Author: Gonçalo Gato

IRCAM Forum Workshops

by Gonçalo GatoWorkshops

During the IRCAM Forum Workshops in Paris — from the 19th to the 21st of November 2014 — I’ve delivered an OpenMusic demonstration.

Shaping musical objects out of spectra

Sonogram analysis during composition frequently yields chord sequences with dynamic information. In this demo I wish to show ways in which the composer can shape musical objects derived from the spectra’s harmonic and dynamic evolution. These procedures transfigure the initial sound characteristics but remain closely linked to them. A particular emphasis will be given to using users drawings on the computer screen, but also to deriving morphological information from the sonogram itself. Importantly, it will be shown how to efficiently eliminate overlap between resulting notes and create voices (or polyphony) that can be orchestrated.

Sonogram large

Presentation at Doctoral Day

by Gonçalo GatoGeneral

3rd of June, 11:30am, Lecture Recital Room, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, UK

Algorithmic Composition: telling the human story about composing with computers

Composition algorithms have been around probably since the first attempts at organizing sound. The term, nevertheless, is usually reserved for the use of automated procedures to compose music. Implying the use of machinery, these procedures are older than is generally realised: the Aeolian harp (a wind-driven harp first described by Athanasius Kircher in 1650) and wind chimes being two of the most ancient, striking examples, and Mozart’s Musikalisches Würfelspiel, a dice game for assembling minuets, being the most famous. With the invention of computers in the twentieth century, new and fascinating possibilities arose, fostered by the unprecedented calculation speed. Lejaren Hiller’s Illiac Suite (1956) — generally regarded as the first computer-composed composition — can be said to have started a tradition that is now more than half a century old.

Nowadays, composers using automated methods usually go to great lengths describing their underlying principles, producing a substantial amount of literature that is still accumulating. This presentation gives a personal account — by unveiling ongoing creative research — on the less-featured discussion dealing with the need for actively taking decisions and carrying manual interventions. These aesthetic decisions can many times embody rebellion against excessive algorithm-bound formalism. Most composers using algorithmic methods would acknowledge those actions — as well as leaving space for imaginative, perhaps more spontaneous, procedures — but would seldom discuss them. In this line of thought, programming the computer is, after all, not sufficient to create a musical work because non-programmable aspects such as creativity, imagination and spontaneity are valuable elements that cannot be left out of the creative process. Learning to integrate these topics could bring this somewhat remote field closer to the core of the composing craft.

Guildhall New Music Ensemble workshop

by Gonçalo GatoPerformances

The piece Canti Firmi was developed during the workshop with the Guildhall New Music Ensemble conducted by James Weeks from the 7th to the 11th of July 2014. It was a transcription of Gesualdo’s madrigal “Gioite voi col canto’ from his fifth book of madrigals (1613). Last day included a public performance of several works workshopped at Silk Street Music Hall at 5pm.

Programme notes
Canti firmi was born out of Gesualdo’s madrigal ‘Gioite voi col canto’ (fifth book, I). I started by segmenting the madrigal in seven parts of different lengths. Each segment was then filtered in various ways to obtain 7 different canti firmi. These served as the basis for composing.
The procedure of elaborating a cantus firmus is probably as old as polyphonic music itself and it never actually defined a style. Similarly, my ‘transcription’ of Gesualdo’s madrigal is very far from the original. I think this (old) composing process made me feel a sort of primitive compositional impetus that was very inspiring.

 

GNME 11 July 2014