Newsletter no. 12
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
October, 2021
Newsletter Menu
OUTCOMES | UPCOMING EVENTS
ACTOR FOUNDING MEMBERS | OPEN CALLS
ACTOR Outcomes
CREATIONS & PRODUCTIONS
"Everyone Became a Trail" by Assaf Shatil
Assaf Shatil's commissioned work entitled Everyone Became a Trail was premiered October 1st at the Old First Church in San Francisco. A song cycle for the full Ninth Planet ensemble featuring soprano, Everyone Became a Trail is based on poems that Shatil wrote in response to life during the Covid-19 pandemic. This work reflects on the bewilderment, anxiety, and bittersweet beauty experienced during uncertain times of isolation and quarantine. Read more
"Fantasy for Orchestra" by Eliazer Kramer
Eliazer Kramer is one of the composers selected to participate in the 2022 Winnipeg New Music Festival Composers Institute. As part of this festival, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will perform the first movement of Eliazer's composition, Fantasy for Orchestra. The concert will be livestreamed at the end of January 2022. Read more
photo by Olivier Lassu
PRESENTATIONS
Distinguished Lecture and Workshop at CIRMMT
ACTOR member Carmine-Emanuele Cella from the University of California, Berkeley was involved in a series of events at CIRMMT (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology) in Montréal. His talk, as part of the CIRMMT Distinguished Lecture series, was titled "Can Picasso Think in Shapes?" and took place on Monday, October 4th. A subsequent workshop, "Smart Instruments for a Stupid Composer: How to write music for instruments that do not exist" discussed techniques for composing with augmented instruments. On Thursday, a concert of Carmine's works was performed by the Sixtrum Percussion ensemble. Read more
PUBLICATIONS
New publications involving ACTOR members have been made available:
Jeffrey E. Boyd, Friedemann Sallis, & Martin Ritter, (2021). A Computational Examination of Spectral Music. Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, 20(2), 125–156.
Xin Wang, Yujia Wei, Lena Heng & Stephen McAdams (2021). A Cross-cultural Analysis of the Influence of Timbre on Affect Perception in Western Classical Music and Chinese Music Traditions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 732865. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.732865.
For the full bibliography, please visit ACTOR publications.
UPCOMING EVENTS
ACTOR-CIRMMT Symposium on Orchestration Research
17 November | 4:30-6:30pm EST
McGill University - Room A832 |555 Sherbrooke St.
The event will include four presentations on the Composer-performer Orchestration Research Ensemble collaboration based on the presentations listed below. A discussion period will follow.
Composer-performer Orchestration Research Ensembles (CORE) – Stephen McAdams, Eliot Britton, Keith Hamel, Roger Reynolds, Caroline Traube
Documenting Composer-Performer Collaboration on Orchestrational Problem Solving – Yuval Adler, Robert Hasegawa, and Joshua Rosner
Orchestrational thinking and composer-performer relationships in the context of a collaborative creation process – Justine Maillard, Caroline Traube, Lindsey Reymore, Stephen McAdams
E-Rock: Creating Blend, Combining Styles, and Composing through Collaboration – Eliazer Kramer
Registration is required for in-person attendees. REGISTER HERE
** In accordance with regulations from the Gouvernement du Québec and McGill University, presentation of vaccine passport will be required for entry in addition to regular COVID-19 precautions, including wearing a mask and distancing.
Symposium Dialogues: Analysis and Performance
Various ACTOR members will have their research featured at the 2021 Symposium Dialogues to take place in a hybrid format at the University of Toronto, 7-9 October. Co-organized by Ben Duinker, the event is dedicated to the analysis and performance of contemporary music, highlighting scholarship and artistry that engages with these areas.
Presentation involving ACTOR members include:
Eliot Britton (University of Toronto), Kevin McPhillips, David Arbez, and Patrick Hart (independent) - "Performing Corporate Culture: Analyzing Meta-Narratives and Online Interactivity Through Quigital."
Lindsey Reymore and Jacqueline Leclair (McGill University) - "Taking it off the page: Interpretation and performance-driven analysis."
Lena Heng (McGill University) and Megaria Halim (University of Western Ontario) - Helmut Lachenmann's Wiegenmusik for piano (1963), as part of the Workshop: Cross-Disciplinary Collaborations: Analysis and Performance.
ACTOR Associate Director Robert Hasegawa(McGill University) and ACTOR member Ryan McClelland(University of Toronto) will also be present as invited guests, presenting, respectively, "Analysis Workshop: Georgia Spiropoulos's Roll...n'Roll...n'Roll for solo harp and electronics" and "Performance and Analytical Perspectives on Steve Reich’s Sextet." Read more
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Bob Pritchard
Bob Pritchard (BMus UBC ’79, MusM U. of T ’82, DMA UBC ’92) teaches music technology and directs the UBC digital performance ensemble SUBCLASS. He began teaching at UBC in 1993 and is twice tenured, once as a teaching professor and once as a research professor. He has received teaching awards from UBC and the University of Melbourne, and his work Strength received a Unique Award of Merit from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers. His compositional and research work have been supported by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the BC Arts Council, SSHRC, and NSERC.
His research has included gesture-controlled formant speech synthesis (Digital Ventriloquized Actors – DiVA), infra-red body and gesture tracking for media control (Kinect-Controlled Artistic Sensing System – KiCASS), the development of e-textile sensor systems (Responsive User Body Suits – RUBS, Sleeve-Hand Responsive User Garment – SHRUG), and the study of accents in British Columbia spoken English (Determining Regional Accents With Literature – DRAWL). As part of his Tracking And Smart Textiles Environment (TASTE) colour and pose tracking have been added to KiCASS to overcome performer ID confusion caused by dancer occlusion or re-entry into the tracking area. Recently he worked with Tactual Labs Co. in the development of its BendShape® sensor for the control of sound and articulatory synthesis. (Shaping Harmony for Artistically Provocative Expression -- SHAPE)
Some of his work with sensors makes use of custom-designed boards for ESP33 circuits. The configuration allows for 19 sensor inputs and two channels of outputs to power and control addressable LEDs, and is part of the development of interactive light spines for dancers.
Pritchard’s most recent compositional works are Synapses, for oboe, dancer with light spine, and Max/MSP (commissioned by Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble), and Dōshite? for piano, SHRUG, and Max/MSP/Jitter (commissioned by Megumi Masaki).
Victor Cordero
After studying piano and music theory at the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona, Victor Manuel Cordero-Charles began teaching in numerous schools. Decisive meetings with Helmut Lachenmann and Jorge Pepi Alósle convinced him to embark on a career as a composer. He then studied in Switzerland with Nicolas Bolens, Eric Gaudibert, and Michael Jarrell at the Geneva Conservatory. He also worked on electroacoustic music with Rainer Boesch, Emille Ellberger, Luís Naón and Eric Daubresse. His catalog includes instrumental, electroacoustic, and mixed works that have been performed in Europe, America, and Australia by renowned performers.
He is currently Professor of Orchestration at the Haute école de musique de Genève and Professor of Theory at the Neuchâtel campus. His research is mainly focused on pedagogical innovation and the creation of computer-assisted orchestration tools, as well as on the creation of a taxonomic organization of orchestration techniques adapted to analysis and teaching.
OPEN CALLS
ODESSA IV: Composition Competition for ACTOR Student Members
The ODESSA IV research team is launching a Composition Competition for ACTOR Student Members* to compose a theme and variations for a Violin Ensemble (nine violins), which incorporates the musical attributes listed below. The duration of the work can be 5 to 7 minutes. For research purposes, the theme statement and at least one of the variations must be a unison line (tutti), the other variations can and should contain other layers/textures/harmonies etc. The composition must take into account that a student ensemble will be making the recording and that there is limited rehearsal time; the playability of the score will therefore be one of the factors in the jury’s decision.
Throughout the variations, one or more of these attributes needs to be highlighted:
Different articulations (staccato, legato, etc.)
Different registers
Dynamic variations (ppp through fff)
Variations in tempo
Varied attributes (micro-modulations) (e.g. non vibrato/smooth vibrato/molto vibrato, grain, sul tasto/sul ponticello, bow pressure changes, etc)
THE AWARD
The winner** will be selected for recording and analysis by a jury consisting of members of the ODESSA IV research team. A commission of $1400 CAD will be awarded to the winner. As well, the top five compositions will be selected for a concert performance at an ACTOR partner institution (Winter/Summer 2022 or 2022/23 school year) and a live recording.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please submit an anonymized score with a pseudonym on this form.
Deadline for the Call for Scores: 11:59 EDT, November 1st, 2021
Winners announced: November 22nd, 2021
Parts for the winning score due: November 29th, 2021
Read more
* Under SSHRC guidelines, postdocs are eligible to apply as well.
** The jury reserves the right to choose a second and third place winner(s), if the composition(s) demonstrate a quality that would be helpful for the recording session and experiments. These runners-up will be given a monetary prize/commission as well, the amount to be determined depending on budgetary constraints.
Timbre and Orchestration Resource
Publish on the TOR! Please consider writing an article or a blog for the Timbre and Orchestration Resource. Article submissions are peer-reviewed by the ACTOR Central committee. Blog entries can be posted within days (or even day of) submission on our Timbre and Orchestration Blogs page. Contact Kit Soden with questions and submissions.
Video Series
Post your videos on the TOR! Send us any video content you'd like posted on our Video Series page: your conference presentations, your concert recordings, etc. Contact Kit Soden with questions and submissions.