Archive for the 'Papers' Category
My paper, “Ontological Substance and Meaning in Live Electroacoustic Music,” has been released in the select proceedings of the Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval conference with the theme Genesis of Meaning in Sound and Music published by Springer. (more…)
Leonardo Music Journal Volume 18 (2008): Why Live? Performance in the Age of Digital Reproduction
“Structure in the Dimension of Liveness and Mediation”
by Jeffrey M. Morris
ABSTRACT: While technological developments can replace some aspects of live performance, they have also opened a new dimension of musical structure: that of liveness and mediation, which requires live performance in order to be meaningful. Liveness itself can be used and manipulated as a distinct musical element. The author describes these concepts at work in his compositions that explore mediatization as a device of intermedial imitative counterpoint and formal structure.
Emergent forms and themes in performance and culture in the first decade of C21 Edited By Peter Eckersall And Helena Grehan Online Now www.performanceparadigm.net PERFORMANCE PARADIGM No 4, 2008. Featuring reviews of recent books by Rustom Bharucha, Mike Pearson, Leslie Hill and Helen Paris and the enormous Performance Cosmology from CPR in Wales. We also have Meg Mumford’s detailed analysis of recent publications on contemporary theatre in Europe by and Maggie Philiips’ discussion of new work by Ramsay Burt . The articles section features new essays from a number of established and emerging scholars in the field. The topic of new forms and paradigms in performance emerges in essays such as Kate Rossmanith’s account of Bio Art, Jeffrey Morris’s discussion of digital music performance and Diana Smith’s account of Sydney based visual artists ‘The Kingpins’. We are especially excited to be publishing Meiling Cheng’s recent exploration of recent performance work in China.
From elementary school through college, music composition and theory pedagogy often focuses on beginning from a set a “safe” rules. While this demonstrates some reasons why familiar music sounds “right,” such exercises rarely produce expressive or interesting music. Such compositions are typically void of dots and accidentals and do not much resemble “real” musical works–something about the musical experience is missing from approaches like these.
In the following process, students rely heavily on listening and spatial reasoning, and they learn not to be afraid of wrong notes and revising. Because the process begins with a poem and includes drawing a graphic score, this project could be tied into learning goals in Reading and Art classes.
I’ve heard many stories about the surprisingly large and huge amount of failures that many ultimately successful people have faced in time (Abraham Lincoln comes to mind), and comparing these anecdotes to my own experience, it appears that I am on the right track. It has been difficult to make time for creative and scholarly work amidst my other more “squeaky” job requirements, but somehow (I still don’t know how, really), I managed to complete and submit an extraordinary (for me, at least) amount of creative and scholarly work in and around the month of December, 2007. The speedy onset of new projects hasn’t died down and given me a real chance to breathe yet, but I did take a moment to reflect on the results of that “mensis mirabilis” and see how it turned out. (more…)
The diatonic harmonica can be a gorgeous and expressive instrument. Its standard Richter tuning cleverly allowed players to get the right notes and decent harmonies just by knowing the basic contour of the melody and the difference between tonic and dominant (I and V) harmonies. However, its design allows for a lot more than that. (more…)
From the 2007 International Computer Music Conference in Copenhagen:
After an introductory survey of how feedback appears in common musical processes and situations, interactive compositions by the author are described, which have later been incorporated in complex feedback systems. In such systems, software is able to take on a voice of its own and become responsive more like an instrument than a composition. This highlights aspects of the changing roles of the composer and computer in musical creation and performance. A general model of feedback instruments is drawn from observations made in developing and performing these works in the past two years.
Morris, Jeffrey M. “Feedback Instruments: Generating Musical Sounds, Gestures, and Textures in Real Time with Complex Feedback Systems.” In Proceedings of the 2007 International Computer Music Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark: 2007.
Three original software programs utilizing improvisation and live sampling are presentedhere, along with a discussion of aesthetic issues raised by each. They are entitled Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Musiker, Motet, and Gamepad Sampler. These programs vary in thedegree of required interaction and in the kind of user control. They are each studies in imitative counterpoint through live sampling, with an approach seeking elegance before solutions. Because of the improvisational nature of these works, there is no standard musical score. Instead the complete Max/MSP source code and a sound recording of performances making use of these programs in varied situations are included.
A discussion of issues raised by these works includes aesthetics, ontology, performance, and the role of the composer. Non-interactive indeterminate compositions are ontologically thin,because some composerly agency is required of the performer. An interactive work can be ontologically substantial if it makes distinct and significant contributions to performance, eventhough it may not make sound on its own. Although reproducibility reduces ontology and eliminates aura, live sampling within a performance can deepen the ontology of the performance by recontextualizing previous events, reframing the original event as the first reference to an abstract musical idea that lies outside the musical performance. Reproducibility also diminishes the aura or stage presence in live performance with computers. Complex feedback systems canbe used to create computation instruments: musical instruments whose unique structure resonates in ways not explicit in their programs. As the human condition and the situation of the composer change, definitions of the composer and performer must be revised. Composition is shifting away from the creation of static artifacts toward the design of dynamic systems.
Morris, Jeffrey M. Live Sampling in Improvised Musical Performance: Three Approaches and a Discussion of Aesthetics. DMA dissertation. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas, 2007.
From the 2004 International Computer Music Conference in Miami:The possibilities offered by electronic composition tools, while liberating, make difficult the dynamic use of organized rhythm in electroacoustic music. This paper explores a model stemming from interactive electroacoustic work by the author that adopts aspects of the hocketed, disjunct rhythmic textures of funk styles for use as a developmental musical parameter. These methods for generating rhythm that facilitate transformation in ways more naturally manipulated by computer-based tools are demonstrated in theory and in use by the author.
Morris, Jeffrey M. “A Dynamic Model of Metric Rhythm in Electroacoustic Music.” In Proceedings of the 2004 International Computer Music Conference. Miami, Florida: University of Miami, 2004.