The Spectral Piano

The Spectral Piano
Author: Marilyn Nonken
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2014-03-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1107018544

Marilyn Nonken finds precedent in the works of pianist-composers Liszt, Scriabin and Debussy for spectral attitudes towards the musical experience.

Spectral Music Design

Spectral Music Design
Author: Victor Lazzarini
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2021-07-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0197524044

Processing audio in the spectral domain has become a practical proposition for a variety of applications in computer music, composition, and sound design, making it an area of significant interest for musicians, programmers, sound designers, and researchers. While spectral processing has been explored already from a variety of perspectives, previous approaches tended to be piecemeal: some dealt with signal processing details, others with a high-level music technology discussion of techniques, some more compositionally focused, and others at music/audio programming concerns. As author Victor Lazzarini argues, the existing literature has made a good footprint in the area but has failed to integrate these various approaches within spectral audio. In Spectral Sound Design: A Computational Approach, Lazzarini provides an antidote. Spectral Sound Design: A Computational Approach gives authors a set of practical tools to implement processing techniques and algorithms in a balanced way, covering application aspects as well the fundamental theory that underpins them, within the context of contemporary and electronic music practice. The book employs a mix of Python for prototyping and Csound for deployment and music programming. The tight integration of these three languages as well as the wide scope offered by the combination (going from embedded to supercomputing, and including web-based and mobile applications) makes it the go-to resource to deal with the practical aspects of the subject.

Physics of the Piano

Physics of the Piano
Author: Nicholas J. Giordano
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2016-10-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0192506633

Why does a piano sound like a piano? A similar question can be asked of virtually all musical instruments. A particular note-such as middle C-can be produced by a piano, a violin, a clarinet, and many other instruments, yet it is easy for even a musically untrained listener to distinguish between these different instruments. A central quest in the study of musical instruments is to understand why the sound of the "same" note depends greatly on the instrument, and to elucidate which aspects of an instrument are most critical in producing the musical tones characteristic of the instrument. The primary goal of this book is to investigate these questions for the piano. The explanations in this book use a minimum of mathematics, and are intended for anyone who is interested in music and musical instruments. At the same time, there are many insights relating physics and the piano that will likely be interesting and perhaps surprising for many physicists.

Stravinsky and the Russian Period

Stravinsky and the Russian Period
Author: Pieter C. van den Toorn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2012-05-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107021006

A fresh look at Stravinsky's musical style, from a variety of analytical, critical and aesthetic angles.

Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale

Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale
Author: William A. Sethares
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2013-06-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1447141776

Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale focuses on perceptions of consonance and dissonance, and how these are dependent on timbre. This also relates to musical scale: certain timbres sound more consonant in some scales than others. Sensory consonance and the ability to measure it have important implications for the design of audio devices and for musical theory and analysis. Applications include methods of adapting sounds for arbitrary scales, ways to specify scales for nonharmonic sounds, and techniques of sound manipulation based on maximizing (or minimizing) consonance. Special consideration is given here to a new method of adaptive tuning that can automatically adjust the tuning of a piece based its timbral character so as to minimize dissonance. Audio examples illustrating the ideas presented are provided on an accompanying CD. This unique analysis of sound and scale will be of interest to physicists and engineers working in acoustics, as well as to musicians and psychologists.

Music after the Fall

Music after the Fall
Author: Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2017-02-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0520959043

"...the best extant map of our sonic shadowlands, and it has changed how I listen."—Alex Ross, The New Yorker "...an essential survey of contemporary music."—New York Times "…sharp, provacative and always on the money. The listening list alone promises months of fresh discovery, the main text a fresh new way of navigating the world of sound."—The Wire 2017 Music Book of the Year—Alex Ross, The New Yorker Music after the Fall is the first book to survey contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post–Cold War era. In this book, Tim Rutherford-Johnson considers musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing connections with the other arts, in particular visual art and architecture, he expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall. Each chapter is a critical consideration of a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions, and develops a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from electroacoustic music studios in South America to ruined pianos in the Australian outback. Rutherford-Johnson puts forth a new approach to the study of contemporary music that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique than on the comparison of different responses to common themes of permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.

Spectra

Spectra
Author: Arthur Davison Ficke
Publisher:
Total Pages: 94
Release: 1916
Genre: American poetry
ISBN:

The Spectral Piano

The Spectral Piano
Author: Marilyn Nonken
Publisher:
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2014-05-10
Genre: Piano music
ISBN: 9781139921978

Marilyn Nonken finds precedent in the works of pianist-composers Liszt, Scriabin and Debussy for spectral attitudes towards the musical experience.

Classical Music, Why Bother?

Classical Music, Why Bother?
Author: Joshua Fineberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1136089225

The famous quip I don't know much about art, but I know what I like sums up many people's ideas about how to judge a work of art; but there are inherent limitations if we rely on immediate impressions in judging what should be enduring products of our culture. While some might criticize this as a return to elitism, Joshua Fineberg argues that without some way of determining intrinsic value, there can be no movement forward for creators or their audience. He draws on contemporary thought about Design space and Universal Grammar to show how intrinsic values can be rediscovered. He then looks at the importance of multimedia in allowing multiple points of entry for the discovering of new works, finally showing how the composer can Design music for human beings--creating a kind of art that can preserve the research agenda of conceptual work without renouncing the understanding of human listeners and performers embodied by craft. Classical Music: Why Bother? will intrigue all listeners of contemporary music, students of musical thought, and composers-but it will also interest students of contemporary aesthetics. It answers the age-old question How can we bring a new audience to contemporary art? - and challenges both the creators and their audience to broaden their ideas about what is valuable and lasting in today's culture.