Laptop Musicianship
Semester 1 2012-13

http://rhoadley.net/courses/
http://rhoadley.net/courses/lapmus/examples
http://www.ludions.com/aru/lapmus/
Assessment Submission Details
Lectures
MPA Writing Guide



Week 1
Exercise
Practice basic file usage and recording in Logic.  Get used to copying files across, etc...












Week 2
Theme
(Theory: Rhythm, tempo, note lengths and score editing)

Music v sound design; sonic art

Turner prize, Music and Sound Design: Broadcasting House, BBC Radio 4, 120930: start at 24 minutes

Roles and Functions

Logic: sampling, playing back and basic editing.

Logic recording

For next week compose a 20-60 second piece created using only recordings and edits of your own voice.  
Make sure you bring the project file as well as a bounce of the project.  
NB this is NOT an assessed item!


Repertoire
Monday lecture: Art of Noises

Listening
Luigi Russolo - Risveglio di una città [1914]
Edgard Varese - Ionisation [1929-31]
John Cage - Williams Mix [1952-53]
Henri Pousseur - Scambi [1957]
Luciano Berio - Omaggio a Joyce [1958]
Merzbow - Woodpecker No. 2 [1999]
Autechre - Vi Scose Poise [2001]
Kim Cascone - Edgeboundaries 123 [2001]

Reading
Luigi Russolo - The Art of Noises [pdf] available from UbuWeb
John Cage - The Future of Music: Credo in Cox & Warner, 2004, Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music
M. Russo and D. Warner - Rough Music, Futurism and PostPunk Industrial Noise Bands in Cox & Warner, 2004, Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music
Chad Hensley - The Beauty of Noise: An Interview with Masami Akita of Merzbow in 
Cox & Warner, 2004, Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music

Resources
Hewitt, Chapters 4-5

Examples

Exercises
Bring in controllers for next week!












Week 3
Theme
(Theory: Intervals and metre)
Laptop orchestras
 - Princeton Laptop Orchestra
 - Stanford Laptop Orchestra @ Bing Concert Hall
 - Stanford Laptop Orchestra
 - Carnegie Mellon Laptop Orchestra (Dannenburg)
 
Live coding: miniAudicle/Chuck, SuperCollider, Impromptu on Vimeo, A Study in Keith, ixi-quarks
Live Coding in SuperCollider resources

Rigs and interfaces

Using the MIDI keyboard (parsing information) and other controllers;
Various controllers and methods of communication;
Mini-rigs, spatialisation;
MIDI - Wii - game controller (HID) - OSC;
Using Max to identify MIDI data easily (midiparse) - patch;
All or one thing: approaches to software and hardware

Logic sampling (EXS24 Sampler)
Logic in performance

Structuring compositions, improvisations, basic composing, using templates, or not...
ABA', contrast...

MaxMSP hi-midi router, text
MaxMSP midi-info patch, text

Logic software instruments


Repertoire and Resources
Musique Concrete, reduced listening and the early studios
  
How rooted is this in the technology of the day?

Listening
Pierre Schaeffer - Symphonie pour un homme seul
Jonty Harrison - Unsound Objects
Delia Derbyshire - various works

Reading
Hewitt, Chapters 6-7
Peter Manning - 'Paris and Musique Concrete' in Manning, 2004, Computer Music
Pierre Schaeffer - 'Acousmatics' in Cox & Warner, 2004
Delia Derbyshire - www.delia-derbyshire.org

Examples


Exercises for next week
Each person to plan some rules for a short (ten minute max) improvisation for your group.
You should plan each improvisation to last about 6-12 minutes. 
The suggested plan is for three sections, ABA, where A has a certain character, 
and B has a contrasting character.
You should suggest and if possible implement specific ideas, events and features, using whatever 
software you think is appropriate.
Feel free to use your own equipment.
Next week you'll consider each of these plans when planning and 
performing your own group performances - we'll try and perform two contrasting 
items.

In addition, consider some performance/interface scenarios (for instance, using 
a certain type of interface, such as the Microsoft Kinect, and how you might use it).  
Don't worry about practicalities; use your imaginations, but try and be specific 
about things you're insterested in investigating or trying out.  
Outline one or two of these and bring along next week.












	
Week 4
(Theory: Chords and melodies.)
Composition
Practice: 'melody' and 'accompaniment'
Improvisation practice 1: bring examples of your own work, instruments, etc. 
You'll be expected to work in groups for the session. Group members may change. 
The sessions will not be assessed.


Repertoire and Resources
Musical appropriation and remixing

Listening
James Tenney - Collage #1 ("Blue Suede")
Bernard Parmegiani - Du pop a l'ane
John Oswald - Dab

Reading
Cutler - 'Plunderphonia' at www.ccutler.com/ccutler/writing/plunderphonia.shtml
Oswald - 'Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative' at 
http://www.plunderphonics.com/xhtml/xplunder.html
Hewitt, Chapters 8-9

Other examples


Exercises for next week












Week 5
Theme
Roles and Functions
Approaches to Composition and strategies
Notations presentation

Logic: Notation

Repertoire and resources
Elektronische Musik and the Cologne studios

Listening
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontakte

Reading
Peter Manning - 'Cologne and Electronische Musik' in Manning, 2004, Computer Music
Stockhausen - 'Four Criteria of Electronic Music' [video]
'Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews' in Stockhausen & Maconie, 2000, pp. 88-111
Stockhausen - 'Artists Statements' in Collins & d’Escrivan, 2007
Hewitt, Chapters 10-12.

Examples

Exercises











Week 6
Theme
Composition assessment session
Logic: Sequencing - patterns and textures
Introduction to Audacity

Repertoire and resources

Lecture
Music on Film, Oramics, Parmegiani films

Viewing
Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Doctor Who (and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop)
Delicatessen


Examples

Exercises
For week 7 bring along a sketch of one of the themed compositions you're considering submitting.












Week 7
Theme
Logic synthesis
http://rhoadley.net/courses/logic/sc2logic004.rtf

Composition assessment tutorials

Theory: More on chords; Additive rhythm.

Repertoire and resources
Electronic Music II - Electronica
 
New approaches to electronic music

Listening
Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy
Brian Eno - Music for Airports
Radio - Ideoteque

Reading
Stockhausen et al. - "Stockhausen vs. the Technocrats", in Cox & Warner, 2004
Eno - "Ambient Music" in Cox and Warner, 2004
Eno - "The studio as compositional tool" in Cox and Warner, 2004
Cascone - "The aesthetics of failure: Post-Digital Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music" in Cox and Warner, 2004
Neill - "Breakthrough Beats: Rhythm and the aesthetics of contemporary electronic music" in Cox & Warner, 2004 

Examples

Exercises
Within your groups plan two constrasting performances.  
Try not to be precise throughout, but try to include some areas where precise coordination between performers is necessary.
Choose a compositional scenario.
Include at least one aspect of clear and distinct contrast in your performance.












Week 8
Theme
Improvisation session 2

w8 groups
Benjamin Sugar			1
Roy Knouker				3
Aaron Sayers			1
Chris Dartnell			1
Jake Sparrow-Hunter		2
Ben Rickard				2
Pat Cotter				2
Sam Hopkins				1
Jimmy Morris			2
Adam Raw				2
Josh Brown				3
Daniel Wakenell			3
Josh Bates				3

Repertoire and Resources
Process-based music

Listening
Steve Reich - Come Out, Pendulum Music
Paul Lansky - Idle Chatter, just_more_idle_chatter, Notjustmoreidlechatter
Alvin Lucier - I am sitting in a room

Reading
Reich - "Music as a Gradual Process" in Cox & Warner, 2004

Exercises
For week 8 bring along sketches of the themed compositions you're considering submitting.












Week 9
Composition assessmnent session and tutorials

Imogen Heap and the gloves
TEDxBRISTOL 2011 - CREATIVITY SESSION - IMOGEN HEAP
Kinect, ‘Magical Gloves’ Let Imogen Heap Turn Movement Into Music

Video: Three minutes with Imogen Heap at Wired 2012

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2012-04-20/imogen-heaps-musical-gloves/


http://rhoadley.net/courses/lapmus/PresentationChooser_v005.rtf

Repertoire and resources
The use of natural sound materials and gestural archetypes

Listening:
Bernard Parmegiani - Dedans/Dehors
Denis Smalley - Pentes
Reading:
Denis Smalley - "Spectromorphology: explaining sound-shapes", Organised Sound, 2(2), 1997
"Sound landscape" in Wishart, 1997
John Dack - Instrument and Pseudoinstrument. Acousmatic Conceptions at: www.sonic.mdx.ac.uk/research/dacklabber.html

Examples

Exercises
Within your groups prepare for next week's rehearsal.



w10/11 groups
Benjamin Sugar		3
Roy Knouker		1
Aaron Sayers		2
Chris Dartnell		1
Jake Sparrow-Hunter	1
Ben Rickard		3
Pat Cotter		3
Sam Hopkins		2
Jimmy Morris		2
Adam Raw		1
Josh Brown		2
Daniel Wakenell		3
Josh Bates		3
Adam Coller		2












Week 10
Theme
Improvisation session 3: preparation for assessment

Repertoire and resources

Sonic transformation

Listening:
Trevor Wishart - Vox 5, Red Bird
Michael McNabb - Dreamsong

Reading:
‘Sound Landscape’ in Wishart, 1996

Examples

Exercises
Within your groups prepare for next week's performance, which will be assessed and become a part of your final mark for the class.












Week 11
Theme
Improvisation session 4: assessment

Repertoire and resources

Generative music and chance operations

Listening:
John Cage - Fontana Mix
Iannis Xenakis - La Légende d’Eer

Reading:
Xenakis - Légende d’Eer [DVD, including interview and images]

Examples

Exercises












Week 12
Documentation

We review the written elements of the module, espectially in relation to the MPA
writing guide.

Please bring along drafts of your submissions for us to go over.

Resources
MPA writing guide

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