HMVB00712U Musicological Topic with Performance and Production: Sound Performance: Theories, Histories, Practices, Technologies
Musicology
Sound performances are at the core of sound art and experimental
approaches to music.
In some sound performances the body or the voice of the artist is
at its center; in others the sound production with state of the art
technology plays a crucial role.
Some sound performances set out to turn texts or images into
sounds; and others layer and process existing sound footage, tape
loops or recorded everyday sounds.
In this two part course the students will discuss in the theory
section the history and presence of sound performances, the
underlying artistic and cultural theories as well current issues
being debated;
in the practice section they will explore and learn how to use
selected examples or skills and technologies that play a crucial
role within sound performance.
This separation into two sections - following the course format -
will, however, be continuously broken up and subverted:
practical exercises will be part of the theory section - and
theoretical discussions will be part of the practice section.
We will focus in this course on the following approaches to sound
performance:
- Pauline Oliveros: Deep Listening (co-teacher: Jenny Gräf
Sheppard)
- Sound productions with Ambisonics' 3D Sound (co-teacher:
Jenny Gräf Sheppard & the Ambisonics Studio at the Royal
Academy of the Art)
- Converting text or images into sound (co-teacher: Giada Dalla
Bontà)
- Layering and Processing of Sound Footage (co-teacher: Giada Dalla
Bontà)
- Building and Playing the Theremin (co-teacher: Giada Dalla Bontà)
Literature & links to start with:
Aït-Touati, Frédérique, "Thinking the Cosmos in the
Seventeenth Century: Fiction, Hypothesis and Astronomy from
Kepler to Huygens", in: Annales. Histoire, Sciences
Sociales Volume 65, Issue 2, 2010, pp. 325-344
Online: https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_ANNA_652_0325--thinking-the-cosmos-in-the-seventeenth.htm
Cage, John, 4'33". Performed by William Marx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4&t=1s
Cage, John & Gann, Kyle, Silence: Lectures and Writings, 50th
Anniversary Edition. Wesleyan, 2011.
Groth, Sanne Krogh & Schulze, Holger (eds.), The Bloomsbury
Handbook of Sound Art, New York: Bloomsbury Acacdemic 2020.
Grotowski, Jerzy, Towards a Poor Theatre (ed by Eugenio Barba), pp.
166, 184-185, 228-231.
Kreichi, Stanislav. The ANS Synthesizer: Composing on a
Photoelectronic Instrument.”
https://www.theremin.ru/archive/ans.htm
Oliveros, Pauline, “Quantum Listening: From Practice to Theory to
Practice Practice”, MusicWorks #75, Fall 2000.
Oliveros, Pauline, Deep Listening. A Composer's Sound Practice.
New York: iUniverse, Inc. 2005
Oliveros, Pauline. Sounding the Margins: Collected Writings 1992 - 2009, Deep Listening Publications, 2010.
Roads, Curtis, Microsound, Cambridge: MIT Press
Schulze, Holger, Sonic Fiction, New York: Bloomsbury Acacdemic 2020.
Schulze, Holger (ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of theAnthropology of Sound, New York: Bloomsbury Acacdemic 2021.
Smirnov, Andrey, "The ANS Synthesizer", in “Sound in Z
- Experiments in sound and electronic music in early 20th century
Russia", pp. 228-237.
Smirnov, Andrey. "Theremin”, in "Sound in Z - Experiments
in sound and electronic music in early 20th century Russia",
pp. 43-61.
Truax, Barry, Granular Synthesis, in:
http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/gran.html
Voegelin, Salomé, Chapter 3: Silence, in Voegelin, Salomé,
"Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound
Art", pp. 77-120. Bloomsbury Academic 2010.
University of Washington: Resources on Ambisonics. Online: https://dxarts.washington.edu/fields/ambisonics
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 42
- Preparation
- 294
- Exam
- 84
- Total
- 420
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Oral examination
- Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- HMVB00712U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- BachelorMaster’s minor subject
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedule
- See link....
- Course capacity
- 40
- Study board
- Study board of Arts and Cultural Studies
Contracting department
- Department of Arts and Cultural Studies
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
Course Coordinators
- Holger Schulze (7-76666b786f7d68436b7870316e7831676e)
- Jenny-Ann Graf Sheppard (3-7970824f77847c3d7a843d737a)
Lecturers
Holger Schulze
Jenny-Ann Gräf Sheppard
Giada Dalla Bontá