����VR��Ƶ

Expressive Intersections of Song Structure, Performance, and Sound 

Lori Burns  (University of Ottawa)

For this topic, participants studied how voices and instruments occupy sonic space in a range of popular music examples. With analytic attention to musical forms, they addressed elements of sound quality, articulation, intensity, and density in relation to the sonic space of recorded music.

Orchestration, The Art Of

John Rea (����VR��Ƶ)

This tutorial focused on praxis-infused musings along with theory-informed thinking about conditions and tasks framing orchestrations. It considered “doing orchestration” a know-how that turns less to timbral recipes and more to an art (among the Arts) imbued with compositional acts. Repertories included contemporary works as well as popular music.

Acoustic Correlates of Timbre

 Johanna Devaney (Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY)

This workshop provided an introduction to the acoustic correlates of timbre, with a particular focus on the singing voice. It covered both theoretical aspects and practical applications. The theoretical component surveyed the types of acoustic descriptors that can be reliably estimated from audio and how they relate to auditory perception. The practical component explored how both GUI and coding-based tools can be used for audio analysis of timbre.

Balancing Workflow and Creative Process: 
Timbral Design through Orchestration and Post-Acousmatic Techniques

Eliot Britton  (����VR��Ƶ)

Managing large-scale, timbrally diverse projects that integrate rich media, ensemble limitations, and contemporary engraving techniques can feel daunting, particularly as the duration and required forces of a work expand. Successfully balancing aesthetic priorities, creative processes, and antifragility within the resulting framework demands meticulous planning. This workshop leveraged firsthand experience in developing touring orchestra and chamber works with live electronics, alongside relevant papers and repertoire examples. It covered the following topics:

1. Computer-assisted workflows, including software tools and their aesthetic implications, for managing orchestration, synchronization, and timbre.
2. Practical integration of post-acousmatic techniques in the creative application of timbre and orchestration. 

Instrumental Timbre and Texture in Popular Song

Megan Lavengood (George Mason University)

This workshop investigated instrumental timbre and texture in popular song, building on the approaches of Moore (2012) and Lavengood (2020, 2021) to explicate relationships between an instrument's timbral qualities and its role within the larger texture. By bringing attention to various marginalized subgenres of popular music (e.g., rap, EDM), we also scrutinized the assumptions that underlie existing definitions of popular-music terms and analytical models.

Music Industry Applications of Timbral Analysis

Claire McLeish (Third Side Music)

This workshop explored applications of timbral analysis in the music industry. Musicologists, music theorists, and legal professionals regularly perform timbral analyses to determine whether or not a recording has been used, or if the material has been re-recorded in the studio. Music copyright affords different protections for recordings and compositions, so these analyses have real-world legal and monetary ramifications. In order to determine whether or not pre-existing recordings were used, attendees listened for details such as micro-timing, orchestration, audio artifacts, and production techniques (such as signal processing and spatialization).

Encoding and Analyzing the Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) Corpus

Nicole Biamonte (����VR��Ƶ) and Lindsey Reymore (Arizona State University)

This workshop discussed aspects of constructing, encoding, and analyzing the Timbre in Popular Song (TiPS) corpus. Tutors presented some initial results of the study, explained their encoding system of multiple variables specifying different aspects of timbre and texture, demonstrated encoding a pair of related songs (an original recording and a cover version), discussed the categories of variables, and considered potentially ambiguous or conflicting interpretations. Participants gained experience with timbral, textural, and formal analysis as well as the issues surrounding corpus construction.