Electronic Music Practice Through Sound Synthesis — Case Study: Varèse's Poème Électronique

Electronic Music Practice Through Sound

Synthesis — Case Study: Varèse’s Poème

Électronique

Ahmad Faudzi Musib

Technological preconditions

The mass production of synthesizer keyboard instruments since 1960’s due

to its integrated design and its development of solid-state components in

the 1970’s has made synthesizer as a music machine in demand. It has

become a trend for all music creators both arts and technology in designing

various voice architecture synthesis, to meet the type of sound of the 1970’s

music, ranging from analogue to hybrid components, subtractive to

additive synthesis, phase distortion to frequency modulation and from

artificial intelligent to native instruments.

Figure 1: Analog Modeling Synthesizer. (Photo: Ahmad Faudzi Musib)

As the computer and its software are becoming powerful and efficient tools,

these instruments can now be accessed in a form of software, which gives

5

72 Ahmad Faudzi Musib

the user much more control over these sound creations. Music producers

are switching their formats to meet these needs as well as to cater the

formats needed by broadcasting stations.

In production of music, there is no longer a need of a multi-track tape

recorder as in previous times to record multi parts from MIDI to audio. A

time code such as SMPTE or MTC as a synchronisation code to

synchronised MIDI sequencers and tape machines are no longer a priority.

The technique known as “audio track down” is a technique that enables the

MIDI parts to be recorded in audio multi-track format.

Once MIDI parts are recorded onto audio in a multi track recorder, it

enables the audio engineer to “colour” the sound accordingly. Techniques

such as layering splice, applying depth via effects processor, compressed

signal as to control dynamic range of a drum kit, panned, speed up or

reverse its order are for artistic reason. The studio techniques as well as

creative approaches were formulated well back then, and the practice of it

on a new platform nowadays was still very much similar.

Over time the advancement of music technology machines and devices as

well as their large capacity of storage in various formats provide further

options for composers and music technologist to be more practical and

better equipped. Pre-production can be made without the hassle of patching

heavy synthesizers, sound modules or even the dynamic signal processor.

Before discussing this further, let’s take a look at some terms and their

definition:

Preserve means “To retain (quality or condition).” (Oxford Dictionary of

Current English, 1993: 706)

Electronic music can be seen as the actual realisation of a piece, techniques

applied, design or combinations of all of it with the means of electronic

tools. Creative means adj. 1 inventive, imaginative. 2. the ability to create

any kind of expression that involves originality (Oxford Dictionary of

Current English, 1993: 179).

Here, I will be focusing on preserving the creativity in electronic music

through sound synthesis.1

1 "Composing the Music You Hear", according to Kyle Gann, means: “Since people

seemed to like the subject of keeping the performer in mind while composing, it's been

Electronic Music Practice Through Sound Synthesis 73

The History

In the period of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, composers, engineers,

mathematicians were finding means to come out with creative ways of

producing music electronically. It was in the same era, when Karlheinz

Stockhausen wrote “Kontakte” that uses graphic notation for four channel

tapes, for which he later wrote another version of the same piece for piano,

percussion and tape. Max Mathews, at Bell Labs, began experimenting with

computer programs to create electronic sound material. Mathews and Joan

Miller, also at Bell Labs, wrote MUSIC4, the first wide-spread computer

sound synthesis program.2

In the same year the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

developed the RCA Mark II synthesizer. The stand-alone synthesizer

known as Mark II comprises of oscillators and noise generators. With the

aid of a punched paper roll, the user of Mark II is able to control pitch,

volume, duration, and timbre.3

Also in the late 1950’s, the French-born composer Edgard Victor Achille

Charles Varèse4 wrote his Poème Électronique, a piece written for audio,

visual and lighting effects which was firstly performed at the Philips

Pavilion of the World Fair 1958 in Brussels.

on my mind, in response to a couple of comments, to hopefully blow apart a notion I

regard as superficial and misleading: that the composer "writes what he hears."

Creative activity is virtually infinite in its forms, and I would never claim that no

composer does this, but I think it must be fairly rare. Of course, in a sense I certainly

do write the music I want to hear (my ability to re-listen to my own CDs verges on

narcissism), and I do "hear" my music before I compose it; but it often comes out

sounding different than I expect, and I almost always end up rewriting it into

something I never quite expected to hear. I'd be disappointed if my music didn't

regularly surprise me.” (Gann, 2010). 2 Versions I through III were experimental versions written in assemble language. Music

IV and Music V were written in FORTRAN. MUSIC4 did not allow re-entrant

instruments (same instrument becoming active again when it is already active),

MUSIC5 added this. MUSIC4 required as many different instruments as the thickest

chord, while MUSIC5 allowed a score to refer to an instrument as a template, which

could then be called upon as many times as it was necessary.

3 The original version was built for the artificial creation of human speech. The

synthesizer used a conventional equal-tempered twelve-note scale.

4 December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965.


Figure 2: Philips Pavilion of the World Fair 1958. (Photo by Hans de Boer,

1958, also see Treib, 1998)

The building was specially designed for sounds driven by 350 loudspeakers

that were mounted on its walls. Edgard Varèse literally brought the

audience walking through a stomach shape pavilion that was designed by

Iannis Xenakis. The “sounds” appeared together with the visual

performance that was projected on these walls. It was the era of new ways

of presenting ideas through electronic sound design.

Poème Électronique is one of the earlier electronic music pieces which

comprises both complete and partly electronically generated and modified


sound in real-time recorded on tape. It was a combination of sound design

and sound manipulation in real-time along with visual and lighting effects

as part of the component to complement the whole work. (Stephenson Tim,

2006: 55-68)

Back then, a tape machine was one of the earlier audio devices that enable

the user to encode and decode audio signals, there are also other audio

devices that enable the user to manipulate the sound such as an audio

compressor, a reverb unit, and a multi track recorder to mix and juxtaposed

several audio signals at one time.

Case Study

My interest is not about creating another Poème Électronique but to show the

possibilities of recreating some of the sound excerpts taken from the piece

and reusing them in another piece. My intention is not to imitate the sound

produced through this method, but to recreate it back on a new medium

while retaining the ideas of sound masses that were introduced by Varèse

during the late 1950’s in his Poème Électronique.

As time evolved, transformation of technology took place and new formats

of sound generators in various platforms have been introduced. In relation,

here is a brief description on the process of how Poème Électronique was

made. In Poème Électronique, Varèse uses 3 mono tapes, which 2 of those

tapes were recorded onto a stereo tape machine and panning effects were

applied during the process. The stereo and the remaining mono signal

output were layered and mixed together on a 35 mm perforated tapes

which were later synchronised with film and lighting controls during the

performance.

Figure 3 below shows a simulation of an audio recording process that

enables the audio tracks to be synchronised with the film and lighting

controls. Figure 4 shows the sequence of sounds which are divided into

time frames and their sections. I focus on two types of sound developed by

Varèse.


Figure 3: Simulation of audio recording process that enables the audio tracks

to be synchronised with the film and lighting controls. (Illustration by

Ahmad Faudzi Musib)

Duration Section

– 60 second Genesis

61 – 120 second Spirit and Matter

121 – 204 second From Darkness to Dawn

205 – 240 second Man-Made Gods

241 – 300 second How Time Mould Civilisation

301 – 360 second Harmony

361 – 480 second To All Mankind

Figure 4: Edgard Varèse’s Poème Électronique sequences of sound are divided

into duration and segment.


Figure 5 shows an excerpt taken from the time frame of the first second to 1

minute and 11 seconds that was organised by Edgard Varèse in his Poème

Électronique.5 The attention of sound creation is drawn to the Low Bells Tolls

and Grating Noise. The Low Bells Tolls at the beginning of the piece are

similar to “gongs”, and the grating noise is sounding like a choppy layered

of machinery and noise like triggered in multiple register.

Time Sections Descriptions

0 sec Genesis Low bell tolls.6 "Wood blocks."

Sirens. Fast taps lead to high,

piercing sounds.

2-second pauses

43 sec Genesis "Bongo" tones and higher

grating noises. Sirens. Short

"squawks."

Three-tone group stated three

times

1min 11 sec Spirit &

Matter

Low sustained tones with

grating noises.7 Sirens. Short

"squawks."

Three-tone group. 2-second

pauses.

Figure 5: Excerpt taken from the first 0 to 1 minute and 11 second that was

organised by Edgard Varèse in Poème Électronique.

5 Listen: Audio excerpt at track No. 01: Edgard Varèse Poem Electronic. Duration: 0.1.23

sec.

6 Listen: Audio excerpt Low bell tolls at track No. 02: Edgard Varèse Poem Electronic.

Duration: 0.0.18 sec.

7 Listen: Audio excerpt ‘Grating Noise’ at track No. 03: Edgard Varèse – Poème

Électronique. Duration 0.0.03 sec.


The unique thing about these sounds is that they were created in an

electronic music studio which is normally equipped with a sound generator

(modular systems), a dedicated mixer, microphones, signal processors,

sound proofing booth, and an audio recorder. The three major attributes of

sound that can be created is best explained in the diagram below.

Figure 6: An example of a block diagram (sound sheet) that enables the user

to control pitch, timbre, and loudness over a time. (Illustration by Ahmad

Faudzi Musib)

Figure 6 shows an example of one oscillator synthesizer block diagram. The

block diagram is also known as the sound sheet which comprises a set of

instructions for a sound designer to manipulate the three basic parameters

of sound. These three basic parameters of sound can be related to the three

components in a synthesizer. Pitch is the oscillator, timbre is the filter and

loudness would be the amplifier.


Source is a number of oscillators or sound sources, producing basic wave

forms such as saw tooth, square, triangle, sine and noise. At the oscillator, it

enables the user to select the pitch as in 2, 4, 8, 16 feet which refers to the

length of a pipe of an organ.

Modifiers and timbre change devices for treating these sound sources are

filters to alter the tone quality of a sound by eliminating or emphasising

certain harmonics in its harmonic series. Basic filters are the low pass and

the high pass filters, which are commonly found on a synthesizer.

Modifiers / loudness change are tools such as envelope shapers, to control

the attack, duration, and intensity / signal processor of a sound;

reverberation units, to provide resonance; and ring modulators, by which

one sound modulates another to produce dramatic changes in quality.

Other approaches can be audio recordings that involve microphone

techniques, loudspeakers for monitoring purposes, and a tape recorder for a

final mix. Nowadays, the technique of producing such sounds that were

used in this era, are still acceptable and well preserved. The evolution of

new technology and machines enables us to apply them accordingly, or

perhaps gives us a lot of options in manipulating, recording, orchestrating,

transferring in various audio formats that make us handier and better

equipped in creating new compositions, instruments, sounds, as well as its

actual design. Varèse wrote, “When new instruments allow me to write

music as I conceive it, the movement of sound masses, of shifting planes,

will be clearly perceived in my work (Dunn, 1970).

These means attract me as the acoustic gong sound in the Poème Électronique,

for example, can be designed through sound synthesis approach. It enables

me to control all parameters with respect to its pitch, timbre, amplitude as

well as its design. In the following, I will explain and demonstrate this

technique in two separate platforms which is the hardware and the software

synthesizers.

Gong

In recreating these sounds, I am applying a technique known as “Audio

Modulations”. In the process, a timbre produced acoustically by instruments

such as chime, cymbals, bells and gongs have non-harmonic partials in their

spectrums.


Figure 7: The Process. (Illustration by Ahmad Faudzi Musib)

The standard geometric wave shapes such as saw tooth, square, triangle,

and sine waves (as shown in Figure 7) available on the analog or digital

synthesizer that generate these waveform have only harmonic partial in

their spectrum and are by themselves, inappropriate for producing metal-

like timbre (Cottle & McCartney, 2005).

The audio modulations techniques are as follows:

Amplitude modulation;

Ring modulation;

Frequency modulation.

Audio modulation is a powerful tool for producing wave shapes with non-

harmonic timbres on synthesizers. As the term “audio” implies, it is a

requirement to have an audio frequency (above 20Hz) oscillator that can be

used to control a source oscillator frequency or amplitude. This controlled

signal is referred to as the modulator. On many synthesizers, the LFO (low

frequency oscillator) can be tuned above 20Hz making it useful as an audio

modulator (de Furia, 1986: 17–45).

Amplitude modulation as shown in Figure 8 will generate at the audio

output frequency new partials in the source spectrum. These new partials

are called “sidebands” because the order of the harmonics are different

compared to the harmonics of the geometric wave shape. The sidebands or

the new partials of frequencies will be at the sum and difference of the

source and the controller.


Figure 8: Amplitude modulation introduces new sidebands.

Another variation of an amplitude modulation is the ring modulation. It is

used for creating metallic and bell-like timbres. In Figure 9, ring modulation

works through adding together the frequencies produced by oscillator A

and oscillator B. It does then just the opposite procedure and subtracts the

frequencies.

Figure 9: Ring modulation.


This means that if oscillator A is producing a frequency of 1350 Hz and

oscillator B puts out 1232 Hz, one would normally hear these two

frequencies in amplitude modulation as its nature is to retain the original

frequencies. When patched to ring modulation one hears 2582Hz and 122Hz

and the original frequencies vanish (Dodge & Jerse, 1997: 90–95).8

Grating Noise

Figure 10 shows the block diagram of producing grating noise as it can be

reproduced through other platforms. The frequency cross modulation is a

technique that I use to create the grating noise. Having the output of

oscillator 2 modulating oscillator 1, sidebands are created and its depth

increased at the frequency cross modulation depth control that makes the

sound grainier. Thus, machinery and noise like timbre are introduced.9

Figure 10: Block diagram for Grating Noise. (Patch design by Ahmad Faudzi

Musib)

8 See: video clip on ring modulation on a hardware synthesizer. Duration: 0.1.37 sec.

9 See: video clip on grating noise created with frequency cross modulation on a

hardware synthesizer. Duration: 0.1.40 sec.


The advantages of designing sound on hardware platforms are as follows:

• On board programming, this is an immediate access to 3 components of sounds such as pitch, timbre and loudness that are related to an oscillator, filter, attenuator, and other subsystems of a synthesizer such as ADSR and LFO.

• It enables the user to superimpose the sound to generate a multi layer sound in different ranges of pitch.

• It also enables the user to cross fade two or more sounds together by enabling the after-touch sensitivity functions.

• Tone 1 (velocity sensitivity of 1-64 at key-on) will be triggered.

• Tone 2 (Velocity sensitivity of 65-128 at key-on) will be triggered.

Or with reverse polarity:

• Tone 2 (velocity sensitivity of 1-64 at key-on) will be triggered.

• Tone 1 (Velocity sensitivity of 65-128 at key-on) will be triggered.

• Having a single ADSR enables the user to compose a series of

envelope sequences on a single “Note On”.

The other format voice architecture is using a set of equations and

algorithms to simulate a real instrument. It is known as physical modeling

synthesis. It enables the user to manually encode numerical values that can

be translated into some other sources, thus generating its sets of

frequencies. The design of the “instruments” includes the component of the

chosen musical objects thus composing an algorithm or pattern which

executes certain macros such as the generated source, the suitable roll-off

slope for filters and shaping of its output base on an envelope parameter.

The definition of such instruments is virtually limitless, as one can combine

any given models available with any amount of sources of modulation in

terms of pitch, frequency and contour.

The following (Figure 11) is the front panel of an amplitude modulation10

design based on physical modeling synthesis. Upon completion of the

design, it enables the user to make the design becoming a stand-alone

device. The stand-alone device then can be used as a virtual studio

technology instrument which will host any rewire software (Aikin, 2006).

10 Listen: Audio excerpt of amplitude modulation at track No. 04: VST plug-ins. Design:

Ahmad Faudzi Musib. Duration: 33sec.


Fig

ure

11:

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The following (Figure 12) is an example of a virtual studio technology

design generating noise and producing a “wind storm” like timbre. The

inside (shown in Figure 13) is made up of a pair of multi oscillators,

attenuator, and a pair of frequency controls. The oscillators’ outputs were

modified through a low pass filter in which its cut-off frequency controls

were generated and shaped by the low frequency oscillator. The wind

velocity and its strength were created by boosting the cut-off frequency or

the turn over point to build the “resonance effect”. The sweeping effects

were carefully calculated to formulate to an exact value and its algorithms

were mapped by the sine wave on the low frequency oscillator.11

Figure 12: Storm bringer. Screen shot from SynthMaker CM. VST plug-ins.

(Design by Ahmad Faudzi Musib)

11 Listen: Audio excerpt at track No. 05: Stormbringer plug-ins. Note that the sound

excerpt begins with a dry signal and proceeds with delay effects that are switched on.

Duration: 28 sec.


Fig

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13:

Th

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Scr

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Conclusion

The sounds that were used in the whole piece of Poème Électronique are a

mixture of both acoustic and synthetic, which are either direct source

recorded using microphones, or processed, mixed and produced. The whole

sound design of the piece retained its originality and it weights thus being

one of the most valuable contributions to the bank of sound ideas serving

electronic music composers now and in the future. As the technologies

develop, sound and its processing become more complex and delicate. It

allows a synthesis of different approaches. Sound designer can recreate

sound banks from different machines and other sound generators, both

software and hardware. The same can be said about recorded sounds as

sound nowadays can be recorded and edited from any other part of the

world in “real–time”. The creativity in designing devices or creating either

both hardware and software synthesizers allows the sound designer to

recreate sound of these banks of ideas, as well as re-representing it in new

devices, which gives the user more options as to manipulate its output, or

even its processing. The “gong and grating noise like timbre” that I have

created and presented, can be controlled at micro level and can be instantly

applied on any type of format.

References

Aikin, Jim (2006). Outsim Synthmaker 2009 Keyboard Magazine by New Bay

Media. Retrieved August 11, 2010 from http://www.keyboard

mag.com/article/ 29806

Cottle, David Michael & James McCartney (2005). Computer music with

examples. SuperCollider 3. Retrieved August 11, 2010 from http://

rhoadley.org/courses/tech_resources/supercollider/tutorials/cottle/C

MSC7105.txt

De Boer, Hans (1958/59). “Photo, page 35” (bru-16-0002-002). Philips

Technical Review, 20(1).

De Furia, Steve (1986). The Secrets of Analog and Digital Synthesis. Rutherford:

Third Earth Production, 17-45.

Dodges, Charles & Thomas A. Jerse (1997). Computer Music. Synthesis,

Composition and Performance (2nd ed.). Belmont: Shimmer Thomson

Learning.


Dunn, David (1970). A History of Electronic Music Pioneers. Retrieved August

11, 2010 from http://www.courses.drew.edu/mus-137-001/history

frame.html

Gann, Kyle (2010). What "composing the music you hear" means. Arts

Journal – Arts, Culture, Ideas. Retrieved August 11, 2010 from

http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2010/06/what_composing_the

_music_you_h.html

Miranda, Eduardo (1998). Computer Sound Synthesis for the Electronic

Musician (Music Technology). Burlington: Focal Press.

Stephenson, Tim (2006). Authenticity, reproduction and mediatization.

Poème Électronique by Edgard Varèse. International Journal of

Performance Art and Digital Media, 2(1), 55-68.

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1993). Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Treib, Marc (1996). Space Calculated in Seconds: The Philips Pavilion, Le

Corbusier, Edgard Varèse. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.

Electronic Music Practice Through Sound Synthesis — Case Study: Varèse's Poème Électronique

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