Newsletter no. 36
Newsletter no. 36
Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration Project
TOR Spotlight:
ACTOR's word of the Year 2023 - "Timbrarium"
by Victor Cordero and Kit Soden
The term musical instrument is a very general concept that touches many interdisciplinary aspects in the fields of humanities (such as history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc.), and scientific disciplines (such as acoustics or engineering). All these intertwined dimensions have their specific role in the construction of the mental image of a “musical instrument”.
From the point of view of sound perception, the sonic capital of an instrument (all the possible sounds produced by a given instrument) form the main independent corpus that contributes to build this multidimensional portrait of an instrument.
We have already seen that the term “timbre of an instrument” (for instance, “the timbre of the clarinet” or “the timbre of the violin”) cannot be used to label this constellation of heterogeneous elements because, in fact, there are lots of timbres that can be produced by a single instrument.
As an attempt to designate this global timbre content of an instrument, we propose the term Timbrarium or instrument-based timbrarium. This includes not just the common, well-known sounds, but also unconventional, extended, or experimental techniques that might result in unique and less familiar timbres and … not-yet-invented sounds!
The concept of Timbrarium is useful for musicians, researchers, sound engineers, music producers, and anyone deeply engaged with sound and music. It deepens understanding of an instrument's potential and allows for a more detailed exploration of specific sonic domains; each Instrument-based Timbrarium is a unique imaginative space for exploration and discovery.
Follow the link to read the full blog post on the TOR
Upcoming performances of Fabien Lévy's music
Durch, in memoriam G. Grisey from 1998, for saxophone quartet will be performed on March 20, at the Svoboda Square in Ruse Bulgaria by Signum Saxophonquartet
Chroniques déchantées for accordion and piano from 2019/2023 will be performed on March 24, at 5pm at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben in Edenkoben, Germany by Ensemble Ascolta's Anne-Maria Hoelscher on the accordion and Florian Hoelscher on the piano.
8th CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium on Orchestration Research
The Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Reserach in Music, Meddia, and Technology(CIRMMT) will be co-hosting a symposium on orchestration research on Friday, March 22, 12:00-2:00pm (EDT). The symposium features work-in-progress presentations by ACTOR student members, recipients of the Student Collaborative Grant. The event will be held virtually, on Zoom, and is open to all.
Ulezo: Mapping Acoustic Properties to Timbre Descriptors in Zambian Luvale Drum Tuning, Jason Winikoff (University of British Columbia) & Lena Heng (University of Prince Edward Island)
Real-time Timbral Analysis for Musical and Visual Augmentation, Martin Daigle (McGill University) & Pauline Patie Pelicaut (Université de Montréal)
Timbral, Textural, and Rhythmic Stratification in Footwork Percussion, Jeremy Tatar (McGill University) & Victor Burton (Universität der Künste Berlin)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 825 2367 6012
Passcode: 708368
For more information, contact actor-project.music@mcgill.ca.
Timbre Semantics Workgroup meeting
The Timbre Semantics Workgroup would like to organize a meeting around the third week of March. To that end we kindly ask that members submit their availability via the link below by Friday, March 8.
All are invited to attend, whether or not you have been to a previous meeting of this group.
Workgroup
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).
Rebecca Moranis is a music theorist and flutist from Toronto. She is a second-year PhD student in music theory at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. Rebecca holds a Master’s in music theory and a Bachelor’s in flute performance with a minor in mathematics, both from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include timbre and memory, spanning contemporary and 20th-century analysis, music cognition, and computational music theory. She co-authored “Rhythm Contour Drives Musical Memory” published in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (2023), and in 2023 presented at the SMT, MTSNYS, NECMT, ACTOR Y5, Timbre 2023, and Fresh Science conferences, as well as at McGill’s CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium on Orchestration Research VII. Rebecca is the student representative on ACTOR’s Executive Committee, and newly joined the Arts, Humanities, and Interdisciplinary Methodologies Workgroup as a co-leader.
Her research is supported in part by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. She teaches music theory at Hunter College as an adjunct lecturer and previously taught music theory and math at the University of Toronto. Rebecca has been a member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists since 2021, received her ARCT in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of
Francesco Maccarini is a PhD student in Computer Science at the Université de Lille, with a diverse background in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Music. Originally from Italy, he obtained his MSc in Mathematical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, specializing in Statistics and Machine Learning, and he is now finalizing his doctoral studies. His musical journey began at a young age, studying violin with the Suzuki method, and later pursuing formal classical training recognized by the Conservatories of Pavia and Lille. Currently, he contributes as a member of the Orchestre Universitaire de Lille.
For his doctoral thesis, Francesco focuses on exploring Artificial Intelligence methods for Orchestration. His research centers on computationally analyzing classical orchestration techniques, particularly in representing complex musical concepts like orchestral texture. He aims to develop AI-assisted composition and orchestration models grounded in music theory, emphasizing collaboration with human artists for creative outcomes. Overall, Francesco's interests lie at the intersection of Music creation and analysis, Computer Science, and Mathematics, driving his research in this interdisciplinary field.
