9 minute read
PERFORMING LIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Putting performers in the driving seat
The core performance team in a rehearsal of Marco Stroppa’s …of Silence for alto saxophone and chamber electronics. From left to right: Dominykas Gircius, Germán Toro Pérez, Joan Jordi Oliver, Carlos Hidalgo and Leandro Gianini.
While the performance of the classical music repertoire has been extensively explored over decades or even centuries, it is often less clear how more recent electroacoustic pieces should be played. Professor Germán Toro Pérez is looking at pieces composed over the last three decades, developing a performance practice database that provides valuable insights into performance practice today.
The electroacoustic music of today
has its roots in the period after the end of the Second World War, as the idea of musique concrète emerged and new studios were established, giving composers access to interesting new instruments and practices. The Groupe de recherches musicales was established in Paris in 1951, the world’s first centre for electronic music, and electronic music has since spread further around the world. “A number of other centres appeared later, mostly in Europe and the US. Over recent decades it has become more widespread, in Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world,” says Professor Germán Toro Pérez, head of the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. Electronic instruments were used both in composition and performance, as composers explored new possibilities. “Edgard Varèse is a very good example. Equipment from the electronics company Phillips was used for the performance of his Poème électronique at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair,” outlines Professor Toro Pérez. “For the time it was very advanced. It was a multi-loudspeaker system.”
Electroacoustic music
As the head of an ongoing research project based at ICST, Professor Toro Pérez is now investigating questions around how electroacoustic music is performed, looking mainly at pieces composed in the last three decades or so. Over this time the concept of live electronic music has grown in prominence and computers have become more commonly
used in both composition and performance practice. “It is the digital age that defines the border of this project, and the pieces that we are selecting,” says Professor Toro Pérez. The aim in the project is to look at the performance of a wide variety of pieces, with Professor Toro Pérez investigating pieces composed according to different approaches. “We defined six non-exclusive compositional approaches,” he explains. “One of them we called ‘composing the instrument’. This involves building specific instruments, interfaces or objects that become a substantial, intrinsic part of the composition process. Another approach to composition is perhaps more classical – what we called ‘Composing the sound, the time, the space’,
these being the fundamental dimensions in modern music.”
A third compositional approach involves not only sound but also visual information, in which bodily representations and gestures play an important role. Some pieces combine certain aspects of these different approaches. “We are addressing each of these
The music of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn has such
certain aesthetic tradition.
compositional approaches, sometimes from different perspectives,” says Professor Toro Pérez. The way in which these pieces are performed is less clearly linked to a specific aesthetic tradition than much older classical pieces, a topic Professor Toro Pérez and his colleagues are exploring in the project. “If we think about the performance of classical music, you have a score that represents what it should sound like, while you also have a very strong tradition that informs performers about how to deal with the notation,” he points out. “The music of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn for example has such a strong tradition that a performer today can gain a very clear idea of what the performance challenges are. More contemporary music is however not so clearly linked to a certain aesthetic tradition, like for instance Viennese classical music.”
The electroacoustic music of today is very diverse, with a less established tradition to guide performers on how to deal with a certain piece. While some pieces have been performed multiple times in recent decades, and have taken their place within the canon of electronic music, others are much less widely played. “Some pieces have been performed just once, like Koma by Gerhard E. Winkler. So we had only the information related to that single performance,” says Professor Toro Pérez. This particular piece is very open, in the sense that what the performers hear and then play is generated in the moment. “The musicians sit in front of a screen and a notation appears that is generated in realtime. So the musicians see something, then they have to react to that and play according to certain rules. The way that they behave and play has an influence on how the system evolves,” explains Professor Toro Pérez. “In certain situations you don’t really know what kind of sound you should expect. Then it becomes more difficult to know whether you are playing the piece correctly.”
Performance practice
Researchers are also looking at more traditional pieces, in the sense that there is a score, like Horacio Vaggione’s Shifting Mirrors for alt saxophone and electronics. The wider aim in this research is to build up a culture of performance practice in a field where every piece is a singularity, although Professor Toro Pérez says there will always be some differences between individual performances. “This is related to the instruments themselves. We know exactly what a piano is for example, but a live electronic system is not frozen in time and may not function in the same way in 20 years’ time. It is more a set of functionalities,” he stresses. Electroacoustic pieces are being performed today using software and hardware that didn’t exist at the time they were composed, while new systems continue to emerge, an issue of great interest to Professor Toro Pérez as he aims to help establish a performance tradition for live electronic music. “This involves very basic things too, such as the conditions necessary for a performer to prepare and rehearse for a concert,” he says.
This is partly about having a functioning live electronic system before a performer enters the space, while it’s also important to consider the nature of the acoustic environment. While for some performers it may be enough to simply get a feel for a space for a couple of hours before a concert, electronic musicians typically need more time to get ready and adapt to the environment.
Singers Hannah Mehler (left) and Kara Leva (right) rehearsing Ashley Fure’s Shiver Lung.
PERFORMING LIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Technical and Aesthetical Challenges in the Digital Age Project Objectives
The practice-based research project “Performing Live Electronic Music – Technical and Aesthetical Challenges in the Digital Age” addresses challenges presented by compositions for instruments and live electronics from the last 30 years, bringing together composers, performers and musicologists and documenting the results in open-access publications and selected pieces in SACD/CD publications.
Project Funding
Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. 943,164 Euros.
Project Team
Lucas Bennett, musicology Peter Färber, technical supervision Leandro Gianini, sound engineering Dominykas Gircius, recording Carlos Hidalgo, performance Milena Winter, video documentation Germán Toro Pérez, project lead
Project Partner
• Professor Jörn Peter Hiekel (Institute for Music Research, ZHdK)
Institutional Partners
• col legno, Vienna • Experimentalstudio des SWR, Freiburg • IEM, Graz • Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague • Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt • IRCAM, Paris
Board
• Professor Alvise Vidolin • Professor Killian Schwoon
Contact Details
Project Lead, Professor Germán Toro Pérez Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box, CH-8031 Zurich T: +41 43 446 55 01 E: german.toro-perez@zhdk.ch W: https://www.zhdk.ch/en/researchproject/ performing-live-electronic-music-558720
Prof. Germán Toro Pérez
Germán Toro Pérez is Professor for electroacoustic composition and director of the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. His output includes compositions for orchestra, instrumental and vocal ensembles, chamber music with and without electronics and electroacoustic music.
Workshop #6 at ZHdK; session with composer Clara Iannotta (screens). At the table from left to right: Carlos Hidalgo, Lucas Bennett, Brian Archinal, Thomas Moore, Germán Toro Pérez.
“Much more time is needed in the space in order to set up a system, to test it and adapt it to the acoustic conditions, and to rehearse,” outlines Professor Toro Pérez. Electronics are often used both in the instruments, as well as in the mixing and engineering of the sound after it’s been generated, and Professor Toro Pérez says sound engineers also need time to prepare properly. “Sound engineers –we call them also ‘sound directors’– are not only technicians, they also have to be musicians. They have to think and act as a musician too, to be able to convey information, to ask specific questions and to take decisions that may have an aesthetic impact,” he explains.
An experienced sound engineer may well know what microphones they should choose for a specific piece, but someone with less experience is likely to need more guidance. A performance practice database is being developed in the project bringing together information on the different pieces in the repertoire, which Professor Toro Pérez hopes will be a valuable source for performers and the people working alongside them. “For instance, in Professor Bad Trip, Lesson I, a piece by the Italian composer Fausto Romitelli, you have to amplify every single instrument. We’ve provided a list of the right microphones for doing that, which is very valuable information,” he says. Researchers are also producing performance reports, in which the aim is primarily to heighten awareness of the critical aspects of a piece. “The blend of strong amplified instrumental sound with the 8-channel tape reflects an aesthetic approach that is important in the work of Romitelli. He didn’t expect the very natural, almost inaudible amplification that you would use for other pieces, but he wanted to have the powerful, electronically transformed sound characteristic of rock bands” outlines Professor Toro Pérez.
By making performers aware of the most important aspects of the performance, Professor Toro Pérez aims to empower them to make informed choices. This is not about laying down rigid guidelines about the ‘correct’ way to play a particular piece, but rather to make people aware of the critical aspects. “What are the things that you have to keep in mind?” says Professor Toro Pérez. This information will be available through the database, which will provide valuable insights into performance practice in electronic music today. “It is intended, in the first place, for performers. But it is also interesting for musicologists,” continues Professor Toro Pérez. “We hold workshops to which we invite the composers and expert performers, as well as others that can give an insight into a piece. These might be musicologists, or perhaps technicians that were involved in its creation. Imagine, you would be able to see and hear an interview with J.S. Bach about the performance of his works. We collect firsthand information for future generations.”
