timbre and Orchestration Analysis Workgroup will be meeting via Zoom from 10:00 to 11:30 (EDT) on April 5. All ACTOR members with an interest in music analysis are welcome to attend. The agenda for this meeting will include planning for our session at the Y6 workshop in Vancouver and lightning talks on ongoing analysis-related projects by ACTOR members—anyone who'd like to present should contact Robert Hasegawa (robert.hasegawa@mcgill.ca).
Zoom Link https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/2632309272.
CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium on Orchestration Research VIII
ACTOR is pleased to announce the seventh ACTOR / CIRMMT Student Symposium, held as a online event on Friday, March 22nd, 12pm-2pm.
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
Timbre Semantics Workgroup
Hello all!
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup will be holding a Zoom meeting on Thursday, March 21 at 3:00pm Eastern time. You will be able to join the meeting here.
All are welcome, whether or not you have been to a previous semantics workgroup meeting.
If you would like to share a project update, brainstorm an idea, or put a call out for collaborators (this can be as formal or as informal as you'd like), email Lindsey Reymore at lreymore@asu.edu. We’ll also be sharing informal updates and discussing future projects for the workgroup.
Hope to see you there!
Porous Instruments: Synthesizers and the Circulation of Cultural Value | Jennifer Iverson (University of Chicago)
Conférence de prestige de la Faculté de musique
Jennifer Iverson (University of Chicago) | ‘Porous Instruments: Synthesizers and the Circulation of Cultural Value’
Synthesized sound pervades our experience: A futuristic sci-fi thriller opens with electronic whirrs, clicks, and hums. Top-40 radio resuscitates the sounds of the analog Moog and the digital Yamaha DX-7 synths. Teenagers gather at clubs to lose themselves in the trance-inducing loops of DJ-produced electronic dance music. Hip hop producers create sick beats from samples, layered over the mechanical thumps of drum machines like the TR-808. How did synthesized sound become so ubiquitous? Culturally speaking, why does synthesized sound matter?
Porous Instruments investigates the production, flow, and meaning of synthesized sound. I argue that electronic music technologies—synthesizers, studios, turntables—fuel the emergence of raced, gendered, and classed sounds, as well as the circulation of social capital. Synthesizers might appear to be black boxes, but they are in fact porous tools for self-fashioning: users constantly intervene with new design affordances, hacks, and off-label (mis)uses. As listeners encounter new synthesized sounds, they navigate a continuum from novelty to ubiquity, ever-inventing new meanings for the electronic sounds that swirl around them. This talk works through several examples, from TPain to Janelle Monae, from Wendy Carlos to J Dilla, and from Deniece Williams to John Chowning, showing how cultural value accrues to synthesized sound. I attend to the outward-moving processes of mobility and circulation, as well as the inward-moving processes of subcultural definition, as I analyze how synthesized sounds flow through several different instruments. Porous instruments mediate the social synthesis of identity, prestige, and cultural value.
Jennifer Iverson is a scholar of electronic music, sound studies, and disability studies. She is an Associate Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago. She is currently writing a book titled Porous Instruments: Synthesizers and the Circulation of Cultural Value, which explores the complex histories and (mis)uses of synthesizers such as the vocoder, Moog, the DX7, and the TR-808. Her first book is Electronic Inspirations: Technologies of the Cold War Musical Avant-Garde (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Analyzing Heterophony: Theory, Perception, and Performance | Jonathan De Souza (Western University)
Analyzing Heterophony: Theory, Perception, and Performance | Jonathan De Souza (Western University)
Dans le cadre du projet « Hétérophonie » (CRSH) dirigé par Jonathan Goldman
Jonathan De Souza holds a PhD in music theory and history from the University of Chicago, an MMus from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a BMus from Western University. He joined the faculty at Western in 2013.
De Souza’s research combines music theory, cognitive science, and philosophy. It examines the interplay of technology and technique in both classical and popular repertoire. His book, Music at Hand: Instruments, Bodies, and Cognition, asks how instruments affect music’s sounding organization and players’ experience. De Souza often collaborates across disciplines, and he is an Associate Member at the Brain and Mind Institute.
At Western, De Souza teaches a range of undergraduate theory courses. Recent graduate courses have explored the history of music theory and science, phenomenological aspects of music analysis, and music theory pedagogy. From 2017–2019, he served as the director for Music, Cognition, and the Brain, an initiative at Western that brings together faculty members and graduate students from music theory and music education, cognitive neuroscience, audiology, and related fields.
CIRMMT Spatial Audio and Immersive Sound Workshop
CIRMMT Spatial Audio and Immersive Sound Workshop
We are eager to share our first CIRMMT RA4 event in 2024, on February 23rd.
The CIRMMT Spatial Audio and Immersive Sound Workshop will bring together experts from across the CIRMMT community, including students, as well as industry partners to cover various aspects of Spatial Audio and 3D Immersive Sound.
Description:
The Workshop will consist of a full day of lectures on several topics relevant to the core themes of Spatial Audio and 3D sound. Besides, there will be a variety of practical demonstrations ranging between an open hardware design for a new multidirectional loudspeaker array for spatial sound reproduction, 3D Ambisonic recordings including live demos with composers/performers with the possibility to listen to the resulting recordings immediately afterwards, as well as listening sessions of intricate multichannel music recordings in 7.1.4. Dolby Atmos in the immersive sound labs.
The workshop will consist of lectures on spatial audio in the morning and activities, performances, and demonstrations in the afternoon.
Spatial Audio Workshop Details
Date: February 23rd, 2024
Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Location: A-832, MMR and the immersive labs in -2 (527 Sherbrooke O. Montreal, QC)
Seating is limited and registered attendees will have priority.
Nous sommes impatients de vous convier à notre premier événement de l’AR4 en 2024, qui se tiendra le 23 février.
L’atelier « CIRMMT Spatial Audio and Immersive Sound » rassemblera des experts de toute la communauté du CIRMMT, incluant étudiants et partenaires de l’industrie, pour explorer divers aspects de l’audio spatial et du son immersif 3D.
Description:
L’atelier offrira une journée complète de conférences couvrant une multitude de sujets pertinents dans les domaines de l’audio spatial et du son 3 D. En plus des présentations, les participants auront l’opportunité d’assister à diverses démonstrations pratiques. Ces démonstrations incluront la conception d’un dispositif innovant pour un ensemble de haut-parleurs multidirectionnels, une session d’enregistrement ambisonique 3D avec des démonstrations en direct par des compositeurs et interprètes, suivie de l’écoute immédiate des enregistrements réalisés, ainsi que des sessions d’écoute de musique multicanal dans une version Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 dans nos laboratoires sonores immersifs.
L’atelier débutera par des conférences sur l’audio spatial le matin et se poursuivra avec des activités, performances et démonstrations l’après-midi.
Détails de l’atelier
Date : 23 février 2024
Heure : 9 h - 17 h
Lieu : A-832, MMR, les laboratoires immersifs du -2 (527 rue Sherbrooke O. Montréal, QC, H3A 1E3)
Les places sont limitées et les participants inscrits seront prioritaires.
Analysis Workgroup Meeting
Hello ACTORians!
Our Analysis Workgroup will hold its next meeting via Zoom on Friday, January 26, 11:30-13:00 ET. All interested ACTOR members are welcome to join us, whether or not they've been to meetings of this group before. https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/2632309272
Workgroup participants are welcome to bring topics for discussion, including any ongoing or new projects involving music analysis and timbre/orchestration. This session will include an update on the analysis of our CORE (composer-performer research ensemble) pieces, including the use of the OrchView application for annotation and data coding, plus plans for an issue of the Revue Musicale OICRM on CORE.
Looking forward to Friday the 26! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
All the best,
Bob
Approche collaborative de la création musicale : Processus de recherche compositionnelle et d’analyse autour du projet EROC3
Approche collaborative de la création musicale : Processus de recherche compositionnelle et d’analyse autour du projet EROC3
Bonjour à toute la communauté,
Cette semaine, le Colloquium d'études supérieures en composition et création sonore a le plaisir de recevoir le tandem composé de Simon Grégorcic et Matthieu Galliker, qui viendra faire une présentation à la Faculté de musique, ce jeudi 25 janvier de 12h30 à 14h au B-521. L'entrée est libre! Vous êtes les bienvenu·es!
Approche collaborative de la création musicale : Processus de recherche compositionnelle et d’analyse autour du projet EROC3
Notre étude se penche sur le cas de la création d’Accords secrets pour sept instruments et électronique de Simon Grégorcic. S'inscrivant dans le cadre d'un séminaire associé à la troisième édition du projet Ensemble de recherche en orchestration contemporaine (EROC3) du regroupement scientifique Analysis, Creation, and Teaching Timbre and Orchestration (ACTOR), cette collaboration a réuni une équipe de sept étudiant·e·s en interprétation, Matthieu Galliker (musicologie) et Simon Grégorcic (composition) pour réfléchir, expérimenter et mettre en œuvre des problématiques liées au timbre et à l’orchestration, à travers un processus participatif de création ayant abouti sur un concert en avril 2023. Ce processus a rapidement été canalisé autour des idées de paysage sonore et d’espace musical. Sur les suggestions de chaque membre à propos d'enjeux poétiques et techniques (modes de jeux instrumentaux, résonance et spatialisation, écriture instrumentale, technologie), l'œuvre a progressivement pris forme pour aboutir à Accords secrets. Tout au long de cette collaboration, un suivi musicologique a été réalisé afin de rendre compte des stratégies de création qui ont été empruntées. Notamment guidée à travers les concepts d'« atelier » et d' « espace », la présente communication visera à montrer ce contexte de travail, ses enjeux et limites et les mettra en perspective à l'aune d’une analyse de la pièce pour en faire ressortir le parcours collaboratif.
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Après une formation de pianiste au Conservatoire de Versailles dans la classe de François Chaplin, Simon Grégorcic entame en France une carrière de pianiste accompagnateur et de professeur de musique. À partir de 2014 il poursuit une formation en composition instrumentale au Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, et poursuit actuellement un doctorat à l’Université de Montréal sous la direction de Caroline Traube et Jimmie LeBlanc. Il a collaboré dans des projets divers avec l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal (Véronique Lacroix), L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Kent Nagano), Le Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Julian Pellicano), l’Orchestre de la francophonie (Simon Rivard) entre autres…
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Après des études en musicologie et histoire du théâtre musical ainsi qu’en histoire de l’art effectuées à l’Université de Fribourg en Suisse, Matthieu Galliker entreprend en 2022 une thèse de doctorat à la Faculté de musique de l’Université de Montréal, portant sur l’imitation des chants d’oiseaux dans la musique humaine de 1950 à nos jours. Membre de l’Observatoire interdisciplinaire de création et de recherche en musique (OICRM), du regroupement Analysis, Creation, and Teaching Timbre and Orchestration (ACTOR) et du Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), ses centres d’intérêt s’étendent de la zoomusicologie – notamment à propos des relations entre cultures humaines et non humaines – à la sémiologie de la musique, et comprennent une attention particulière à l’intégration de réflexions touchant à la fois au processus compositionnel et à la perception de la musique.
Afrological Perspectives on Timbre & Orchestration | Braxton Shelley
Minister, musician, and musicologist Braxton D. Shelley is a tenured associate professor of music, of sacred music, and of divinity in the Department of Music, the Institute of Sacred Music, and Yale's Divinity School. A musicologist who specializes in African American popular music, his research and critical interests, while especially focused on African American gospel performance, extend into media studies, sound studies, phenomenology, homiletics, and theology. Shelley is the author of Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination as well as the forthcoming An Eternal Pitch: Bishop G.E. Patterson and the Afterlives of Ecstasy. His research has received considerable recognition including the Alfred Einstein Prize, Paul A. Pisk Prize, the Jaap Kunst Prize, and the Adam Krims Award. He received his Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Music at the University of Chicago.
Timbre Geeks Networking (TGN) Event
ACTOR's Training and Mentoring Committee is pleased to announce our annual Timbre Geeks Networking (TGN) event, which will be held online on January 19, 2024, from 12h-14h EST. This year's TGN is slightly different: we invite any ACTOR student who is interested in applying for the Y6 Student Presentation Award (https://www.actorproject.org/funding/student-workshop-presentations) to deliver a lightning talk on their proposed project. Fellow students and members of TMC will offer feedback on each talk in service of helping students develop competitive proposals for the Y6 presentation award. All are welcome, but registration is required if you wish to present.
Afrological Perspective on Timbre & Orchestration | Ayò Olúrántí
Ayò Olúrántí is a composer, conductor, organist, and music theorist specializing in pre-colonial Yorùbá music and culture. Equally fluent in the fields of production and computer technology, he is also an active member of the digital and virtual pipe organ community. His cross-cultural approaches to composition and scholarship have earned him considerable international attention. He has performed and composed in Nigeria, the UK, the USA, South Africa, and Germany. Olúrántí is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Morehouse College Sub-Sahara Africa Commission Award, Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, and was the winner of the Donald Sutherland Endowment Fund Composition Competition. He has published research on tonality of African languages, polyrhythm in African pianism, intercultural music composition, and orality as a compositional technique. Olúrántí received his Ph.D. in Composition & Theory from the University of Pittsburgh.
The Timbre of Early Blackface in the Making of (Black) Americana | Matthew D. Morrison
This talk will consider how the timbre of string band music has been racialized through the legacy of blackface, while recovering some of the performed histories (past and present) of Black string band musicians.