Introduction
The notion of paradigm :
- general definition (Kuhn) ;
- role in the creation of computer tools ;
- the notion of representation in computing ;
- representation paradigms in general
- the symbol: serialism (Webern etc.),
- emergence: writing process and perception,
- enaction (Varela et al.): application perspectives.
Paradigms of technology for music
Examination of the languages and systems created for computer music, from 1960 to the present day, from the point of view of the application of a specific paradigm. Examination of the relationship between a mathematical function and the notion of a patch, the predominant concept in languages and machines created for computer music.
- Music V: (first language created for music synthesis) ;
- Music 4BF ;
- Music 10 : (introduction of the I-ONLY and R-ONLY concepts) ;
- Music 11 ;
- 4CED/4XDSP (languages for real-time synthesis) ;
- CSound ;
- CMusic ;
- CPAT ;
- Max-contrôle (first commercial computer music language);
- Max-signal.
The tape recorder paradigm applied to music production software: "sequencers".
Today's technologies favor quantitative description, whereas the musician wants to be able to describe a musical object or phenomenon in qualitative form.
Concepts absent from current paradigms:
- time: context and state of a system at a given moment;
- describing problems in terms of constraints;
- qualitative approach to musical representation.
Sound and writing
- relationship between real (instrumental) and synthetic sound
- derealized sound ;
- interaction between sound complexity and musical grammar;
- amplified sound/spatialized sound.
- structural and sonic enlargement
- global or partial transformation ;
- amorphous and complex structures ;
- deterministic and random processes;
- real and virtual scores.
- partition tracking and triggering methods
- pitch (inert or active) ;
- dynamics (real or symbolic);
- time (measured in/out of context).
Processes and writing
examination of the relationship between instrumental and computer writing processes in general, and in "explosante-fixe" (1991) in particular.
analysis of computer writing in Transitoire VII (numbers 13 and 14):
- the role of infinite reverberation ;
- the logic of accents;
- individualization of pitches, layers, registers and tempi; processes based on the notion of cycle applied to instrumental ("Derive II") and computer writing (sketches for "Répons" [1981] and "explosante-fixe").
timbre as the sum of processes.