About
The Timbre and Orchestration Summer School
In 2023, the Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project was pleased to announce the first ever Timbre and Orchestration Summer School, which was held at the (Greece), July 8–12, 2023. The event was held in conjunction with : the third International Conference on Timbre (hosted by the School of Music Studies and the Sound and Music Technology Lab at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), July 10–12, 2023.
In foregrounding the interdisciplinarity of timbre and its application as an important parameter in orchestration, the Summer School engaged with research questions related to musicology, music theory, composition, acoustics, digital signal processing, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, highlighting empirical, theoretical, and computational research approaches.
What to Expect
The first two days of the Summer School (July 8–9) involved 2-hour tutorial sessions on each subject, held as a single group, on the following topics:
July 8th
Perception of orchestration
Tutor: Stephen McAdams
This tutorial examined the role of perceptual grouping processes (concurrent, sequential, segmental) in orchestration. Prof. McAdams present a taxonomy of orchestral grouping effects that serve as structuring forces in the creation of musical form at various levels: blended events, auditory streams, integrated orchestral textures, orchestral layers, timbral contrasts, and orchestral gestures.
Vocal Timbre and (Shifting) Power
Tutor: Nina Eidsheim
This session addressed how vocal timbre plays a substantial part in how we position ourselves and assess others. It started by discussing how observing and making meaning based on vocal timbre is encultured and expresses values and power relations we are enrolled in more broadly. In the second part, the session used a writing-based approach designed to guide participants to expand their relation- and meaning-making capacity related to vocal timbre.
Timbral archetypes / metatimbre: approaches in composition
Tutors: Andrés Gutiérrez and Kit Soden
This session introduced and explored the concepts of timbral archetypes (or metatimbres) in the compositional practice of many styles of music, from contemporary to popular. A theoretical background was presented, followed by exemplifications and scoring techniques, software approaches and frameworks in electroacoustic and live-electronic music, and finally with group listening activities and discussion.
July 9th
Timbre and audio content analysis
Tutor: Marcelo Caetano
This tutorial introduced acoustic modeling of timbre with audio descriptors. Prof. Caetano presented descriptors derived from different representations of sound, together with a brief review of these representations (i.e., stime-varying sinusoids, spectral envelopes) and auditory models (i.e., mel frequencies). The tutorial covered temporal and spectral descriptors which find applications in timbre psychoacoustics, multimedia descriptions, and computer-aided orchestration.
Timbre semantics
Tutors: Lindsey Reymore and Zachary Wallmark
This tutorial explored the role in timbre in the generation of meaning, including affective, linguistic, and cross-sensorial experience. The session introduced participants to the central questions, theories, and methods of timbre semantics research, including perceptual and corpus linguistic approaches, supplemented by discussion, group listening, and writing activities.
Analysis of timbre and orchestration
Tutors: Robert Hasegawa and Ben Duinker
This session surveyed productive modes of timbre- and orchestration-centric music analysis. Specifically, we explored how timbre and orchestration can be used as analytical “points of departure” for engagement with questions of performance, perception, genre, and identity. Repertoire covered focused primarily on contemporary art and popular music.
The final three days (July 10–12) were embedded in the TIMBRE 2023 conference program. In addition to attending conference papers and keynotes, students participated in informal sessions where they discussed—with the Summer School instructors and facilitators—concepts, ideas, and issues emerging from the conference program. More practical information for students can be found below.
Instructors
Stephen McAdams
Nina Eidsheim
Robert Hasegawa
Lindsey Reymore
Zachary Wallmark
Marcelo Caetano
Andre´s Gutiérrez Martinez
Ben Duinker
Kit Soden
Timbre 2023
The was held 10-12 July 2023 in Thessaloniki, Greece.
The study of timbre has recently gained a remarkable momentum. Following the online , the (2017), and the international conference Timbre is a Many-Splendored Thing (2018), the goal of Timbre 2023 was to continue a tradition of meetings around timbre.
Timbre poses multifaceted research questions at the intersection of psychology, musicology, acoustics, and cognitive neuroscience. Bringing together leading experts from these and related fields, Timbre 2023 aimed to provide a truly interdisciplinary forum for exchanging novel perspectives and forging collaborations across different disciplines to help address challenges in our understanding of timbre from empirical, theoretical, and computational perspectives.
Visit the .
The Venue
Teloglion Foundation of Arts
The conference took place at the . Teloglion occupies an impressive, modern, high specifications building with a panoramic view over the Thermaic Gulf and Olympus, set in a large green park at the northeast end of the campus of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). Teloglion was founded in 1972, when the art collection and the entire property of Nestor and Aliki Telloglou were donated to AUTh. Today Teloglion’s collection consists of more than 7000 works which tell the story of modern Greek art up to the present day. Part of the largest university in Greece, Teloglion links research, teaching, scholarship, the child, the worker, the third age and art and culture in their broadest sense. More info can be found on the .
Practical Information for Students
- Logistics/Technical Information:
- All Summer School events will occur in the , unless indicated otherwise.
- If you have a Macbook, we encourage you to bring it, as one of the tutorial sessions will require them (students will be placed in groups, ensuring that at least one student per group has one). Instructions for downloading the OrchView software (required for the tutorial run by Stephen McAdams) will be available in Google Classroom.
- Especially if you’re coming from North America, be sure to check Greece’s plug types and supply voltage, and make sure you have the proper adaptors for your electronic devices (most modern devices convert 110V/220V by default, but do be sure to check)
- Wifi will be available via the eduroam network. If you do not have access to this network for any reason, please notify us immediately.
- Hospitality:
- Lunches during each of the five days are provided by the Summer School.
- Dinners are not provided, and students are free to make their own arrangements.
- Schedule:
The Summer School took place over five days.
Friday, July 7
- 19:00: Informal meetup at Tabya. : Kon/nou Melenikou 14, Thessaloniki 546 35, Greece.
Saturday, July 8
- 8h45 – 9h00: Welcome and information session
- 9h00 – 11h00: Tutorial 1 – Perception of orchestration (McAdams)
- 11h00 – 11h30: Coffee break
- 11h30 – 13h30: Tutorial 2 – Vocal Timbre and (Shifting) Power (Eidsheim)
- 13h30 – 14h30: Lunch Break
- 14h30 – 16h30: Timbral archetypes/metatimbre: approaches in composition (Soden and Gutierrez Martinez)
- 16h30 – 20h00: Free time
- 20:00 - 22:00: Welcome reception for the Summer School. Drinks & DJ set by Marcelo Caetano
Sunday, July 9
- 09h00 – 11h00: Timbre and audio content analysis (Caetano)
- 11h00 – 11h30: Coffee break
- 11h30 – 13h30: Timbre semantics (Reymore and Wallmark)
- 13h30 – 14h30: Lunch Break
- 14h30 – 16h30: Analysis of timbre and orchestration (Hasegawa and Duinker)
- 16h30 – 17h00: Summer School / Conference bridging event (Hasegawa and McAdams)
Monday, July 10, Tuesday, July 11, and Wednesday, July 12
Timbre 2023 Conference, including summer school Roundtable on the final day. The summer school participants followed the conference schedule, which can be found here:
- Schedule Specifics:
We wish to draw your attention to two events in the schedule:
- Summer School / Conference Bridging Session (July 9): This session oriented students for the three-day conference, during which students were required to ruminate on the theme of consilience between the arts, humanities, and sciences (see learning materials section below) and generate questions that formed the basis of the conference’s final roundtable (see below). Details regarding how students can submit these questions were provided during this bridging session.
- Final Roundtable (Wednesday, July 12): This 90-minute roundtable was part of the conference schedule but was primarily for and by the Summer School participants. Five panelists and three student representatives discussed the topic of consilience. The discussion was centered around questions solicited of the students (see above).
- Communication:
. Students were invited to join the Slack channel via the email provided at registering.
- Learning Materials:
All required readings, listenings, discussion prompts, and other preparatory materials were available in the Summer School Google Classroom, to which students gained access via the email provided in the registration. They were asked to peruse each of the topics for details regarding the preparatory work necessary before arriving in Thessaloniki.
- Submitted Questions for Summer School Roundtable:
Per point 4 above, students were encouraged to submit questions and discussion points for the roundtable. This occurred during the first four days of the Summer School (July 8–11). Submissions were made via
Partners & Funding
