Newsletter no. 25

Written By ACTOR Research Team

Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project

February, 2023

Newsletter no. 25 — Subscribe here

 

 

TOR Spotlight

Death, Sex, and the Semitone in Monteverdi's “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo”

New Amazing Moment in Timbre entry by Jay Marchand Knight! Click on the link to read this interesting essay entitled Death, Sex, and the Semitone in Monteverdi's "Pur ti miro, pur ti godo" in which they ellaborate on the "timbral representation of sex (and maybe death)" in Monteverdi's famous duette from L'Incoronazione di Poppea.

 

 

The Alchemical Wedding

New Amazing Moment in Timbre entry by ACTOR student member Linglan Zhu. Click on the link to read Linglan's compelling essay on the incorporation of East-Asian instrumental timbral qualities in Liza Lim's piece The Alchemical Wedding.

 

 

Presentations

 2022 Performances

Compositions of ACTOR Student Member Jorge Ramos were played all around in 2022. See the complete list of performances bellow: 

  • Suivi by Rowan Jones at the Royal College of Music London, England

  • Prelude and Project 2 at Sonic Matter 2022 Festival, Switzerland and  at Festival Ecos Urbanos 2022, Mexico

  • Layers by Cat’s Cradle Collective at the Union Chapel (Upper Hall), England

  • Paysage in Festival Música Viva 2022 at O’culto da Ajuda, Portugal and in SOUND/IMAGE 22, England

Photo by Teresa Projecto

 

 

The Music of Dialect

On January 18 2023 at the Tanna Schulich Hall at McGill University ACTOR member Jason Noble and guitarist Steve Cowan produced a concert of music for guitar, electronics, and recorded speech. The concert featured several pieces based on Newfoundland dialects, and was a deliverable of Noble's current postdoctoral project.

These pieces will be featured on an album to be released later this year, funded in part by an ACTOR Research-Creation grant. Also on the album will be fantaisie harmonique, a piece for guitar double-orchestra recorded with ACTOR funding and described in detail in a module on the TOR.

 

 

Master Seminar - Analyser le timbre/Analyzing Timbre

From January through May 2023, Nathalie Hérold will teach the Master Seminar "Analyser le timbre/Analyzing Timbre", at Sorbonne University's Centre Clignancourt. The seminar takes place Thursdays from 11:00-13:00 on even weeks.
Abstract: Musical analysis has often given a privileged place to pitches, in particular through the study of scores. However, the timbral dimension has acquired an increasing importance in music and musical thought since the second half of the 18th century. The objective of this seminar is to consider and implement different methods and tools ⏤including computer tools⏤ allowing the integration of timbre in an analytical and theoretical approach. The present seminar is designed in close relation with the international project ACTOR (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration).

 

 

WhatsPop

On February 7th, the Ensemble Cairn premiered WhatsPop by Aurélien Dumont at the Scène Nationale d'Orléans in France. This psychedelic-lyric fresco for soprano, amplified instrumental ensemble and electronics featured soprano Juliette Allen and conductor Guillaume Bourgogne. Read more

Photo by Jérôme Pellerin-Moncler

 

 

Publications

New publications involving ACTOR members have been made available:

The ACTOR project is the subject of an article by Brazilian composer and performing arts professor at the University of Brasilia Marcus Mota, published by the Ictus Journal in 2021.

For the full bibliography, please visit ACTOR publications.

ACTOR member receives SMPC research grant

ACTOR member Jay Marchand Knight received a student research grant from the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) to support their work on voice timbre, visual bias, and gender perception.

Jay and supervisor, Mickael Deroche, received funding from SMPC specifically to investigate the interaction of pitch, timbre, and appearance in the evaluation of voice type from the perspectives of cisgender and transgender people. The project makes use of the Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS), created by Steven R. Livingstone and ACTOR member Frank A. Russo. The ultimate goal of Jay's project is to understand the assumptions we make about people's voices and leverage this knowledge to create more effective and inclusive vocal training programs. This is the inaugural year of SMPC's student research grant program and Jay is honoured to be part of the pilot program.

 

 

ACTOR member receives Lions of Portugal Scholarship

Congratulations to ACTOR Student Member Jorge Ramos for being one of the recipients of the Lions of Portugal Scholarship 37th Edition.Read more

 

 

Student Exchange Funding

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022-2023 Student Exchange, Round 1: congratulations to Kit Soden (Université de Montréal) and Jade Roth (McGill University). Kit conducted research at the Haute École de Musique (HEM) de Genève in January 2023, and Jade will be conducting research at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) in Spring 2023.

ACTOR Timbre & Orchestration Summer School

 DEADLINE EXTENDED: February 17, 2023
The deadline to apply for the ACTOR Timbre & Orchestration Summer School has been extended from February 1 to February 17. The event will be held at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 8-12, 2023. See more details below and submit your application.
APPLY NOW: https://airtable.com/shrkGV2UtBZs7s6nm

TUTORIAL SESSIONS
The Summer School program is organized in two parts:

July 8-9: single stream with six 2-hour tutorial sessionsJuly 10-12: participation in the Timbre 2023 Conference including informal discussion sessions with tutors

Details about the content of tutorial sessions are as follows: 

Analysis of timbre and orchestration | Robert Hasegawa (McGill University) & Ben Duinker (McGill University)Timbral archetypes / metatimbre: approaches in composition | Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez (McGill University) & Kit Soden (Université de Montréal)Perception of orchestration | Stephen McAdams (McGill University)Timbre semantics | Zachary Wallmark (University of Oregon) & Lindsey Reymore (Arizona State University)Vocal timbre and (shifting) power | Nina Eidsheim (University of California, Los Angeles)Timbre and audio content analysis | Marcelo Caetano (CNRS - PRISM)

PARTICIPANTS
We welcome graduate and advanced undergraduate students as well as postdocs and early-career researchers working and/or interested in the fields of composition, music analysis, music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, performance, popular music studies, music psychology, musical acoustics/room acoustics, computer-aided orchestration, computer science, digital humanities, sound recording, and auditory cognitive neuroscience.

COSTS
Selected participants will be notified by March 1, 2023 and invited to register. The Summer School tuition is €300, which includes registration for the Timbre 2023 conference and some of the meals during the school and conference.
 
More information: https://www.actorproject.org/timbre-and-orchestration-summer-school

 

 

Do You Hear What I Hear?”: An Afrological Approach to the Study of Sonic Representations from the African American Band Tradition

February 20
2:00-3:15pm (EST)
Online - Zoom

SAVE THE DATE! The Sub-Saharan African and Afro-Diasporic subgroup of the Diversity workgroup will present its fourth installation of the Afrological Perspectives on Timbre and Orchestration speaker series. On February 20, 2023 ethnomusicologist Marvin McNeil will present a talk entitled "Do You Hear What I Hear?”: An Afrological Approach to the Study of Sonic Representations from the African American Band Tradition ." His presentation will take place at 2:00pm EST over Zoom. The event is free, open to the public, and does not require registration. The series, spearheaded by Jason Winikoff, Joshua Rosner, and Jay Marchand Knight, will take place over the 2022-23 academic year. Future invited guests include Andile Khumalo and Joel LaRue Smith.Read more

Join Zoom Meeting: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/81300709482?pwd=aHFqWHQ2ZVU3eUs2K1lhaHFTUDhZZz09

 

 

Y5 Workshop

July 3-5, 2023
Université de Strasbourg

For those who have not yet responded to the Y5 Workshop Survey, we kindly ask you to do so at your earliest convenience. Results will help us proceed with logistical planning.

https://forms.office.com/r/Xz62jiQGTG

Please note that this is not a commitment to participate or a pre-reservation at the hotel we are negotiating with. You will have a chance to confirm your participation later via the registration form.

Office Hours

NEW Virtual Office Hours

As of January 19, ACTOR Postdocs Andrés Gutiérrez Martínez and Ben Duinker started holding virtual office hours aimed at ACTOR Student Members. The office hours are a dedicated space for you to ask questions or clarifications concerning various matters such as the different funding opportunities and publishing platforms available to you.

 This initiative is meant to inform and motivate students to participate in research and research-creation projects, and more broadly, to encourage you to take advantage of the ACTOR project to advance your own research and collaborate with other student members. 

Meetings will take place on Zoom every Thursday starting January 19th until June 1st from 12pm to 1pm EST; 
Zoom Link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/83091795949
Zoom Meeting ID: 830 9179 5949

Timo Grothe

Timo Grothe is a postdoc in Malte Kob's Music Acoustics workgroup at Detmold University of Music. With a research focus on woodwind instruments, he asked himself to which degree timbral characteristics are given by the musical instrument design. Starting to lecture Musical Acoustics, he recorded a set of 24-channel anechoic measurements on 40+ musical instruments, all playing the same melody. These data show the spatial variability in the sound spectrum when orbiting the instrument. Within ACTOR, Timo aims to collaborate on finding meaningful visualizations for musical instrument sounds, harvesting from the spectral and spatial information of these multichannel recordings.

Get in touch with us:
timo.grothe@hfm-detmold.de
malte.kob@hfm-detmold.de

See the video visualization for the oboe here.

Strategic & Research-Creation Project Funding

The deadline for Round 2 of the Strategic and Research-Creation Project Funding 2023-2024 is 5:00pm (EDT) on March 15, 2023. Projects must involve at least two members in different ACTOR institutions. The Principal Investigator for any proposal must be a regular ACTOR member at an ACTOR academic partner institution or an ACTOR co-applicant (not collaborator) at a non partner institution. Collaborators at non-partner institutions are not eligible as principal investigators for these grants but may be collaborators on the project.

The purpose of the ACTOR Strategic Project Funding is to encourage innovative research and/or pilot projects by members of the ACTOR Partnership whereas the Research-Creation Project Funding is meant to support collaborative work in timbre and orchestration between composers, performers, and researchers within the framework of the ACTOR mandate. For more information and to access the application forms, visit the ACTOR website.

 

 

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 (EDT) on April 15, 2023 for exchange visits from July through December. 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 2 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.

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. 

 
 
ACTOR Research Team