Newsletter no. 22
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
October, 2022
CREATIONS AND PRODUCTIONS
ACTOR EduFilm Series
The first ACTOR EduFilm is now live! Join Stephen McAdams and his lab assistant Cameron Chameleon as they present ACTOR and its various activities.
Please disseminate as widely as you can—more videos are coming soon! Next in the series: Cameron Chameleon explores cross-modal correspondences.
ACTOR Promotional Video
We are proud to launch a new promotional video of ACTOR! Have a look and learn a bit more about this great community of artists, scientists and humanists. Did you know that there are 19 partner institutions, 104 collaborators, and 98 students involved in the project? (P.S. Remember to add this YouTube link to your email signature)
PUBLICATIONS
New publications involving ACTOR members have been made available.
McAdams, S., Goodchild, M. & Soden, K. (2022). A taxonomy of orchestral grouping effects derived from principles of auditory perception. Music Theory Online, 28(3).
Olivier Class : La flûte aux XXe et XXIe siècles, Paris, éditions Minerve, 2022.
Pierre Michel & Maryse Staiber : Rediscovering the Meaning of Words with Hölderlin: About Drei Phantasien by György Ligeti, in Wolfgang Marx, I don't belong anywhere - György Ligeti at 100, Brepols, 2022. Read more
For the complete bibliography of ACTOR, visit - ACTOR Publications.
PRESENTATIONS
Musicians Auditory Perception
On Sunday, October 2nd, ACTOR members Jeanne Côté and Pedram Diba presented their contributions to the ACTOR research-creation project Musicians Auditory Perception at the IRCAM Forum 2022 at New York University. Florian Grond and ACTOR member Tiange Zhou, who are also involved with MAP, participated virtually in the event.
L'Annonce faite à Marie
9, 11, 13, 14 October - Théâtre Graslin (Nantes, France)
6, 8, 9 November - Opéra de Rennes (France)
19 November - Grand Théâtre (Angers, France)
The Angers-Nantes Opera, in a co-production with Ensemble Cairn and Ircam will premiere Phillipe Leroux's opera L'Annonce faite à Marie, conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne. The opera is based on the mystery play of the same name by Paul Claudel from 1912 with a libretto by Raphaèle Fleury. Read more
CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium on Orchestration Research V
21 October | 12:00-1:30pm (EDT)
Online - Zoom
The ACTOR Project and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research is Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) will be co-hosting a hybrid symposium on orchestration research on Friday, October 21, 12:00-1:30pm (EDT). The event is open to all and will include presentations by ACTOR Postdoctoral Fellows Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez and Ben Duinker followed by a discussion period.
The Performer's Voice in Music Theory/Analysis Research – Ben Duinker
Timbre Topologies - Conception and Exploration of Timbral Similarity, Analogy, and Difference in my Creative Practice – Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez
Space As Timbre (SAT) Presentation
11 Octobre | 18h30 (HNE)
Salle Clara Lichtenstein
McGill University
The Space As Timbre project enables the collaboration between student composers and performers from two ACTOR partner institutions in the creation of new works for an ensemble of 6 instruments. The purpose of SAT is to use computer-assisted orchestration, as well as the creativity and practical knowledge of instrumentalists in recreating spatial effects of particular target sounds with the medium of an acoustic ensemble, thereby creating the opportunity to treat space as a form-bearing element in music.
We invite you to join us for a public presentation of our research followed by the premiere of three works on October 11th, 2022 at 18:30 in the Clara Lichtenstein Hall of the Schulich School of Music at McGill university.
Timbre Semantics Workgroup Meeting
17 Octobre | 10h00 (EDT)
Online - Zoom
ACTOR's Timbre Semantics Working Group will be holding a virtual meeting on Monday, October 17, at 10am ET. We will be checking in on action items from the summer workshop as well as offering a space for potential new projects/collaborations to be discussed. If you have an item to propose for the agenda, please email lreymore@asu.edu and jason.noble@umontreal.ca. We hope to see you there!
Timbre Geek Networking Meet & Greet
4 November | 1:00-3:00pm (EDT)
Online - Zoom
We would like to invite all ACTOR Student Members to join us for the Timbre Geeks Networking (TGN) Meet & Greet, an event that connects students with similar research interests. TGN’s main goal is to enable students to develop collaborative projects and apply for the Collaborative Student Project Grant. This funding opportunity offers $8,000 (CAD) per project distributed as $4,000 (CAD) per student. To be eligible, applicants must be from different ACTOR academic institutions and at least one of the applicants must be from a partner institution. The deadline to apply is February 1, 2023. For the complete eligibility and to access the application form, visit ACTOR Internal Pages.
The TGN Meet & Greet will be held virtually on Friday, November 4 from 1:00-3:00pm (EDT). In order to get to know each other and find potential collaborators, please come prepared to briefly talk about your timbral and orchestrational interests. If you already have research ideas and are looking for collaborators, great! If this is your first time doing collaborative research and are looking to learn more, that’s great too!
You can also start learning about other ACTOR members’ research on the internal directory. If you haven’t filled out the directory yourself, please do so at your earliest convenience – ACTOR internal directory.
If you wish to start connecting NOW, please join the ACTOR community on Slack! We have created a channel specifically for student members (actor-student_members) to facilitate the exchange of ideas. If you are not part of it, let us know and we’ll add you ASAP.
Project Updates
Recording and Mixing a French Sound
This past 30th and 31st of May, within the frame of a joint research and teaching project between McGill University and Detmold University of Music, recordings on replicas of Erard Frères and Anton Walter fortepianos were executed by Tom Beghin, Martha de Francisco, and Malte Kob, along with a group of students of Erich Thienhaus Institute at HfM Detmold.
Initial investigations were made to gain knowledge about the effect of different configurations and playing styles on the interpretation of compositions played on the two instruments. From the recordings of the room acoustics and the instruments' sound, a large repository was created for future evaluation. Additional research includes the analysis of acoustic recordings of the sound board using an acoustic camera and dedicated methods for vibration analysis. From the outcome we expect to reveal especially the impact of the double sound board on the timbre of the Erard piano.
Path of Miracles
On August 25-28, 2022 the rich sonority of the historical Chapelle du Grand Séminaire de Montréal presented the acoustical canvas for a multifaceted choral recording and research project. Under the baton of Andrew Gray, leading Montreal choir Voces Boreales performed Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles for mixed chorus (2005), a musical pilgrimage for 18 voices inspired by the millennial Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
Principal investigator, Tonmeister Martha de Francisco directed the production using a precisely fine-tuned immersive recording array that included close and diffuse elements. PhD student researcher Ying-Ying Zhang was in charge of implementing experimental spatial audio capture systems, including two comparative systems for capturing height and bottom-layer reproduction and two second-order Ambisonics positions accompanied by 360-degree video. They were aided by a recording team that included graduate students in Sound Recording assisting and visually documenting the process.
The recording will serve multiple purposes, including a release in stereo and immersive sound as well as a sound installation. The extensive repository of recorded tracks will remain accessible to the ACTOR community. It will be at the center of choral blending research studies and expert aural analysis and comparative evaluations at the Detmold University of Music and at McGill University, which will lead to academic papers, TOR contributions and 3D audio presentations.
Pedram Diba
Pedram Diba (b.1993) is an Iranian-American composer of acoustic, acousmatic, and mixed music residing in Chicago. He has been a member of the ACTOR Project since 2019 and through it, Pedram has participated in, and initiated various research-creation projects such as the CORE Ensemble Project, Musicians Auditory Perception, and Space As Timbre.
Pedram completed his B.M. in composition at the University of Oregon where he received the prize of Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar in Composition. Later, he received the Max Stern Fellowship in Music to attend McGill University, where he completed his M.M. in Composition under the supervision of Philippe Leroux. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. in composition and music technology at Northwestern University.
Pedram Diba's music is published by Babel Scores.
Pedram is a participant of the Space As Timbre student research-creation project. SAT enables the collaboration between student composers and performers from two ACTOR partner institutions in the creation of new works for an ensemble of 6 instruments. The purpose of SAT is to use computer-assisted orchestration, Orchidea, as well as the creativity of trained musicians in recreating spatial effects of chosen target sounds with an acoustic ensemble, thereby creating the opportunity to treat space as a form-bearing element in music.
Orchidea is used to create various solutions for the orchestral synthesis of each target sound. During this process, the goal is to experiment with various settings for partial filtering and sparsity to achieve the closest timbral result taking into account spatial considerations of the target sound. In addition to Orchidea, the musicians of the ensemble take part in achieving the closest spatial effect of a particular sound by experimenting with various playing techniques in ongoing workshops. This could result in solutions with innovative playing techniques that Orchidea may not have suggested. The outcome of this research-creation project includes a public presentation followed by the premiere of the pieces.
Photo: Zaira Castillo
Jithin Thilakan
Jithin Thilakan is a Marie Curie ESR fellow in the EU project VRACE and a doctoral student working under the supervision of Dr. Malte Kob at Erich Thienhaus Institut, Detmold University of Music, Germany. He conducts research in the area of objective and perceptual evaluation of complex sound sources and musical ensembles in real and virtual acoustic environments. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-ISM) Dhanbad, India, with a Master's degree in Physics in 2019. Combining a passion for understanding acoustic phenomena with a background in applied physics, Jithin's main research interests are music acoustics, room acoustics, auralization, and psychoacoustics.
Jithin conducts research at the intersection of music, science, and technology that aims to reconstruct a perceptually convincing spatial sound field impression of joint musical performances in the virtual reality domain by incorporating different aspects such as directivities of individual instruments, variable room acoustic conditions, and musician-room interactions. One of the main questions that are addressed in his research is the evaluation of the blending of instruments in a joint performance and the contribution of the room acoustic environment in the perception of blending. He seeks to better understand the perceptual relevance of the directivity of musical instruments in room acoustic environments. In addition, he also works on improving the perceptual quality requirements of the auralization of joint performance using room acoustic simulations. Jithin is an ACTOR student member since February 2020 and he actively collaborates with sound engineers and musicians within the consortium in scientific projects such as ODESSA, study on choral blending, etc.
Get in touch with him at: jithin.thilakan@hfm-detmold.de
Student Exchange Funding
The Student Exchange Funding aims to support ACTOR student members conducting research within the ACTOR project's mandate at an ACTOR partner institution. A maximum of $2,500 CAD per applicant in support of travel and living expenses will be provided. The minimum length of the exchange is 2 weeks. Exchanges must be between ACTOR partner institutions. Applications may be submitted online by 5:00pm (EST) on November 15, 2022 for exchange visits from January through June. Please note that, before submitting an application, it is important to verify the travel restrictions at both the home and host institutions/countries. In order to facilitate the application process and encourage more students to apply, the letters from the home and the host institution will no longer be required. Check Student Exchange Funding for more details.
Satellite Meeting Funding
The purpose of the Satellite Meeting Funding is to increase ACTOR's visibility at international conferences by supporting the organization of adjunct meetings involving at least two ACTOR members. A maximum amount of $300 (CAD) will be provided. Applications will be accepted continuously, but must be submitted at least two months prior to the conference date. For more information on how to apply and to access the online application form, visit ACTOR Funding Opportunities.
Sound Genres: Exploring Sound as Foundational Practice
The University of Victoria School of Music is seeking contributions for the two-day conference Sound Genres: Exploring Sound as Foundational Practice, co-organized by Dr. Anthony Tan and featuring Dr. Eliot Britton as Keynote Speaker. The symposium will gather sound practitioners and scholars from across Canada to reflect on current practices and their potential engagement in shaping the music curriculum in higher education. The conference invites artists and scholars to submit proposals for their sessions and events. Read more
Contributing to TOR
We encourage all ACTOR members to share their research (in progress or completed) with the ACTOR community via the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR). This may include an article, blog, or video submission containing information on project ideas, experiments, external resources/tools, teaching materials, analysis, or anything related to timbre and orchestration that you deem relevant. We believe that only in doing so will we truly benefit from the expertise and feedback from the world-class team of scientists, artists, and humanists involved in ACTOR. If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact Kit Soden.
