Tran(ce)sients for large chamber orchestra and audio track with accompanying document

• Author / Creator

  Guechtal, Ruth

• The purpose of Tran(ce)sients is to find ways to engage an audience in concentrated listening during a concert hall performance of challenging chamber music. For some time now, a point of great interest to me has been what could or will hold one’s attention during a performance, particularly one of challenging music? To answer this question, a search into my own past experiences yielded results which proved to be helpful. This led to a synthesis of influences from three musical styles (namely onkyô, spectral music, and musique concrète instrumentale) and their philosophies, and past compositional processes that have shaped my current aesthetic. In Tran(ce)sients, a 25:13 long work, I attempted to produce concentrated listening by way of analysis of electronically manipulated field recordings and their orchestration for a large chamber orchestra augmented by a small rock ensemble and pre-recorded audio track. The recordings used for Tran(ce)sients represent an abstracted “soundwalk” of my journey from my former apartment in Edmonton to the University of Alberta campus. Using Max software and a USB MIDI controller, the recordings were first manipulated in an improvised manner, and subsequently used in two ways: (1) to supply a set, intermittent recorded background that is an essential part of the score; and (2) to be transcribed and orchestrated for large, acoustic chamber ensemble. The title Tran(ce)sients represents a combination of two words that I feel best explains what this piece is about: a focus on noises we tune out on a day-to-day basis (unwanted, much like transients in the world of studio recording) and the trance -like state that can be experienced while listening to extreme music and the kind of “state of other consciousness” one can experience listening to it. The accompanying document is a paper that will take the form of a brief overview of (1) onkyô, (2) spectral music and (3) instrumental musique concrète followed by a detailed analysis of the entire process behind the piece, starting with manipulating the sounds in Max, moving on to their transcription into notated music and their orchestration for large chamber ensemble, and ending with a summary of the process and the future of the piece. https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PK07J1G

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Onkyô and Spectralism
  • From the Digital to the Acoustic Medium
  • Materials and Process
  • Material and Transcription of Field Recordings
  • The Final Stage

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Music

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-ps2x-ca22

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.