Modeling Musical Anticipation

230 Pages·2008·5.49 MB·English

by  Arshia Cont

Modeling Musical Anticipation
From the time of music to the music of time
by
ARSHIA CONT
Jointly supervised dissertation between
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
and
University of Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI)
In satisfaction for the degree of
Doctor of Philsosophy in
Computer Music
and
Acoustics, Signal Processing and Computer Science Applied to Music.
Defended on October 16th 2008 in front of the jury composed of:
Alain de Cheveigné ENS, Paris Supervisor
Shlomo Dubnov UCSD Supervisor
Lawrence K. Saul UCSD Reporter
David Wessel UC Berkeley Reporter
Jean-Pierre Briot UPMC Reader
Miller Puckette UCSD Reader
Philippe Manoury UCSD Reader

Thesis prepared at
IRCAM – CNRS UMR 9912
Equipe Interaction Musicales Temps Réel
1, place Igor Stravinsky, 75004 Paris, France.
http://www.ircam.fr/
and
Center for Research in Computing and the Arts,
Music Department,
University of California San Diego (UCSD),
9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
http://crca.ucsd.edu/

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Dedicated to ones who dedicate
my parents
Mansoureh Daneshkazemi and Gholamhossen Cont
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Acknowledgments
This thesis is the result of almost a decade of struggle between three continents,
starting from Tehran, Iran (my hometown), to Virginia (USA), and then back and
forthbetweenParis(France)andSanDiego(USA).Themaindriveduringthiswhole
periodhasbeenmyextremepassionforcontemporarymusicandthescienceofmusic.
Obliged to commence as an engineer, I have undergone a rather unusual pathway
to reach where I stand today, along which the help of many individuals should be
acknowledged.
My greatest gratitude goes to my family: My parents Gholamhossein Cont and
MansourehDaneshkazemi,towhomIdedicatethisthesis,exemplifyloveandsacrifice
for me. In a decisive period in my life, where I was desperately seeking ways to
combine my two passions for music and engineering sciences, they supported me in
every possible way to initiate my migration and continued to do so up to this day.
MyuncleMasoudDaneshkazemiandhisfamilywithoutwhoseearlypaternalsupport
once arrived in US, I could have never arrived where I currently stand. My brother,
Rama Cont, who played a crucial role in my professional and personal life in Paris
and without whose initial help I would have never found my way there. Finally my
whole family in Iran, including my twin sister Mandana, who accompanied me from
far during this whole period.
Before the start of this PhD program, I was desperately seeking ways to connect
my research to the world of contemporary music. This was initiated by my migra-
tion from Iran to US, to continue my studies at VirginiaTech and soon turned out
to deceptions as research in music, even today in many of our outstanding academia,
is not considered seriously! In spite of this, many individuals helped me to realize
this important passage in my life. Legendary figures such as Miller Puckette and
David Wessel never ceased to reply to my requests while I was only a desperate un-
dergraduate student. I shall never forget their exemplary modesty and willingness
for development of younger generations, which was crucial in my early decisions and
surely enough for many others like me. Dr. David A. de Wolf of VirginiaTech’s ECE
department helped and encouraged me to learn and study music signal processing
early on through independent research programs. After obtaining my bachelors, al-
most coincidentally I ended up in the ATIAM masters at IRCAM, for which I am
grateful to Gilbert Nouno and Gérard Assayag of IRCAM. The intensity and richness
of the program, as well as its integration within one of the most important research
and production centers in the world of computer music put me in a position which
was simply a distant dream since my childhood.
This thesis has been realized as a collaboration between IRCAM and UCSD, and
therefore people who should be greeted for it are twice as usual. During my almost
twoyearsresidencyatUCSD’smusicdepartmentIwasintroducedtotheprofessional
worldofcontemporarymusicpracticesandideas, forwhichIamgratefultothewhole
bodyofmusicdepartment’sfacultiesandstudents. Tomyknowledge,UCSDisamong
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
few places in the world to maintain a utopian image of artistic creation and ideas in
its music department and I was lucky to be part of it. Two individuals directly and
indirectly influenced my thoughts in San Diego: Miller Puckette, deeply influenced
my image of professionalism and the field of computer music. His modesty, despite
his sculptural figure in the field, his straightforwardness and honesty of expressions,
sometimes harsh in spite of himself, helped me clarify my position in the field. And
Shlomo Dubnov, with his extreme courage for abstract and difficult problems, has
been thoroughly inspiring in the course of this work.
Since I was 15, IRCAM has been a utopian dream place for me and the unique
place in the world as a culmination of artistic and scientific collaboration. I am very
grateful to the Real Time Musical Interactions team for hosting me through several
projects during this whole period. An extreme shift in my career occurred when
Frank Madlener, the general director of IRCAM, and Alain Jacquinot, director of
productions, offered me to collaborate on artistic projects in early 2007. Through
these projects I experienced the gap between the world of research, artistic creation,
and production, and learned to fill it in through the collaborative environment that
IRCAM is famous to provide. I was lucky enough to collaborate with Marco Stroppa,
resulting in one of the most important works I have realized up to this date that
figureschapters7and8ofthismanuscript. IRCAMbringsinahugebodyoftalented
professionals in various field whose presence have in one way or another contributed
tothiswork: GérardAssayagwhogenerouslysharedhisworkforthisproject, Gilbert
Nouno, Olivier Pasquet, Rémy Muller, Nicolas Rasamimanana and more.
Besides formal collaborations, several individuals have provided me the mental
force and courage to undertake this rather abstract project: Composer Philippe
Manoury, through his never ending pleas for advances in computer music research
and his extreme ability for integration of such advances in a compositional setting.
Composer Marco Stroppa, who never gives up his utopian image of composer/thinker
and engagement in the field of computer music, motivated me intellectually all along
my work. And at large, to all composers of music today who maintain our image
of “wayfarers” and with whom I got the opportunity to work with: Pierre Boulez,
Jonathan Harvey, and more. Researcher and artist David Wessel has played a pa-
ternal role in the course of this PhD project to whom I am most grateful. Wessel’s
active role and his openness to issues makes him one of my idols in the field of com-
puter music. Finally, to the whole body of researchers and artists at IRCAM and
most importantly to the hidden actors of this scene that maintain the synergy alive:
Hugues Vinet, Frank Madlener and Alain Jacquinot.
Last but not least, my greatest gratitude with love, goes to Marie Vandenbussche
who accompanied me in every step of this project despite intervals of geographical
separations. She has traced every word and bit of work that is represented in this
manuscript and I am most in debt to her priceless patience and caring love.
Arshia Cont
Paris, October 2008.
“I think that the search for a universal answer to
thequestionsraisedbymusicalexperiencewillnever
be completely fulfilled; but we know that a question
raised is often more significant than the answer re-
ceived. Only a reckless spirit, today, would try to
give a total explanation of music, but anyone who
wouldneverposetheproblemisevenmorereckless.”
Remembering the future
Luciano Berio
vii