Report on Residency and Exchange
Program in New Music
Technology
Center for Research in Computing and
the Arts
University of California, San Diego
Robert
Willey
bobw@ucsd.edu
Introduction
From 1990 to 1995 the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) was involved
in a computer music exchange program between its Center for Research in
Computing and the Arts (CRCA), the
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, Stanford University), and the
Laboratorio de Investigación y Produccion Musical (LIPM, Buenos Aires, Argentina). A
grant funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, allowed for the exchange of
composers and researchers among the three centers. The principal investigators
were Roger Reynolds and Richard Moore (UCSD), Chris Chafe (CCRMA) and Fernando
Kröpfl (LIPM). Results of the exchange were presented to the public through a
series of concerts, seminars, and a double compact disc of new works produced at
the three centers.
When in 1989 the Residency and Exchange Program in New Music Technology was
envisioned, a new phase in the realm of computer music was being initiated: we
could now visualize the possibility of sharing the same computers and software
at various centers in different countries. A new generation of economically
accessible powerful computers running the best computer music programs available
opened new perspectives in this sense. Pieces could be started at one center and
completed at another. One of the purposes linked to this possibility was that of
establishing consistent inter cultural relations since the program's
participants would be carrying out prolonged residencies at each site in
Argentina and in the U.S.
The technological advances during those years awakened in several South
American countries in the region a great interest in computer music. This was
due to the availability of hardware and software to a larger number of composers
and to an expanding network of composers and universities throughout the region.
Visits to Venezuela and Brazil proved that there existed a budding activity
which deserved to be stimulated; potential whose development should no doubt be
supported. The three centers therefore agreed that it was important to extend
the initial project and offer the results obtained to various other countries in
Latin America.
The international residency and exchange program has provided invaluable
interactions between musicians of different cultures, bringing their own unique
traditions to a common interest in electroacoustic music and its attendant
technologies. It has planted "seed crystals" around which future activities will
develop. The results of such projects enrich future generations. The Torcuato Di
Tella Institute supported an arts program in Buenos Aires during the 1960's. The
music section, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation was developed from
1963-71. It created a concentration of artists working in the avant garde,
dedicated to experimentation in the visual arts, theater, and music, providing
training for young composers. The composer Alberto Ginastera founded the Centro
Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (Center of Latin American Advanced
Musical Studies, CLAEM) in the Di Tella Institute, again thanks to support from
the Rockefeller Foundation. A fundamental aspect of this project was the
gathering of young composers from all over Latin America, who received
scholarships allowing them to study and meet during the years of CLAEM, putting
them in contact with teachers of the stature of Dallapiccola, Messiaen, and
Xenakis, among others. Some of the 48 scholarship recipients who were at CLAEM
are now key figures in the creation and leadership of art in their countries.
The current Residency and Exchange Program in New Music Technology has provided
a structure in which institutional and personal contacts flourished. These
associations will undoubtedly lead to continued activity after the funding
expires.
The Trilateral Exchange between the Initial Centers
The Laboratorio de Investigación y Produccion Musical (Laboratory for Musical
Research and Production, LIPM) is sponsored by the City of Buenos Aires as part
of the city's Recoleta Cultural Center. LIPM is the oldest and most important
music research institution in Latin America. LIPM conducts research on the
nature of musical structures, creative processes, and composing technique, and
supports an extensive array of concerts, courses, and publications. Modern
technical facilities include digital synthesizers, samplers, and networks of
NeXT and MacIntosh computers running Music Kit, CARL software, Common Lisp
Music, Common Music, Max,
and Dmix. Buenos Aires considers itself more a European country than an American
one, and they have long standing connections with art centers and festivals in
France, Spain, and Germany. This exchange program has developed the
communication between Argentina and the United States, particularly computer
music centers in California, and has provided opportunities to interact with
technology centers in other neighboring Latin American countries, with whom
contact has been limited in the past.
Francisco Kröpfl was the principal investigator at LIPM, assisted by Julio
Viera.
The Center for Research in Computing and
the Arts (CRCA, formerly the Center for Music Experiment) was founded in
1972 at the University of California, San
Diego. Since 1979 it has hosted the Computer Audio Research Laboratory
(CARL) which is dedicated to the application of computer technology to music.
CARL research centers on the design of music systems development and the
production of musical works. CARL software, which includes the well-known
acoustic compiler named cmusic, includes integrated signal analysis, synthesis
and processing modules; it has been distributed worldwide since 1980.
Roger Reynolds and F. Richard Moore were the principal investigators at CRCA.
Research associate Robert Willey assisted the exchange, along with Tim Labor,
John Stevens, and Jarek Kapuscinski.
The Center for
Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) was founded in 1975 at
Stanford University to allow composers and researchers to collaborate using
computer- based technology as a research tool for music. CCRMA research by
faculty, students, staff and visiting scholars ranges over a vast area including
musical signal processing, novel realtime control interfaces, psychoacoustics,
music manuscripting and artificial intelligence. Technical facilities include
extensive synthesis hardware and software including SAIL, Common Lisp,
Objective-C, and Smalltalk.
Chris Chafe was the principal investigator at CCRMA. Fernando López Lezcano,
originally from LIPM, has been a key contact for the project, while serving as
CCRMA's system administrator.
Residencies
The exchange program supported the travel and accommodation of researchers from the
three centers. Visits varied from one week to six months in duration. Longer
visits allowed for the study of new techniques and the creation of new works.
Shorter visits provided opportunities to present seminars and concerts of new
compositions. When LIPM visitors came to California they generally stayed at
either CRCA or CCRMA for most of the time, making just a short visit to the
other center for meetings and to present concerts. A list of residents sent
among the three centers is included in the appendices. The fact that the three
centers used compatible hardware and software environments allowed for pieces
begun during a visit to one center to be finished after returning home.
Concerts
Concerts were
given at the three centers in order to present new works during the residencies.
These provided opportunities to share new works for instruments and computers by
exposing them to audiences. The performers who were involved in the concerts
have adopted several of the compositions into the repertoire and have continued
to perform them in other situations. Attached to this report are a list of concerts given at CRCA, and of music from
CRCA presented at LIPM.
Recordings
Intercambio/Exchange, with accompanying bilingual 49 pp. report. A double compact disk documenting the first three years of the
exchange program between CRCA, CCRMA, and LIPM. Includes pieces by Pablo Cetta,
Chris Chafe, Christopher Dobrian, Robert Willey, Diego Losa, Stanislaw
Krupowicz, Miguel Calzón, Fernando López Lezcano, Guillermo Pozzati, David
Jaffe, Tim Labor, Carlos Cerana, Rafael Liñan, Eric Lyon, and Julio Viera. CRCA,
1994. In the fall of 1995 Stanford will start its "Digital Jukebox" by putting
compositions from the Intercambio CD online, making it possible for
anyone connected to the network to download and listen to compositions from the
CD. It is hoped that another CD or CD- ROM can be made, to document pieces made
during the last two years of the exchange, including compositions by Pablo di
Liscia, Javier Leichman, Fernando López Lezcano, David Horta, Jorge Sad, Juan
Carlos Pampin, John Stevens, Christopher Penrose, and Robert Willey.
Música Electroacústica en la Argentina. Works by LIPM composers Julio Viera, Fernando López
Lezcano, Jorge Rapp, Guillermo Pozzati, Gustav Chab, Miguel Calzón, and Carlos
Cerana. Tarka, 1994. Distributed in the U.S. by Out of the
Blue Productions, P.O. Box 17594, San Diego, CA 92177.
II SBCM. The Second Brazilian Symposium
on Computers and Music, in conjunction with the Brazilian Computer Society.
The CD was produced by
Eduardo
Reck Miranda at Edinburgh University's Electroacoustic Music Studio and
Robert Willey at CRCA, 1995. Compositions by Carlos Cerana, Diego Losa, Celso
Aguiar, Mario Verandi, Stephen Travis Pope, Conrado Silva, Eduardo Reck Miranda,
Ralf Ollertz, Victor Lazzarini, Aluízio Arcela, and Robert Willey.
Unpublished recordings made of concerts resulting from the exchange program
may be obtained directly from the three centers.
Extensions
Robert
Willey began an electronic network at CRCA to promote collaborative music
research, production, and education. It is named "El Camino de Silicio" and
is available on the world wide web in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Links
from this page take users to other computer music centers throughout the
Americas, and provide another outlet for the distribution of results from the
exchange program, complementing the physical travel it made possible. One of
resources it includes is a
connection to site at the University of Brasília produced by Aluízio Arcela,
who came to CRCA in 1995 to demonstrate his work relating graphics and
sound.
A number of the composers in the exchange program have participated in
"Disklavier
Discovery", another of Willey's projects. Compositions from Argentina,
California, and Brazil were played on concerts at CRCA and CCRMA and placed on
the anonymous ftp server wendy.ucsd.edu in the pub/midi/disklavier directory,
alongside works from other centers around the world. Pieces from the archive may
be transferred via the network worldwide. One of the pieces, Christopher
Dobrian's composition " Entropy
" from the series appears on the "Intercambio" CD.
Brazil
Robert Willey made three trips to Brazil to give lectures and concerts at
UFRGS (Porto Alegre), USP and PUC (São Paulo), UFMG (Belo Horizonte), UFES
(Vitória), and the Festival de Inverno in Ouro Preto. One of the results of
extending the exchange program to include Brazil has been the support of the
Núcleo de Computação e Música da Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (NUCOM, the
Brazilian Computer Music Group of the Brazilian Computer Society). The exchange
program provided funding for personnel from LIPM, CCRMA, and CRCA to attend
NUCOM's First Symposium
on Computer Music in
Brazil, held in August 1994 in Caxambu. It attracted significant
international participation, presenting 38 papers and 40 compositions selected
from submissions from all over the world. Information on the first symposium is
included in an appendix.
The second symposium
on computer music in Brazil will be held from July 30 to August 2, 1995 in
Canela (RGS) during the annual congress of the Brazilian Computer Society.
Invited speakers from CRCA, CCRMA, the Computer
Music Journal, ZKM (Germany), and York (UK) will join with their
colleagues from around Brazil, representing universities in Belo Horizonte,
Salvador, Brasília, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, and other cities. A compact disk of some of the
works played at the symposium will be distributed as part of the congress'
proceedings.
During the exchange CRCA hosted residencies from Brazilian professors Antonio
Cunha, Rodolfo Coelho de Souza, Hubertus Hofmann, Maurício Alves Loureiro, and
Aluízio Arcela.
Mexico
The exchange program benefited from additional funds obtained through a grant
from the UC MEXUS program, established in 1980 to focus the resources of the
nine campuses of the University of California. This allowed CRCA to host Roberto
Morales Manzanares for a month, and for him to work at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio
Technologies (CNMAT). CRCA staff Carol Hobson, Chris Penrose, and Robert
Willey went to UCB during Morales Manzanares' residence for his concert and
meetings. During his stay in La Jolla he arranged a jury for his university's
algorithmic composition festival, which included Allen Strange (from San Jose
State University), Peter Otto and Brian Ferneyhough (University of California,
San Diego).
Venezuela
LIPM's contacts in Caracas were renewed through contact with Eduardo Kusnir.
Roger Reynolds participated in Eduardo Kusnir's festival through CEDIAM at the
Central University of Caracas, Venezuela during their annual Contemporary Music
Festival in the fall of 1994.
Servio Marin, a Venezuelan graduate of UCSD now teaching at National
University in San Deigo, organized and presented the International New Music
Festival in 1994 and 1995, assisted by Robert Willey. These festivals
provided further opportunities to work with Joanne Carey, Max Mathews, Maureen
Chowning, Fernando López Lezcano, and Chris Chafe, who came from CCRMA to
perform and lecture. Composers from Latin America in general, and LIPM
specifically, were highlighted during the concerts and lectures given at
National University and CRCA.
In addition to the Rockefeller exchange program, Stanford continued to host
Latin American visitors to its summer program. Visitors from Latin America
worked with CCRMA staff and students. CCRMA hosted a special targetted workshop
for the Latin American participants in 1995 offering introductory and advanced
level workshops in areas of computer music, signal processing and composition.
CRCA and CCRMA maintained ftp sites for the
dissemination of computer music information, and collaborated on improving the
network infrastructure in Latin America in support of shared, electronic
educational programs, offering a future site of exchange for the new and
projected Residency and Exchange Program in New Music Technology partners.
Awards
Several of the compositions produced during the exchange have received prizes
in competitions, including:
- Juan Carlos Pampin: "Apocalypse was postponed due to lack of interest".
Grand Prix Internatinaux Bourges, 1994.
- Pablo Cetta: "...que me hiciste mal...", First Prize in Electroacoustic
Programme Music, Bourges, 1994. This piece is the first on the "Intercambio" cd.
Archive
Documents from the exchange, including scores, tapes, papers, and concert
programs are stored in the archive at CRCA and in the University of California,
San Diego Central Library. A listing of items relating to the
exchange program is attached.
Participating Institutions
Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA)
University of California San
Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, 0037
La Jolla, California 92093-0037
Laboratorio de Investigación y Produccion Musical (LIPM)
Música Sonido E
Imagen
Centro Cultural Ciudad de Buenos Aires
Secretaria de
Cultura
Junin 1930 (1113) Buenos Aires
Argentina
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA)
Stanford
University
Stanford, CA 94305-8180
Escola de Música
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerias (UFMG)
Av. Afonso
Pena 1534
30310-005 Belo Horizonte - MG
Brazil
Centro de Documentación e Investigaciones Acústico-Musicales
(CEDIAM)
Universidad Central de Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela
The Rockefeller Foundation
420 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10018-2702
Appendices
Acknowledgements
Thanks to: Fundacion Antorches, Jorge Helft, Centro Cultural Recoleta,
Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, UCSD Department of Music, Joe
Kucera, Steve Schick, Amy Knoles, Ricordi Americana S.A.E.C., Apple Argentina,
Softlider, Yamaha Corporation of America, Joel Kabakov, Carol Hobson, Patte
Wood, and Harold Cohen.
The Center for Research
in Computing and the Arts is an organized research unit of the University of
California, San Diego.