Formalized Score Control: Using Python and Abjad in Music Composition
Workshop Date:
Mon, 07/29/2019 - Fri, 08/02/2019
We are sorry to report that this workshop has been canceled. Please keep an eye out for it to be offered next summer. Thank you!
Introduction to the production of professionally engraved musical scores using the Python programming language and the Abjad API for Formalized Score Control as part of compositional practice. The course introduces Abjad's object-oriented approach to music notation and algorithmic composition through real-world examples and hands-on coding activities. No previous programming experience is required: Python basics will be taught from the ground up during the course with musical examples designed to make sense to composers. Topics covered include system installation and configuration; defining your own functions, classes and modules; generating structured tableaux of rhythms, pitch collections and other materials during precomposition; managing polyphony with operations on voices, staves and other musical containers; working with parametric score layout; understanding the document structure of complex scores; and controlling the details of musical typography programmatically.For information on Underrepresented Humans in Computer Music Scholarship for the Formalized Score Control workshop, please visit this page.
About the instructors:
Composer Jeffrey Treviño's orchestral, chamber, and solo acoustic and electroacoustic works have been premiered internationally by acclaimed soloists and ensembles at the Oberlin Conservatory Percussion Institute, the International Computer Music Conference, New York City’s Symphony Space, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Mexico’s Visiones Sonoras Festival, SIGGRAPH, the International Conference of the Society for Improvised Music, the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik, June in Buffalo, Portugal’s Vila Real Conservatory, New York City’s Miguel Abreu Gallery, the Carlsbad Music Festival, Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Akademie, the Mayo Clinic, and Mexico's National Center for the Arts. Treviño has shared his creative work at renowned festivals and universities and is in demand as a guest teacher and presenter; most recently, he offered composition masterclasses, lectures, and workshops as an invited composer in residence at the Ecos Urbanos (Mexico City) and Dias de Música Electroacústica (Seia, Lisbon) festivals of electronic music. He has been an invited composer-in-residence at Stuttgart's Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo, Porto. Treviño holds a PhD in music composition from the University of California at San Diego and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at California State University, Monterey Bay.
American composer Trevor Bača's artistic concerns include lost and secret texts; broken and dismembered systems; sorcery, divination and magic; and the effects, action and beauty of light. Bača's music has been played throughout the world with recent performances in Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Cincinnati, Cologne, Curitiba, Darmstadt, Helsinki, Huddersfield, Leuven, Ljubljana, Los Angeles, Lyon, Maastricht, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, Trieste, Würzburg and elsewhere. Bača's music has been played by soloists and ensembles around the world. Ensembles include the Argento Ensemble (New York); Callithumpian Consort (Boston); the Debussy Trio (Los Angeles); Distractfold (Manchester); Either/Or (New York); Ensemble Dal Niente (Chicago); Ensemble Echoi (San Diego); Ensemble Mosaik (Berlin); ensemble recherche (Freiburg); Ensemble SurPlus (Freiburg); manufaktur für aktuelle musik (Cologne); Talea Ensemble (New York); and others. Soloists include Brian Archinal (Bern); Séverine Ballon (Paris); Nico Couck (Antwerp); Madison Greenstone (San Diego); Richard Haynes (Bern); Jonathan Hepfer (Los Angeles); Marc Horne (Barcelona); Carin Levine (Bremen); Reiko Manabe (Tokyo); Mark Menzies (Los Angeles); Corrado Rojac (Trieste); Jürgen Ruck (Würzburg); Jessi Rosinski (Boston); Alan Toda-Ambaras (Boston); Alice Teyssier (New York); Elizabeth Weisser (New York); and others.
Bača's music has been programmed as part of the Darstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt); Musica Sacra (Maastricht); the Transit Festival (Leuven); and the Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik (Weimar). Prizes include Harvard University's George Arthur Knight Prize (2016); Harvard University's Sprague Prize in Composition (2015); Harvard University's Bohemians' Prize in Composition (2014); the Harry & Alice Eiler Foundation's Ježek Prize in Composition (2008); and the Debussy Trio's Susan & David Hirsch Prize in Composition (1996).
Bača has lectured at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Columbia University; the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon; the Eastman Conservatory; Harvard University; the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique (IRCAM) in Paris; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Musicasa Tokyo; the New England Conservatory (NEC); Northeastern University; Stanford University; the Stuttgart Musikhochschule; the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley); the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB); the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC); the University of California at San Diego (UCSD); the University of Chicago; University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland; and the University of Huddersfield in the UK.
Bača holds a PhD in music composition from Harvard University.