Composing with algorithms: procedure and compositional contact in contemporary musical creation

• Grant number: 06/06137-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2007
• End date: February 28, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Ferraz Mello Filho
• Grantee: José Henrique Padovani Velloso
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

With the increasing role of new technologies related to computer music (personal computer; control interfaces; applications for assisted composition, acoustical analysis and interactive music), it can be perceived a reorganization of the relationship between abstract and concrete visions of music - perspectives investigated by Pierre Schaeffer. This project aims to study these questions from three approaches: the first one, theoretic and analytical, concerns the study about how the abstract and concrete perspectives appear in contemporary music and how the technical resources interfere in creative processes. Therefore, will be undertaken text readings and analysis of works written by composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Kaija Saariaho and Edgar Alandia. A second approach is the technical study, whose question is to develop algorithmic and interfacial solutions for the musical composition (mainly, with the applications Max/MSP and OpenMusic). This will be done from the bibliographic study and the creative experience itself, which shall demand for specific technical solutions. A third approach will bring the theoretical results to the musical writing level, in a creative study - that is integrant part of the UNICAMP music master program. In this study, the aim is to create musical pieces that use the technical resources of computer assisted composition and musical interactivity. This research is connected to the thematic project intitled "The computer as space for musical creation and performance", coordinated by the Prof. Doctor Silvio Ferraz.