"Our grand design today, therefore, is to prepare the way for [musicians', technicians', scientists'] integration and, through and increasingly pertinent dialogue, to reach a common language which would take account of the imperatives of musical invention and the priorities of technology."
Pierre Boulez, "Technology and the Composer"


computer music theory

classification, objects, music list (incomplete)
  • Sound Elements
    • time
    • rhythmic density
      • number of sound changes as time elapses
    • pitch/frequency
      • how voices are centered in comparison to our hearing range.
    • voice/object density
    • learned technological source identification
      • FM has a characteristic sound that we can learn to identify after time.
    • source location
      • spatialization in 2, 4, 8 channels
      • how this helps us discriminate between sources
  • Relationship with natural world, natural sounds
    • mimesis: "the imitation not only of nature but also of aspects of human culture not usually associated directly with musical material." (Emmerson)
    • inclusion of natural material
      • concrète
      • blending tape works with live performance
    • natural identification/representation
      • synthesis of natural/traditional instruments, naturally occuring sounds



  • Problem: lack of common language created by infinite sonic palette.
  • Solution: creation of theory/system and parallel technology based on psychoacoustic principles.
  • Steps to Take:
    • Listen to Music
      • what is effective
      • what motivates composers' decisions
    • List techniques/technologies/concepts noted music has in common
    • List --> System
      • classical analog: tonal harmony
    • System --> Technology
  •    Initial Concerns
    • 'Modern' art embraces form and color as subject matter.
Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923.



Piet Mondrian, Composition A, 1923. 

    • Similarly, sound properties should be able to stand by themselves to create an aesthetic medium devoid of context and source meaning.
    • Traditional music does not allow this; sounds from musical instruments are immediately associated with their sources--both the horn and the musician playing it.
    • However, the lack of source information creates a whole set of problems for electroacoustic artists, especially for performance.
      • Many agree: it is harder to compel an audience with a tape work (where is the human it is coming from?)
      • Many times computer music is indistinguishable from sound effects and filter/algorithm demonstrations.
        • where do we draw the line?
        • do we need to?
  • Project Scope
    • Should this theory be based on my listening, or on a survey of the CCRMA music community?
      • The latter option is less practical for this quarter, though it'd be an exciting long-term project.
      • So, my results will be based on 80 hours of music, max.
    • What kinds of music should be included in this?
      • I initially wanted to include things that were "completely electronically generated".
        • not enough (good) music
        • such a small subset would make a theory that's practically useless
        • it seemed that most of my listening base was concrète, anyways.
      • So, I abandoned this idea and decided to listen to anything remotely electronic (at least for now).
  • A new twist
    • The level of human 'interference' with the sound (editing/composition/performance) seems to be a deciding factor when calculating the MGQ (Music Goodness Quotient...a highly objective term, of course) of a piece.
      • audiences respond better to performed tape works when there is a live human part involved.
      • human speech and recognizable/historically significant music snippets do wonders for concrete pieces
      • live electronica performances (clubs/shows) are still dependent on the presence of the artist, even when very little sound is being manipulated in real time.
    • What would happen if I classified my samples according to the level of human interaction with sound?
      • this would be a 180° turn from my original idea to leave humans out completely...

  • Examples of symbolic representation


from The Visual Display of Quantitative Information



Ligeti, Artikulation


Stockhausen, Kontakte

  • "For some time now, the composer's mental approach, his 'wild' invention, has been free to follow very different paths from those that the medium, the sound material, can offer him. This divergence has caused blockages dangerous enough for invention to lose all its spontaneity; when either the material or the idea develops independently, unconcerned whether or not they coincide, a serious imbalance develops, to the detriment of the work, which is tugged this way and that, between false priorities."

"Invention should not be satisfied with a raw material come upon by chance, even if it can profit from such accidents and, in exceptional circumstances, enlarge on them."

Pierre Boulez, "Technology and the Composer"
  • The books I'm reading
    • Simon Emmerson, ed. Language of Electroacoustic Music, especially Boulez, Wishart, Machover's chapters.
    • Perry Cook, ed. Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound.
    • Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
  • Helpful people
    • Chris Chafe
    • Fernando Lopez-Lezcano
    • My 220c class
    • Rodrigo Segnini
    • Roger Reynolds
    • Chris Burns
    • Juan Reyes
    • Your name can be on this list too! Simply email your suggestions to:  grace(at)ccrma.stanford.edu 

Grace Leslie
Music 220C
CCRMA, Stanford University