445 Listening Assignment

Listening Assignment : Group A

Due Date: TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 9:30 AM

Choose a major electroacoustic work between 7 and 15 minutes in length by a Canadian composer. Listen to this piece and get to know it. Learn as much as you can about the piece and how it was created. Pay special attention to:

• Techniques: what kinds of techniques can you hear? What can you find out about how the piece was made? Is it synthesized? Is it based on recordings of objects or spaces? Can you identify specific synthesis techniques (additive/subtractive/FM/granular/LPC/etc)

• What is the quality of the music? Is it rhythmic, timbral, textural? What are the primary sonic features?

• What was the composers intention? Are there extra-musical associations in the music? Is this music responding to any particular cultural values, and if so, can you identify them?

For this assignment, you will write a five page (typed, double-spaced) paper describing the music in detail, and including information you can learn about its creation, reception, and your analysis of the music.

In addition, these pieces will be presented on the New Music Listening Group series, the first of which is Feb 1, 7 PM, in studio 2-7. Please make sure you identify the piece you intend to study, and let me know BEFORE Tuesday which piece you have chosen. Use the following compilations in the library to find a piece that interests you:

• Anthology of Canadian Electroacoustic Music [M 1473 E37 1990] (on reserve)
• Cache Compilations (multiple years) [M 1473 C342 year] (2000-2010)