Advanced Electroacoustic Music (TECH203 : ongoing, fall semester)
Contemporary electroacoustic composers and computer musicians wear many hats: composer, performer, programmer, critic, theorist, researcher, cultural musicologist, etc. Tech 201 and 202 provide a solid foundation in many of these areas, particularly electroacoustic music history and studio hardware and software. Tech 203 explores more deeply the musical, technological, and scholarly tools currently available to electroacoustic composers. Some topics will be completely new to you, and others will be related to your previous study in TIMARA. While we will deal extensively with certain hardware and software such as Max/MSP and ProTools, the course is not “about” said tools. Rather, it is organized based on musical/scholarly practice and approaches, each of which will inevitably draw on a variety of tools. All topics will be approached through a combination of reading, listening, and creative work with the ultimate goal of expanding your compositional resources and scholarly vocabulary.
Electroacoustic Interpretation & Performance Practice (TECH170 : ongoing, fall semester)
This course will serve as a performer-focused introduction to the interpretation of electroacoustic music. We will examine compositions scored for instrument(s) with CD playback, instrument(s) with live electronics, and instrument(s) with other media. In addition to adding such pieces to your repertoire, you will learn the necessary technology to bring them to life in performance. We will cover the relevant uses of microphones, mixers, speakers, and computer software, while also attending to important theoretical and conceptual approaches to electroacoustic performance practice. The course will be particularly relevant to those interested in preparing electroacoustic works for their junior or senior recital and/or expanding their repertoire list for post-Oberlin performance opportunities.
Private Composition Lessons (PVST : ongoing)
In weekly, hour-long meetings, we consider all aspects of composing, including compositional starting points and processes, technology-based tools and techniques, and interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Lessons typically culminate in the Junior or Senior TIMARA Recital, though many other outcomes are encouraged and supported, including professional conference submissions, scholarly projects, and graduate school applications.
Composition Studio Class (PVST : ongoing)
This weekly gathering of all students currently studying in my composition studio is devoted to group discussion, feedback, and critique. It is a chance to present in-progress work to an informed group of peers, ask and answer specific questions, and get better acquainted with your TIMARA colleagues. We will, occasionally, have guest presenters and/or combine with the studio classes of other TIMARA or Composition Faculty.
Contemporary Chamber Music Coaching (ENS : ongoing)
Collaborations: Dance, Music, & Media (TECH394 : spring 2010)
With Carter McAdams, Dance Department.
This upper-level workshop will focus on the integration of dance, music, and media. Of specific interest will be “dance for the camera,” which we will examine through viewings, lectures, and discussion. Class projects will be realized by collaborative teams and will draw on both fixed-media and real-time techniques in combining electroacoustic music, movement, and digital media.
Winter Term (ongoing)
Advising and supervision of individual projects.
Private Readings (ongoing)
Advising and supervision of individual projects and College Honors projects.
Landscape/Soundscape/Wordscape: How Place Becomes Text (xArts 101 : spring 2009)
With Nick Jones, English Department.
Poets, composers, painters, and other creative artists have long been fascinated with nature, using it as inspiration, motivation, and material in a variety of artistic contexts. From landscape painting to pastoral poetry to soundscape composition, artists of all media have sought to codify the experience of place in tangible form. This class will offer a cross-disciplinary examination of these place-based creative processes and their resultant texts. We will draw on poetry, fiction, and theoretical texts, as well as acoustic music, electroacoustic music, and digital media. We will make extensive use of the AMAM collection in exploring the interpretation and invention of place in the visual arts. The course will be team-taught by faculty from the TIMARA Department (Swendsen) and the English Department (Jones), with frequent classes conducted by the AMAM’s curatorial staff.
We will consider questions such as: How and why did artists document the natural world prior to the age of recording media? How do artists from different disciplines interpret similar real-world environments, or similarly, how does the interpretation of a particular environment change over time? How have social, cultural, and political changes been embedded in the landscape and its interpretations? How did an emerging cultural environmentalism in the late 20th century provide new connections between the natural world and creative artists? In addition to scholarly engagement with the course material, students will undertake their own creative work during the semester (though no prior experience in this regard is required).
The Future Sounds of Now (TECH350 : fall 2008)
This upper-level workshop will focus on the work of three leading figures from the field of electroacoustic music: Simon Emmerson, Alvin Curran, and Laetitia Sonami. Each will visit Oberlin for a two-week residency during the semester. Participants will work closely with the guests on special projects in both group and individual settings. Class members will also assist in concert production and documentation. Between residencies, we will prepare for upcoming visits by examining the music and writing of each composer. Following visits, we will reflect on the experience through conversation and writing. This is an extraordinary opportunity to work with three wonderfully diverse and influential artists.
Real-time Techniques (TECH202 : spring 2008)
The computer plays a vital role in all aspects of contemporary music and is increasingly ubiquitous in live performance situations. As composers, it is our responsibility to take the lead in investigating and expanding the relationships between machine and music. In particular, we must examine the ways in which computers can meaningfully augment our ability to communicate with performers and listeners. Our work will deal extensively with certain software, such as Max/MSP, but the course is not “about” said tools. Rather, it is organized based on creative practice and approaches, each of which will inevitably draw on a variety of tools. All topics will be approached through a combination of reading, listening, and creative work with the ultimate goal of expanding compositional resources, technological proficiency, and scholarly vocabulary.
eCamp: Experimental Collaborations in Art, Music, & Performance (TECH068 : spring 2008)
With Julia Christensen, Art/TIMARA Department.
Digital Audio Skills (CNST 160: spring 2010)
Sonic Arts Workshop (ongoing, summer)
This workshop focuses on the composition of electroacoustic music and is geared toward high school students interested in expanding their technical and creative resources. Topics will include digital audio editing and manipulation, real-time computer music performance techniques, and discussion of pieces from the field's growing repertoire. The program will cover issues of interest to young composers heading towards conservatory studies and also non-musicians who are interested in experimenting with electronic and computer music.
Oberlin Guest Lectures (ongoing)
"Ecoacoustics and Soundscape Composition" (ENVS 213 : Nature, Culture, & Interpretation : fall 2009)
Lecture/Discussion of Recent Creative Work (FYSP104 : Sonic Revolutions & Revelation : fall 2008)
"Recent Trends in and through Electroacoustic Music" (MHST101 : Intro to Music History : fall 2008, 2009, 2010)
Lecture/Discussion of Recent Creative Work (CMUS105 : Music in the Digitial Dystopia : fall 2008)
"Recent Trends in and through Electroacoustic Music" (MHST275 : Music Since 1914 : spring 2008, 2009)Local Community
"Dance, Music, Lights" (with Groundworks Dance Company, for Akron and Cleveland middle schoolers: fall 2009)
"A Two-Part History of Electroacoustic Music" (Lifelong Learning, Kendal at Oberlin: fall 2009)
"Ecoacoustics and Soundscape Composition" (Oberlin Spectrum Club: fall 2008)
