Download Interdisciplinary research on musical timbre

Interdisciplinary research on
musical timbre
Bringing together sciences,
humanities and musical practice
Richard Parncutt
University of Graz
Invited presentation at the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Montreal, Canada, March 2005
Objectives of presentation




examine research frameworks
apply CIM concept to timbre
guide future research
questions not answers
Structure of presentation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Definition of “musicology”
Structure of musicology
Interdisciplinarity
Timbre
Relevance
CIM05
Part 1
Definition of “musicology”
“Musicology” in theory


(all) scholarship about (all) music
cf. Grove, MGG
“Musicology” in practice




music history of western cultural elites
sources: historical documents
associated methods and techniques
tradition since 19th century
“Musicology” journals









Acta musicologica
Archiv für Musikwissenschaft
Current Musicology
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Journal of Musicological Research
Journal of Musicology
Musikforschung
Revue de Musicologie
Studien zur Musikwissenschaft
... plus many musicology journals of smaller countries
Tacit assumptions of “musicology”
(Obviously) (more) important:
 history
 western culture and music
 music of cultural elites
Eurocentricity? 19th-century colonialism?
Solutions: Journals


Acknowledge problem in preface
Change name, e.g.
Western Music
Western Artificial Music
History of Notated Western Music

Change scope of journal
Part 2
Structure of musicology
Repertoire-based musicologies: Trends
“Musicology”
Ethnomusicology
“music”
score
part of culture
readership
“musicologists”
interdisciplinary
repertory
lost
disappearing
focus
composer, score
performance
concepts
individual, idiosyncratic, culture, typical, tradition,
history, development,
change, social function,
musical autonomy,
cultural uniqueness
formal unity
authority
scholar
informants
Source: Jonathan Stock , Current Musicology, 1998
Tripartite model: USA
“musicology” / theory / ethnomusicology
Problems:
 “musical sciences” are not “musicology”
 too little communication between
musicology/theory and ethnomusicology
Tripartite model: Germany
historical
(tacit)
def.
western
 sciences, abstract,
cultural elites
interdisciplinary
 mus contexts  mus. phenomena

modern analysis;
content periods,
genres;
cult. stud.
problems
systematic
(none)
acoustics, psychology,
sociology; aesthetics,
philosophy, physiology,
media, computing...
remainder? auxiliary?
 larger and more diverse
 fewer professorships?

ethnonon-western,
non-elite
 mus. contexts

elite, popular,
folk; continents,
regions, genres,
subcultures
(German) Tripartite model: Problems
not justified:
central position of history of
western cultural elites
not integrated:
not classified:
musical practice
theory, gender, jazz/pop,
prehistory
communication among
subdisciplines
not enough:
not unified:
musicology
A personal apology



I love the “western bourgeous canon”
History is not less important
Aim: new balance
Evolution of disciplinary structures


top-down attempts to categorize
bottom-up quasi-random expansion
Musicology: Alternative structure A
specifically theory, analysis, composition,
musical
performance
humanities history, cultural studies, philosophy
sciences
acoustics, psychology, physiology,
media, computing
mixtures
sociology, anthropology, prehistory
practice
education, medicine, therapy
Musicology: Alternative structure B
status
focus
examples
core
“music itself”
theory, analysis, composition,
performance
central
musical contexts
and phenomena
acoustics, anthropology, cult.stud.,
history, psychology, sociology
peripheral
support of core
and central
computing, psychoacoustics,
philosophy, physiology, prehistory
neighboring
non-mus. culture art, literature, linguistics
& communication
practical
individual needs
education, therapy, medicine
Part 3
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity







boundaries of disciplines are fuzzy
disciplines are more or less established
disciplines are more or less distant
not whether ID, but how much
degree of ID is a matter of opinion
role of collaboration
motivation, flexibility, curiosity, daring
Interdisciplinarity within musicology
sciences humanities
practice
content
object
subject
action
methods
empirical
intersubjective
trial and error
Interdisciplinary challenges:
 content and method boundaries
 content-method combinations
Part 4
Timbre
Philosophy of reality




physical, experiential, abstract (Popper)
equally valid
exist in parallel
clearly distinguish
Description





in humanities and sciences
in music, art, literature
role of language and linguistics
sciences: same semantic differential
can describe completely unrelated
multidimensional objects
psychology: description of other
sensations
Structure of timbre research
sciences non-biolog.
physics, electronics, computing
human
(neuro-) physiology, psychology
humanities
repertoire
theory, analysis, semiotics, reception
context
ethnomusicology, cultural studies
musical
practice
structure
composition, improvisation,
orchestration, arrangement
sound
voice, gesture, emotion, imitation;
synthesis, processing, recording, MIR
Specific issues in timbre research


brainstorming
questions not answers
Nature and origins of timbre
Function: source recognition
Ontogenetic:
Phylogenetic:
prehuman hominids everyday modern life
Evolution and ecology
interaction between organisms
and sound sources:
• perceptible sound structures
• affordances of sound sources
Aural sensitivity



Useful sound parameters carry reliable
information about the source.
Phase information is lost when direct and
reflected sound are superposed
So ear is insensitive to phase except in
attack portion
Other senses and blending



sight (colour), smell, taste, (tactile) feel
what “goes together” or blends?
analogies and differences between
blended timbres, colors, smells etc?
Synaesthesia and timbre



interactions between senses
investigate with Stroop paradigm
nature-nurture question
Categorical perception
Two aspects:
 mapping of continuum to labels
 better discriminability at boundaries
Interdisciplinary question:
 cultural functions and implications?
Timbre and harmony
What is timbre of a fused chord?
 timbral similarity of chords
 similarity of pitch-class sets
Visual vs. auditory aesthetics
Commonalities
 scene, gestalt
 holistic vs analytic
 foreground vs background
Why so little interaction between…
 IAEA vs ICMPC?
 schools of art and music?
Timbre and the body




physiology: skin and basilar membrane
ethnomusicology: ritual
culture: gender, sexuality, class, race
hedonism and quality of life
Music as a virtual person







social functions of music
philosophy: persona theory
music as virtual discourse or theatre
human qualities of music (Watt & Ash)
strong experiences; loneliness
prenatal cog. representation of mother
infant timbral acquisition via body
Timbral aesthetics



evolutionary psychology:
attractiveness = ability to reproduce
Is there an absolute timbral aesthetic?
Is “attractive” timbre
smooth, voice-like, energetic, original?
History of timbral fashion





typical timbres of styles and periods
sociology of musical preference
timbre and rapid music recognition
survival value: language, dialect, group
timbre and personal musical identity
Audiation of timbre




empirical exploration?
accuracy, stability?
behavioral, experiential, neurological...
relation to culture and repertoire
Piano “touch” and “tone”





mechanics of action
physical descriptions of real tones
timbre perception
physiology, cognition, motor control
gestural and timbral ideals
Part 5
Relevance
Practical relevance







help performers understand communication
give composers theories and tools
audiology: timbre of phonemes
room acoustics: timbre of performance space
artificial speech and robotics
recording
commercial, e.g. corporate identity
Social relevance



public interest
understanding art and culture
market value
Political relevance

Do world events have timbre?
Example: Penderecki's Threnody for
the victims of Hiroshima

Can public awareness of political issues
by raised by means of timbre?
Example: multimedia advertising logos
Part 6
CIM05
Timbre of CIM05




diverse, open
explorative, creative
risky, radical
constructive, critical
Success of CIM05





BALANCE:
two main disciplines of presentation
sciences, humanities, practice
history vs. other disciplines
western vs. non-western music
elite music vs. pop/folk
Contribution to musicology



unity, identity
academic quality
relevance
Last CIM
order abstract book at reception
Next CIM(s)


Tallin, Estonia 2007: Singing
???
Thanks to:
Caroline Traube
 Serge Lacasse
 Michel Duchesneau
...for promoting the concept of
interdisciplinary musicology
