Composer Research Articles

Collaborative Visual Scores

This research seeks to explore the process of etching as a method for investigating shared experiences and collaboration between artists from different disciplines. The aim is to focus on the overlapping language that exists between mark-making and musical composition and to investigate how one informs the other. The research focuses on the creation of three scores, each created on a steel etching plate. Each score was sent to a musician for their sonic response. For this first series, I invited the saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi (US), the guitarist Sam Sherry (UK/NZ), and vocalist Adam Sherry (UK/NZ) to take part. My scores contain my interpretations of the environment, or journey, developed through the practice of soundwalking. The musicians enter into the project as collaborators, and the work is not complete without their sonic response. In this collaborative score project, I wanted to create a dialogue or ‘relationship’ between myself and other musicians by exchanging a score for a recorded response. I feel like this initial experiment was successful, and this approach has given me many ideas on how to develop this project for the future.

Musical composition based on skewed statistical distributions of stochastic processes

Musical composition based on skewed statistical distributions of stochastic processes

Dual Narrative Progression and Metaphors for Noise in Julian Barnes’s <i>The Noise of Time</i>

In <i>The Noise of Time</i>, Julian Barnes once again turns to the writing of biography after <i>Arthur & George </i>(2005), and this time he experiments by tactfully setting dual narrative progression which is the combination of the overt plot and the covert progression. Also, the word “noise” in the title <i>The Noise of Time </i>has double metaphorical meanings, which correspond to the theme and characterization in the dual narrative progression. So, the present article aims to probe into the relationship between the dual narrative progression and the respective metaphorical connotation of the word “noise” in the title. In the overt plot centering on Shostakovich’s three Conversations with Power, for the sake of his friends and associates, in the struggle between life and death, the protagonist Shostakovich is depicted as a coward disciplined by the multiple mechanisms of “incarceration”, such as arrest, being taken to the concentration camps, forbidding his music, and banning his opera performed, in the service of the former Soviet government; and the word "noise" is a metaphor for the totalitarian society of the former Soviet Union which influences Shostakovich's musical composition. However, in the covert progression, by mainly adopting indirect satire (irony), verbal defence, perfunctory behaviors and physical absence, the author characterizes the composer Shostakovich as a hero who follows the inner voice of his ego, and expresses his ridicule, resistance and intransigence in different ways, thus becoming an outsider or a stranger rebelling against the absurdity of the totalitarian society, and the metaphor for “noise” refers to the composer Shostakovich himself who strives to compose an artistic noise that is not compatible with the totalitarian society. Therefore, the overt plot and the covert progression form a striking contrast, and by so doing, Barnes creates an artistic paradoxical image of both a coward and a hero.

The Aural Eye

Human aural experience can be equally considered along spatial and temporal continuums. We hear at all times of the day and night, and within all places and spaces: built, natural, public, private and virtual. The territory – both physical and philosophical – between music composition for interior listening and traditional sound based research within environmental acoustics is gradually being occupied by the listener-centred approach of soundscape studies. Soundscape design is emerging as an interdisciplinary field within design education, and one that not only challenges the ocular-centric nature of most design education, but one that could provide a useful mode through which to investigate the coincidences between different design disciplines. This paper draws on the author’s own practice as a sound designer in a variety of spatial sound projects in built and virtual contexts to discuss ideas of landscape, interiority, space and place as experienced through listening. This will include aspects of Canopies: chimerical acoustic environments for the Southgate soundscape system, Ecstasis: human presence in digital environments for an interactive VR system and stereoscopic projections, and The Occupation of Space: Soundsites project with the Melbourne blind community.2 The ideas and technologies underpinning these projects also form the basis of a new pedagogy of sound and listening housed in the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory’s (SIAL) Sound Studios at RMIT University. The place and role of the Sound Studio’s program in providing an aural perspective that compliments the visual methodologies of co-located design disciplines is discussed.

Analysis of Teaching Mode of College Music Composition Theory Course Based on Data Analysis

After learning the Soviet model and developing it today, the rudiment of professional music education established in the 1930s has formed the burden of various historical problems. At the same time, in the ideological collision between China and the West, various concepts and viewpoints around music teaching also appeared, but this is not the main research object because there is no answer at all; therefore, it is necessary to make more rational improvements to the relevant experience, new ideas and new ideas. Based on the theoretical basis of in-depth algorithm and constraint solving, this research starts from the current music teaching in colleges. It explores the curriculum mode that is conducive to the development of music in the author’s country. The experimental results show that in the teaching mode of music composition theory courses in colleges and universities, the music composition optimization algorithm (MMC) has a profound impact on the teaching effect of the course. When solving Madcap’s, the current optimal solution significantly impacts the results. In the curriculum problem, due to the constraints of the curriculum schedule problem, MMC does not show a promising solution effect but has good performance on the curriculum scheduling problem with relatively few constraints, so when solving problems with fewer constraints, the reader can choose MMC.

Melody Generation using Deep Learning: Unleashing the Power of RNN and LSTM

This project aims to develop a novel approach for piano melody generation using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models in deep learning.The suggested models will be trained on a dataset of MIDI files with piano melodies to use sequential learning capabilities and capture the complex patterns and relationships present in musical compositions. [1] The project aims to gen- erate a variety of melodies that are both musically coherent and diverse by experimenting with various network designs, hyperparameters, and training procedures. The developed tunes will be evaluated primarily on their originality, conformity to stylistic elements, and general quality. The results of this study could lead to new developments in AI-driven music composition as well as opportunities for computational creativity in the music industry.

ANALISA HUKUM ATAS KEPEMILIKAN SAH BAGI HAK CIPTA LAGU ATAU MUSIK (PERATURAN NOMOR 56 TAHUN 2021)

The uncertainty of legal regulations concerning the economic entitlements of songwriters or musicians and related rights in asserting royalties can arise due to the failure to register the data of songwriters or musicians along with their related rights in the Song and Music Information System (SILM) and the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) database. In an attempt to offer legal safeguard for copyright or related rights in the music industry that are not registered in SILM, this study seeks to examine the legal consequences of such situations and the patterns of dispute resolution. Through observation of the research object and the degree of its application in practice, empirical sociology is the applied method used to evaluate the efficiency of legal tools in complying with prevailing regulations. Findings indicate that in cases of music compositions or songs not included in SILM, users are willing to pay royalties in exchange for not releasing new recordings, and that to achieve mutually beneficial agreements, conflict resolution procedures typically require mediation through PPNS before resorting to litigation.

Generating Musical Sequences with Transformers

Transformers have significantly revolutionized the music-creation process by their ability to generate intricate and captivating musical arrangements. By analyzing patterns and connections within music data, transformers can produce new compositions with remarkable accuracy and originality. This study explores the internal mechanisms of transformers in music generation and highlights their potential for advancing the field of musical composition. The ability of transformers to capture extensive relationships and contextual information makes them highly suitable for tasks related to music generation. Through self-attention mechanisms, transformers effectively model the dependencies between different time intervals in a musical sequence, resulting in the production of coherent and melodious compositions. This paper delves into the specific architectural elements of transformers that enable them to comprehend and generate musical sequences while also exploring potential applications for transformer-based systems in various creative contexts - emphasizing on significant impact they could have on evolving techniques used during music composition.

Effects of music composition on structural and functional connectivity in the orbitofrontal cortex

Effects of music composition on structural and functional connectivity in the orbitofrontal cortex

Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga, the influenced musician [final

Name: Alba Conejo Mangas. Main subject: Historical violin. Research supervisor: Wouter Verschuren. Title of the research: Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga, the "influenced" musician. Research question: Is it possible to distinguish the influence of pre-flamenco in the villancicos of Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga? Summary of results: During my research, I never imagined finding music from Lima or Guatemala composed by Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga, a musician from Córdoba, Spain, in the XVIII century, who had never been in these places. This discovery presented an interesting challenge: to bring back to life scores that had been forgotten for over two hundred years and to explore the music played in Córdoba Cathedral during the middle of the XVIII century. My interest on Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga started when I listened to a beautiful villancico "Voy buscando mi cordero" by Gaitán y Arteaga, performed by La Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla with Enrico Onofri. Despite being sacred music composed for the church and for weekly mass, it was written in Spanish and carried a distinct Spanish folkloric flavour. Did Juan Manuel Gaitán y Arteaga have a connection with XVIII century Spanish folk music? This caught my attention and spurred me to delve deeper into his music, particularly his villancicos. I soon realized how little-known Juan Manuel's music is today The line of research I pursued falls within the realm of musicological-historical research. The musicological techniques employed include those related to musical historiography, such as the chronological organization of historical-musical events, particularly in Córdoba. Additionally, it involves an understanding of musical compositions, forms, and styles, as well as musical aesthetics, encompassing the conception of music, its functions, and purposes. The objectives are: to understand the musical personality of Gaitán y Arteaga in his villancicos and the relation between the folkloric and ecclesiastical world in Spain on XVIII C. Biography: Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, she finished her modern bachelor under the guidance of Gordan Nikolic in Rotterdam. It was then, that she started her interest in historical performance. After her graduation, she studied for her baroque bachelor's in Brussels under the guidance of Ryo Terakado, and in 2022 she started her master's degree at The Hague Conservatory with professor Ryo Terakado too.

Multimodal Co-Ranking of Music Sentiment Analysis with the Deep Learning Model

Deep learning techniques have emerged as powerful tools for analyzing music sentiment, offering a sophisticated understanding of the emotional content embedded within musical compositions. Analyzing music sentiment in piano performance poses a unique challenge due to the multifaceted nature of musical expression and the complexity of piano dynamics. In recent years, deep learning techniques have shown promising results in various music analysis tasks. This paper introduces a novel approach, termed Co-ranking Multimodal Fuzzy Cluster Deep Network (CRMFC-DL), designed specifically for analyzing music sentiment in piano performance. The proposed CRMFC-DL framework leverages the complementary information from both audio and symbolic representations of piano music. By integrating deep neural networks with fuzzy clustering, CRMFC-DL effectively captures the intricate relationships between different musical features and their corresponding sentiment labels. Moreover, the co-ranking mechanism facilitates the joint optimization of multimodal feature representations, leading to enhanced model performance. Through extensive experimentation, CRMFC-DL achieves an average sentiment analysis accuracy of 87.5%, surpassing existing methods by 8.2%. The both audio and symbolic representations of piano music, CRMFC-DL effectively captures the intricate relationships between different musical features and their corresponding sentiment labels.

Literacy through Composition Techniques in the Chinese Yan Huang Style of Composer Bao Yuankai

Music composition, particularly within the Chinese Yan Huang style, holds significance for its artistic merit and potential to enhance literacy development and foster cultural appreciation. This study delves into the literacy composition techniques employed by composer Bao Yuankai within the Chinese Yan Huang style, focusing on the piece “Going to Jiangzhou.” The primary objective is to analyze the literacy composition techniques in the Chinese Yan Huang style of composer Bao Yuankai. Through a multidimensional approach integrating insights from music education, cultural studies, and literacy development, the study examines instrumentation, melody, harmony, and cultural symbolism in Yuankai’s compositions. Three key informants, including music scholars, professional musicians, and music educators, provide diverse perspectives on Yuankai’s works. Qualitative data analysis methods are employed to analyze insights gathered from interviews and observations. Findings reveal Yuankai’s adept use of traditional Chinese elements alongside modern composition techniques, resulting in compositions that resonate with audiences worldwide. Suggestions include incorporating culturally relevant content into music education curricula to enhance student’s literacy skills and cultural awareness.

Saw Isan’s Preservation and Literacy Transmission by Oun Tomngam

This study focuses on Saw Isan’s preservation and literacy transmission by Oun Tomngam. The study employed qualitative research methodologies, including interviews and observations. The findings of the study demonstrate that Saw Isan’s artistic abilities go beyond strict postures and methods, including a range of activities that improve both the elegance and ease of playing. These principles not only serve to assist the act of playing but also play a key role in the preservation, transfer, and continued life of Saw Isan for future generations. The demonstration of proficiency in the art of playing the Saw Isan is exemplified by the utilization of distinctive methodologies, encompassing meticulous finger placement, adept manipulation of the bow, and proper bodily alignment. The utilization of these approaches has significant importance in the preservation and transmission of the unique traditions of Saw Isan, guaranteeing the continued flourishing of its abundant musical heritage. The incorporation of sliding and vibrato methods enhances the sonic complexity and artistic appeal of Saw Isan’s musical compositions. These strategies not only enhance the musical experience but also play a role in the enduring preservation of Saw Isan.

Resonating Reflections: A Critical Review of Ethnosymbolic Dynamics in Les Six’s Music Nationalism Movement

Les Six and their mentors stirred a debatement of French nationalist music in the early 20th century. However, this movement faced serious criticism and mockery from various quarters and eventually fell apart amid challenges. This critical review explores the ethnosymbolic dynamics within the nationalism music movement of Les Six, and drawing upon ethnomusicological perspectives, the study examines how their compositions reflected and resonated with French national identity and cultural heritage. By analyzing primary sources, scholarly literature, and musical compositions, this article meticulously uncovers the chain reactions generated in the process of constructing national identity and cultural identity within this movement by examining the French societal backdrop, musical traditions, as well as the relationships and attitudes among relevant figures in this movement. The conclusions highlight the multifaceted nature of ethnosymbolism in their work, shedding light on the complexities of national identity construction through music.

The “Contrasts” Sonata by G. I. Firtich: the Appeal to the Genetic Memory of the Genre

The article is devoted to the iconic work by G. I. Firtich, that is fi rmly established in the concert repertoire, but hardly represented in the scientifi c literature. The work indicates the avant-garde composer’s commitment to the traditional academic genre of chamber instrumental music. The author identifi es a complex of historically developed semantic features, which are uniquely implemented in the work under consideration. The article points out the most signifi cant features: the appeal to one of the variants of the classical ensemble composition, the concerto-like nature and, most importantly, the programme in which the most essential basic attributive feature of this genre is outlined – antitheticality, fulfi lled in the principles of contrast and dialogue, covering all levels of the musical composition. In conclusion, the author of the work emphasises that it is the contrast that generates the concept of the composition, becoming the main motive power and determining the features of the content, form, and all parameters of the musical language.

String Quartet No. 1 “Polar Energy Budget” – Music composition using Earth observation data of polar regions

In recent years, advancements in digital processing have facilitated the transformation of data into sound, a process referred to as sonification. To raise awareness and understanding of climate change, various sonification endeavors utilizing Earth science data have surfaced; nevertheless, the outcomes frequently deviate from conventional music compositions. This backstory aims to examine the possibilities and limitations of sonification by composing music based on Earth observation data with intentional and staged intervention of arrangements by a composer, presenting the music composition results and presenting the feedback and discussions raised by the audience.

The Impact of the Hyperscore Musical Composition Program on Students / Impactul programului de compoziția muzicală Hyperscore asupra studenților

The development of musical competences requires educational contexts characterised by diversity. Modern trends in education and the profile of Generation Z require the adaptation of teaching-learning-assessment strategies to new training conditions. Thus, the digital dimension cannot be missing from the range of activities carried out with students. This study presents the results of a questionnaire survey of students from two partner higher music institutions. The focus is on the impact of the Hyperscore music composition programme on students.

The topos of Hutsulshchyna in Yaroslav Barnych’s operetta “Hutsulka Ksenia”

Yaroslav Barnych (1896–1967), whose name after need emigration was erased for a long time from the history of national music, is a bright figure in the Ukrainian musical culture of the middle of the 20th century, a talented composer who was called the “Ukrainian Lehár”, an excellent teacher, a gifted conductor and an active social activist-educator. Among the genre palette of the artist’s works, the operetta genre stands out. Despite the fact that the composer created only four examples of this genre, Ya. Barnych managed to implement revolutionary changes of it and gain the status of “creator of modern Ukrainian operetta”. The operetta “Hutsulka Ksenia”, which fully expresses the main features of the renewed genre, remains the most famous and brightest among his musical and stage compositions. Today, this operetta is performed with great success in many cities of Ukraine and beyond, and the musical and stage heritage of the composer is of great interest to modern musicologists-researchers. The purpose of the article is to identify the signs of the embodiment of traditional Hutsul musical culture in Barnych’s operetta “Hutsulka Ksenia”. The innovativeness of this study consists in involving into the field of domestic musicology of the work by Ya. Barnych thanks to a comprehensive analysis of this operetta carried out for the first time. The means of modernization of this genre in Ukrainian music on its example were traced; the socio-cultural and autobiographical markers were determined, and the specifics of the use of elements of the Hutsul folklore musical tradition in the work was identified. It is concluded that Barnych’s “Hutsulka Ksenia” presents the genre of modern Ukrainian operetta (which is essentially similar to Neo-Viennese operetta), contains certain autobiographical and socio-cultural markers (which allow us to understand the idea of the work), demonstrates the connection of the musical material with the traditions of Hutsul musical culture.

Trauma

TRAUMA is a musical composition work based on the anxiety of the person closest to the composer but has an impact on the composer himself. This music composition work is made with a band format and supported by vocals and strings. The composer wants to use microphones into vocal effects, namely delay and reverb, to create an echoing sound produced from the composer's own voice that interprets the dark atmosphere experienced. TRAUMA is a musical work based on the empirical experience of the person closest to the composer. The composition of Trauma has three parts, namely: The first part that realizes the beginning of the trauma, the second part that realizes how the trauma becomes stronger until he loses his identity, and the third part that interprets how the closest person begins to slowly try to eliminate the trauma, and slowly try to find his identity again. Each section is characterized by a change of tempo. To create the composition Trauma, the composer refers to a method of creation written by SP. Gustami, namely: First, the exploration stage which includes observation, and searching for literature sources. Second, the design stage, which involves making several sketches and technical drawings. The third stage is realization, which is the forming process, followed by assessment and evaluation of the finished work.

Design and Implementation of Automatic Music Composition System Based on Deep Learning

Recently, there has been a notable increase in interest surrounding the utilization of Deep Learning Approaches for AMCS in recent times. However, current methods often lack coherence and authenticity in the generated music. This study proposes a new approach that utilizes RNNs to bridge the gap between traditional compositional methods and modern deep learning techniques. The goal is to produce expressive and coherent musical pieces. Our methodology involves designing and implementing a customized RNN architecture that can effectively capture the complex temporal dependencies present in musical sequences. We experiment with different types of including LSTM networks, RNNs, and GRUs, to overcome challenges such as vanishing gradients and better model longer-term dependencies in music. To train the neural network efficiently and improve model convergence, various deep learning optimizers are utilized in our system. Specifically, we use SGD optimizer to improve the hyper parameters of LSTM and GRUs. The data for training is converted into MIDI format and analyzed, with music lines being identified through a similarity matrix technique. The MIDI data is then prepared for use in the LSTM and GRUs networks. The resulting music is assessed using both objective measures, such as mean squared error, and subjective approaches. This research adds to the advancements in automatic music composition by demonstrating the capability of RNNs in capturing and producing complex musical arrangements.