Orchestration Analysis Taxonomies and the Orchestration Analysis and Research Database

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This group aims to develop different orchestration analysis taxonomies encompassing different creative, practical and perceptual perspectives.

Stephen McAdams, Kit Soden, Félix Baril

Contact: stephen.mcadams[at]mcgill.ca

Timbre and orchestration practice are so complex and involving a plethora of dimensions and potential focuses that to approach their analysis in music requires the development of taxonomies that capture specific categories that are operative in orchestration practice from a given perspective.

The initial approach, deriving from the psychology of perception, was to codify the role of auditory grouping principles (concurrent, sequential, segmental) that affect the structuring of sound into events, streams or layers of events, and delineated groups of events, with a particular focus on the role played by timbre through orchestration. A second approach is to categorize the different techniques used by orchestrators and taught in orchestration classes. A subsequent phase will be to compare the results of the two taxonomies on analyses of the same pieces to determine overlaps and divergences that could be used to refine orchestration pedagogy.

Another approach, phenomenological this time, will be to develop Lasse Thoresen's method of Aural Sonology into an analysis taxonomy. This method approaches the analysis of music-as-heard, with techniques of characterizing the perceptual properties that emerge from sounds and their combinations over time. The resulting taxonomies have begun to be implemented in a computer-based score analysis platform (OrchView) and the analysis results will be integrated into the Orchestration Analysis and Research Database (OrchARD) to provide a place for further research on orchestration practice. OrchARD is currently being reprogrammed to include the updated grouping effects taxonomy implemented in OrchView into a new data model that will allow for direct import of data from OrchView. OrchARD allows a user to build queries to explore the database and pose specific questions in terms of the implemented taxonomy.

• Perceptual effects taxonomy (Stephen McAdams, Kit Soden). See the About page for this taxonomy.

• Orchestration techniques taxonomy (Denys Bouliane, Félix Baril, Dominique Lafortune)

• Aural Sonology taxonomy (Lasse Thoresen, Dominique Lafortune, Philippe Macnab-Séguin, Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière)

• Comparative analyses confronting perceptual effects and orchestration techniques (Stephen McAdams)

• Functional Orchestration related to musical aims of composers ( Fabien Lévy)

• Metatimbre and grouping related timbres (Victor Cordero, Kit Soden)

• Timbre and Form in piano music (Nathalie Hérold)

• Orchestration and Timbre-based structures and forms (Stephen McAdams, Matt Zeller, Kit Soden)

• OrchView, analysis and annotation software (Félix Baril). See the Working Groups page for more info.

• Publishing of “A Taxonomy of Orchestral Grouping Effects Derived from Principles of Auditory Perception” by Stephen McAdams, Meghan Goodchild, and Kit Soden (2022) on Music Theory Online

• Workshop: Applying all the taxonomies to the analysis of one composition (May 2021)

• Publishing the perceptual grouping effects taxonomy

  • Beta-testing the implementation of the grouping effects taxonomy in OrchView

• Refining the orchestration techniques taxonomy

  • Implementation of the techniques taxonomy in OrchView

  • Beta-testing the implementation of the techniques taxonomy in OrchView

  • Publishing the orchestration techniques taxonomy

• Comparison of the grouping effects and techniques analyses.

• In collaboration with Timbre and Orchestration Analysis group: applying the effects and techniques taxonomies to a selection of pieces/études produced in Round 1 of the CORE project.

• Integrating these taxonomies into orchestration courses.

• Publishing the Functional Orchestration taxonomy

• Publishing the Metatimbre-based research

• Studying emergent perceptual and affective qualities of instrumental combinations or sound-processing techniques and their cultural associations

• Investigating instrumental playing techniques, particularly extended techniques used in the contemporary music repertoire

• Optical Music recognition score entry'

• Aural sonology taxonomy module

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• Contact Andre Martins de Oliveira if there are any issues accessing this Slack Channel

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