syllabus

Music 101
Worlds of Music, Fall 2001
Experimental Music
MW: 1:10 – 2:30
F: TA sessions at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00
Professor Ronald Kuivila
Office Hours: MW 2:30-4:00
Materials needed: 1 Zip disk, 2 CD-R disks, course packet

Note:
Biographical profiles are not included in the course packet. They may be found in the New Grove Dictionary of Music, which is accessible from within the campus network via the URL:

http://www.grovemusic.com/grovemusic/home/index.html

Evaluation is based on an in-class final examination and the audio CD you will create from the lab sessions.

Day 1: All possible sounds
**please note: on some computers Mp3s will not play when downloaded through Internet Explorer, if this is a problem please try opening the Mp3 files through Netscape. 

Listenings:
Luigi Russolo, Risveglio di una Citta (Awaking of a City)
Edgard Varese, Ionisation
Henry Cowell, The Banshee
John Cage, First Construction in Metal

Video:
Leon Theremin and the image of electronic invention
Reading:
John Cage, “Future of Music: Credo”
Biographical profiles of Russolo, Varese, Cowell, and Theremin

Terms: theremin, intonarumori, string piano, tone cluster, organized sound

Day 2: Sounds in themselves

Listening:
Anton Webern, Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (part1)    (part2)    (part3)
John Cage, Sonatas and interludes for prepared piano I    II    III    IV
Music For Piano 52 - 56

Reading:
John Cage, “A Composer’s confessions”, “Experimental Music”
Biographical profile of Cage, Webern

Terms: tone row, prepared piano, sympathetic vibration, rhythmic structure

Lab 1: Sound and rhythmic structure
Bring whatever you need to perform four distinct sounds repeatedly and with precisely determined duration. Workshop performance of Four(6), reconfigured for 12 players. Further discussion of rhythmic structure.

Assignment: design and notate a temporal structure. You will use it for your next lab project (see below). Turn in a photocopy of the notation on Wednesday. Grading will be based on the clarity and simplicity of the notation.

Day 3: Drones and the harmonic series

Listenings:
LaMonte Young, The second dream of the high-tension step down transformer
Maryanne Amacher, Sound Characters (From 2021 the Life People)

Reading:
Kyle Gann, The outer edge of consonance
Biographical profiles of Young, Amacher
Terms: pitch, frequency, interval, ratio, scale, harmonic series, consonance, dissonance

Day 4: Motoric Minimalism

Listening:
Terry Riley, In C
Steve Reich, Come Out,  Piano Phase

Reading:
Gamall and Ammon Haggerty, Interview with Terry Riley
Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process, Slow Motion Sound

Terms: phase, melodic cell, pulse, tape loop

Lab 2: Introduction to Sound Edit
Use of Insert menu to create tones and noise. Use of View menu to reveal track controls, etc. Use of Effects menu to impose envelopes and to mix down.

Assignment: Compose a piece using no more than 5 pitches from the harmonic series of a given fundamental frequency (pitches may be transposed to different octave registers). Use your rhythmic structure to determine the entrances and exits of individual tones. Realize the piece using SoundEdit and save it to your Zip disk and onto a CD-R in audio disk format.

Day 5: Acoustical Systems:

Takaheisa Kosugi, Micro (in class performance)

Listening:
Alvin Lucier, I am sitting in a room
John Cage, Variations II (David Tudor’s electronic realization) extra extra *web resource*
Gordon Monahan, Piano Mechanics

Reading:
Douglas Simon, “Interview with Alvin Lucier”
James Pritchet, David Tudor’s realization of John Cage’s Variations II
Biographical profiles of Kosugi, Tudor, Monahan

Terms: resonance, voiced, unvoiced, vowel, consonant, formant

Day 6: Electronic Systems:

Listening:
Pauline Oliveros, I of IV
David Tudor, Rainforest II extra extra *Piece Performance*
George Lewis, Voyager Duo I Duo II

Readings:
William Duckworth, Interview with Pauline Oliveros
George Lewis, Too Many Notes: Computers, Complexity, and Culture in Voyager
Biographical profiles of Oliveros, Tudor, Lewis

Terms: tape delay, transducer, interactive computer music system

Lab 3: The world of natural sound
The Effects menu, importing sounds, mixing, the sound library CD.

Assignment: make a piece mixing together sounds drawn from sound library CD that, like Rainforest II, builds in density without obscuring any of its constituent sounds.

Day 7: Soundscape and Sound Installation:

Alvin Lucier, Seesaw (in class presentation)

Listening:
Christina Kubisch, dreaming of a major third (excerpt: first 4’ of CD recording)

Video:
Bill and Mary Buchen, Sounds (Like India)[info on]
Ron Kuivila, Visitations and Building 12
Singuhr Gallery[info on]
Akio Suzuki
Erwin Stache
Johannes Oberthür, Martin Supper
Matthias Deumlich

Reading:
Hugh Davies, Sound Sculpture
R Murray Schaefer, The Glazed Soundscape

Terms: phase cancellation, soundscape, sound sculpture

Day 8: IN CLASS FINAL EXAM
Note: identifications will not include material presented on day 7.
a. listening identification
b. name identification
c. definition of terms
d. essay

COMPILATION OF LAB PROJECTS MUST BE TURNED IN ON CDR IN PLAYABLE AUDIO-CD FORMAT!

web author: gregory rogove
for queries, comments and abuse write to: grogove@wesleyan.edu