Language(s): French

Keyword(s):

Musique Concrète ,  Spectral Analysis ,  Synthesis and Resynthesis Techniques ,  FOF ,  Physical Modelling ,  Analysis ,  Semantic Listening ,  Structural Analysis ,  Listening Experience ,  Computer Music ,  Digital Music ,  Electronic Music ,  Text-sound Composition ,  Mixed Work ,  Radiophonics ,  Serialism ,  Semiotics

Abstract:

The author analyses the characteristics of the use of the voice as made and/or manipulated by technology. The first part contains a history of early experiments from the first speaking devices in the eighteenth century to the first electroacoustic studios (Paris, Cologne, Milan) in the 1950s. The second part explores computer-based vocal synthesis and modeling techniques. He also analyses two works: Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980) by Jonathan Harvey for tape and Les chants de l’amour (1984) by Gérard Grisey for 12 voices and tape. The final part includes an analysis of the role of “vocalité artificielle” (artificial voice) in the imagination of poets and composers through various subjects: the relations between music and text, the notions of rupture and continuity, the role of the computer and the relationships between subject (natural voice) and portrait (artificial voice). An important bibliography completes the book.

Table of Contents:

1. Song of the machine: from dream to reality
    First stammering
    A machine culture
    Up to the music itself
    The analog post-Schaeffer
2. Towards a digital dematerialisation
    The meeting of the voice and data processing
    “Vocalité artificielle” and modeling
    From the CHANT program to the musical works
3. From the creation to the imaginary
    The voice of the machine, interpretation of a text
    Technology, rupture, continuity
    Between figure and disfiguration
    Paradoxes and ambiguities
   Conclusion: a generalised continuum

Abstract translation(s):

(français)

Bossis, Bruno (2005c). La voix et la machine. La vocalité artificielle dans la musique contemporaine

All references of the same author:

(English)

Bossis, Bruno (2002a). La vocalité artificielle : un portrait en musique
Bossis, Bruno (2002b). Karlheinz Stockhausen
Bossis, Bruno (2003). Practical seminar : Creating a simple electroacoustic piece in easy stages
Bossis, Bruno (2004). Reflections on the Analysis of Artificial Vocality: Representations, Tools and Prospective
Bossis, Bruno (2004a). Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco de Jonathan Harvey ou le miroir de la spiritualité
Bossis, Bruno (2005a). Stria de John Chowning ou l'oxymoron musical: du nombre d'or comme poétique
Bossis, Bruno (2005b). Phoné
Bossis, Bruno (2005d). L'intervocalité ou les avatars de la voix dans le matériau sonore
Bossis, Bruno (2006). The Analysis of Electroacoustic Music: from sources to invariants

(Français)

Bossis, Bruno (2002a). La vocalité artificielle : un portrait en musique
Bossis, Bruno (2002b). Karlheinz Stockhausen
Bossis, Bruno (2003). Séminaire pratique : Les étapes d'une création électroacoustique simple
Bossis, Bruno (2003a). Introduction à l'histoire et à l'esthétique des musiques électroacoustiques
Bossis, Bruno (2004a). Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco de Jonathan Harvey ou le miroir de la spiritualité
Bossis, Bruno (2005). L'intervocalité ou les avatars de la voix dans le matériau sonore
Bossis, Bruno (2005a). Stria de John Chowning ou l'oxymoron musical : du nombre d'or comme poétique
Bossis, Bruno (2005b). Phoné