Juhani Vesikkala:
Two Methods for the Reinstrumentation of Timbre-based Music

Stati a studie / Živá hudba 2024/15 / Publikováno 2. 7. 2025

Abstrakt This article proposes two preliminary practical models when reinstrumenting timbre-based music for a different acoustic instrumental setup for use by composers. I apply these methods to an excerpt of my music which relies on timbral structuring. This shows how reinstrumentations of timbre-based music need to differ from reinstrumentations of pitch-based music which may transfer sounds by octaves and otherwise retain pitch structure yet have not systematically transferred timbre. Timbre-based reinstrumentation requires diligent study of what the timbres are in a piece in which determinate pitch material might be absent or structurally irrelevant. Much timbre-based music has abandoned the structuring power of pitch organisation in favour of smoothly structuring the gradations of timbre itself. The continuum between pitch and noise, which can be quantified with various spectrotemporal descriptors, is of particular value in understanding timbre-based structuring in music. Both methods suggest an ethos of reinstrumentation that detaches from mimicking the notation of the original and seeks instead the highest fidelity reproduction of a lis¬tener’s dramaturgical experience of a timbre-based piece. Fidelity includes preserving the original compositional intention, an accu¬rate replication of what sounds will sound in a standard performance, what an average listener’s audition will process from it as the piece’s dramaturgy, and what that experience can evoke in the listener. The first method introduced here to describe the listener’s experienced dramaturgy is based on the degree of noisiness. The second method recognises the likeliest intended chronology of the listener’s expec¬tations, attention, and rewards, as well as the timbral limits of the goal instrumental setup.

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