RESEARCH:
Rhetorical Aesthetic of Electronic Music
Here, I will document my research and outline the basic organization of my research project.
Feel free to check out my blog at intellegible.wordpress.com for posts on my writing process.
Essay Outline
ABSTRACT
Research question: How will the transformation of music instrumentation from acoustic to electronic alter a person's rhetoric and aesthetic understanding of a song?
Two-part essay [~3500 words]
Main method of argument:
1. Juxtaposition of music with other arts of expression (language, visuals) in its aesthetic essence. [~1500 words]
1a. Chagas and music understanding
1b. Sensory value of sound and role in music
2. Analytical comparison of electronic vs. acoustic music in context of (1) [~2000 words)
2a. Language (synthesized voice, role of voice in music)
2b. Instrumentation (synthesized instruments)
2c. Style and experience differences due to electronic age (concerts, recording)
Working Thesis:
By creating possibility to simulate and manipulate acoustic instrumentation as well as electronic instrumentation, electronic music vastly widens access to the rhetoric tools of art (e.g. juxtaposition and mimesis).
Section i
RHETORIC
fundamental relations between sound, language, and rhetoric
Comparison of music to literature
INTRODUCTION Section
List all songs used in essay first, with background, in a collage
(This is the ultimate tease. I'll draw out these examples slowly until the climax in part II of the essay)
"the sound of the world, elektronische Musik concerned itself with the creation of synthetic sounds, whose models are neither found in nature nor possess the qualities of instrumental and vocal sounds" (Chagas 107).
In this distinction between music and noise we see the conception of music as “organized sound” (Chagas 90).
Section ii
AESTHETIC
ELECTRONIC VS. ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTATION
fundamental relations between sound, language, and aesthetic
Music as an experience
transition
SENSORY
Connection between rhetoric and aesthetic
mimesis, juxtaposition, and metaphor
--> audiovisual mode -->
aesthetic enjoyment
Primary Sources
Porter Robinson - Fellow Feeling
Antonin Dvorak - From the New World
Richard Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen
Scholarly Evidence: Secondary Sources
Chagas' book explores the concept of musical understanding in six essays. Six essays with six different perspectives.
Chagas, Paulo C. “Unsayable Music: Six Reflections On Musical Semiotics, Electroacoustic And Digital Music.” (2014): Books at JSTOR. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
Essay 1: Musical Understanding: Wittgenstein, Ethics, and Aesthetics
"Understanding music is a manifestation of human life. How could it be described to someone? Well, above all I suppose we should have to describe music. en we could describe how human beings react to it. But is that all that is necessary, or is it also part of the process to teach him to understand it for himself? Now, teaching him to understand would be teaching him what understanding is in another sense than a theory that does not do this. And again, teaching him to understand poetry or painting can be part of an explanation of what understanding music is. (CV 70; 80-81) " (Chagas 35)
Use this essay to explain connections between language and music understanding.
Identify Chagas' own use of language to convey a message, comparing to his statements on musical phrases and the ability of music to convey meaning.
Connections between music and movement:
Quote: "What is being emphasized here is the notion that musical understanding does not consist in the gestures and movements you can make while listening to music. Gesture is only a reaction in line with the sensations we may have, the movement we may make, or even the words that can accompany our understanding" (31).
"If music expresses nothing but itself, how do we make aesthetic judgments? " (32)
Breaking rules in art - electronic music breaking traditional rules of harmony, melody etc.
Example: " the paradigm of “correctness” here would be explicit if a second idea would follow the rst one. But Mozart gives only a hint at the paradigm; he indirectly calls for the rule and, at the same time, causes surprise by not following it. e rule functions as an object of comparison " (34)
For example, Porter Robinson uses similar juxtaposition in his song "Fellow Feeling" by identifying the "rule" or orchestral music and blatantly breaking it, made possible because of electronic instrumentation.
Essay III: Communication and Meaning: Music as Social System
Use this essay to identify the relationship between music and noise --> transition to sensory concerns?
(page 89 -> end)
Also use it to describe the role of language in music: page 83
"Music organizes noise and insofar controls power and violence, but at the same time it dissolves this organization again and again by re-introducing noise, which is controlled and transformed into new music. Every time the boundary is crossed, the potential of noise is actualized and it creates meaning " (90)
Electronic music can create new noise.
"For example, the interval of third, which was considered a “dissonance” in early
90
Communication and Meaning: Music as Social System
polyphony, becomes a meaningful tool in the music of the Renaissance; 20th century music explores noise in a variety of ways, including the noise of percussion instruments and electronic devices. "
“Noise is a weapon and music, primordially, is the formation, domestication and ritualization of that weapon as a simulacrum of ritual murder” (Attali 1985, 24)
visual representation, metaphor for the tools of music --> instrument.
"In Lévi-Strauss’ words, [music and myth] are considered “machines for the obliteration of time” (Lévi-Strauss 1969, 16). "
Chagas uses visual metaphors to describe music and its tools
"Because of the internal organization of the musical work, the act of listening to it immobilizes passing time; it catches and enfolds it as one catches and enfolds a cloth apping in the wind. It follows that by listening to music, and while we are listening to it, we enter into a kind of immortality. (Lévi-Strauss 1969, 16) "
Music accomplishes a double function: on the one hand, it has to create harmony in society through consonance—for example, to simulate su ering; on the other hand, music has to excite and seduce and thus to produce dissonant noise. It is a recursive process: music produces noise in the form of dissonance that is transformed into consonance, which is in turn converted into dissonance, and so on.
Essay II: Spectral Semiotics: Sound, Temporality, and Affect in Chopin
Visualization of music (spectral)
Essay IV: Creativity of Electroacoustic and Digital Music
Could use for leading into part ii of essay
The Essays of Chagas
Examine the technical details of language, music, and speech through this paper:
Jungers, Melissa K., Hupp, Julie M., and Dickerson, Sara D. “Language Priming by Music and Speech”. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 34 No. 1, September 2016; (pp. 33-39)
Mimesis is a strong connection above.
Learning in melodies?
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Schiavio, Andrea and Timmers, Renee. “Motor and Audiovisual Learning Consolidate Auditory Memory of Tonally Ambiguous Melodies”. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 34 No. 1, September 2016; (pp. 21-32)
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Connection to the melody extensively talked about in Chagas Essay I.
Periodicals
Preliminary Research
Library Exploration
 First thing that caught my eye as I entered Doe Library: was this sign really necessary? However, the term “vestibule” made me feel like I was about to enter a really fancy building, and I was not wrong. |  Another sign, except unfortunately this meant people couldn’t enter Morrison, let alone dogs or bikes. |
|---|---|
 In the Heyns reading room. I wonder where this door leads to? So many mysterious doors in this library makes me more curious than the books on the shelves. |  Speaking of books, I really like the narrow space between stacks. It makes it seem like all these books are sleeping whenever people don’t “open” their shelves. As if they are living organisms that need rest. |
 This nice little display in Moffitt makes me want to relive a bit of history. Not too much, though; I’m far more interested in the future. Hence why I’m taking this class. |  Ancient technology from the far past, found in the Media Resources Center. Wonder where they managed to dig this up. |
 Out from Moffitt. The light coming out at this time of day is a perfect metaphor to the way we view newspapers nowadays. Print as a medium is having its sunset,;an end to its days. And the beginning of screens will dawn. |  Finally, as I wasn’t able to come here the day before (it closed), I managed to reach the front desk before being turned away because not only are dogs and bikes not allowed, but neither are bags. Oh well; at least I had a nice adventure? |
Article
Exploration
List of articles:
1. Jones, C. (1997, 02). Robo-composer. Sight and Sound, 7, 31-31,3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1829263?accountid=14496
2. Kenmochi, Hideki. “Singing synthesis as a new musical instrument.” ICASSP. Vol. 2012. 2012.
3. Seifert, Dan. “Google Home Review: Home Is Where The Smart Is”. The Verge. 2016.
4.Werde, Bill. “Could I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?”. New York Times. 2003.
Article
Analysis
November 4, 2016
Though I am not settled with a topic yet, I know I’d like to write something related to the transformation of human relations, communication, and culture due to technology. For now, I’ve gathered a few articles on the development of music technologies:
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Jones, C. (1997, 02). Robo-composer. Sight and Sound, 7, 31-31,3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1829263?accountid=14496
This article explores the history of electronic music and its growth into the present. However, as it was written before the boom of electronic music in mainstream pop culture, its views are more focused on its technical benefits and ease of use rather than its cultural significance. This may allow discussion of how technology can aid music production and accelerate a world of musical content, such as how the printing press accelerated literature and print material.
With a quite technical tone and film-minded voice, the article posits the facility of creating electronic music, and does not mention any of the defining characteristics of this genre of music nor its impact on listeners. As such, it dawns discussion of
2. Kenmochi, Hideki. “Singing synthesis as a new musical instrument.” ICASSP. Vol. 2012. 2012.
Vocaloid is a technology allowing virtual voices to be produced for use in music. As a more introductory paper into this technology, with a small amount of discussion on its social consequence, the writing is very explanatory. However, the raw information and user/viewer statistics can help my paper explore and establish the cultural relevance of singing synthesis, and lead to discussion of the virtualization of idols/personalities.
While the tone is mostly dry and the writing itself is not very grammatically correct, the author does well in not over exaggerating or advertising the product. This establishes credibility and makes the paper much easier to read as an informational source, much like the first article above, but also opens discussion on cultural significance unlike the first article.
3. Seifert, Dan. “Google Home Review: Home Is Where The Smart Is”. The Verge. 2016.
Not centrally about music, but most surely related to the virtualization of personality and the marriage of technology to media. The Google Home is basically a speaker that the user tells what to do, including what song to play or information from Google. This will help me introduce topics related to virtual personalization/avatars and their connection to music technology, such as the virtual idol Hatsune Miku or assistant voices like Siri.
The article itself is very eye-catching, with a multitude of visually stimulating and pleasing images showing the Home placed in, well, a typical home. Despite the images looking like an advertisement for the product, the actual text does express the uselessness of the device, its inability to act on its own, and its various limits. However, the article does explore the device’s potential to influence our musical intake, which makes the discussion much more personal than the other articles.
4.Werde, Bill. “Could I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?”. New York Times. 2003.
This article also discusses the potential of the technology of Vocaloid, except it talks more about the possibility than the current state of the technology.
With a very pondering tone to make us dream of the tantalizing prospects, the article essentially takes the same topic as the second article and proposes the best consequences to our culture. Interestingly, the article was also written before Vocaloid took off and became popular, allowing analysis on its predicative nature.