EMS Proceedings and Other Publications
Analysing the Creative Process through a Modelling of Tools and Methods for Composition in Hans Tutschku’s Entwurzelt
Frédéric Dufeu, Alain Bonardi
Frédéric Dufeu, CeReNeM, University of Huddersfield, UK
f.dufeu@hud.ac.uk
Alain Bonardi, CICM, Université Paris 8, France
alain.bonardi@gmail.com
Article
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Abstract
The analysis of the creative processes involved in electroacoustic music may to a large extent rely on the thorough study of the technological tools used for the realisation of a musical work, both on the composition and on the performance sides. Understanding the behaviour and potential range of aesthetic results of such tools enables the musicologist to approach the studied work much beyond its final form, as presented on tape or as performed on a particular occasion: gaining knowledge on a wider technological context leads to considering the actual artistic decisions in the perspective of the potential outcomes that the composer and performer could face but not necessarily adopt. In the context of a common session of several analytical approaches to a same electroacoustic piece, Hans Tutschku’s Entwurzelt for six singers and electronics (2012), this article focuses on the investigation and modelling of tools and methods of the compositional stage of the realisation of the work. During a performance of Entwurzelt, the electronic materials are simply triggered as events by one of the singers, without further interactivity – thus, the essential part of the research on the electroacoustic realisation aims at exploring the processes used during the compositional stage itself. As the electronics are used as an extension of the live vocal expression by the means of harmonic amplification and complex texturing, the tools for generation and processing of both symbolic representations and audio signals are explored. Since the software tools that constitute the primary sources for our research were not directly designed to be used beyond their creative purposes, this talk presents software modelling implemented by the two authors to demonstrate the technological context in which Tutschku could compose Entwurzelt, emphasizing his creative methods and the decisions he could make upon a wider range of possible materials and processing techniques.