Towards Accessible and Sustainable Learning of Real Time

Electroacoustic Composition and Performance at Undergraduate

Academic Level

Andrea Bareggi

and Simonetta Sargenti

ESME Research Lab, ESME Sudria Lyon, 16, rue de l’Abbaye d’Ainay, Lyon, France

Conservatorio Guido Cantelli, Novara, GATM - Gruppo di Analisi e Teoria Musicale, Italy

Keywords: Electroacoustics, Learning, Real Time Performance, Sound Effect, Latency, Browser.

Abstract: Electronic music undergraduate and graduate teaching is mainly characterized by a strong theoretical basis

and the practical approach is often proposed during the last part of the academic programme. Also, the

resources used for electronic music production are available in the last years of academic studies, but not

during the early stage of the career of the musician who graduates in electroacoustic composition. Moreover,

the recent pandemic situation and the need for online teaching has exacerbated some of these problems. Lack

of specific material for each student and recording studios, the need of specific knowledge in analogical &

digital electronics and programming languages potentially lead to inequality between different institutions

with similar programmes. The goal of this research is the presentation of a practical workflow for ready-to-

use tools in electroacoustic music teaching in Italian and French academic institutions. A sustainable approach

in terms of availability of the tools (from an economic point of view and easiness of use) is proposed in this

research work. The proposal is divided into an overview on the situation of the studies in the electroacoustic

music domain in Italy and in France, a brief description of the tools proposed for a sustainable teaching and

a practical example. This consists of two short instrumental pieces with live electronics.

1 INTRODUCTION

Electroacoustic studies gained popularity amongst

students of conservatories, faculties of Fine Arts,

Music and Musicology. In the last decades of the 20th

and 21st centuries the musical studies included in

their syllabus repertoires such as jazz, popular music,

and electroacoustic music. In these areas there is often

a lack of conventional representation as a score, or

different ways of representing musical events that we

can define 'new textualities'. (De Benedictis, 2009).

With the inclusion of these new repertoires in the

undergraduate studies, some problems arise:

 Lack or diversity of a graphic representation.

 Need for a practical approach.

 Improving the role of performance.

 Need for sustainable learning tools.

In these new perspectives, mixed electroacoustic

music performing act became as important as music

notation, theoretical analysis, and composition

processes.

This paper focuses on possible educational solutions

in mixed electronic music in undergraduate musical

studies.

2 ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC

TEACHING: A PRACTICAL

APPROACH

Education in electro-acoustic music is a constantly

evolving field of research and musical practice. A full

program in electroacoustics studies at undergraduate

level has usually a duration of 5 years divided into

two periods: a basic period (undergraduate) and a

further training.

In order to contextualize the main finding of this

research work we briefly summarize the current

situation of the studies in electronic music in Italy and

in France, based on the experience of the authors and

their colleagues. Particular attention is paid to the

sustainability of the means used in teaching. By

sustainability we mean the ease of access to the means

Bareggi, A. and Sargenti, S.

Towards Accessible and Sustainable Learning of Real Time Electroacoustic Composition and Performance at Undergraduate Academic Level.

DOI: 10.5220/0010533707230730

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2021) - Volume 1, pages 723-730

ISBN: 978-989-758-502-9

723

themselves and their availability at relatively low

budget, or no cost at all in the best of cases.

We observe an extended theoretical approach,

compared to a quite limited practical experience. The

programme in the two countries shows several

similarities in the pedagogical content that includes

the following disciplines: Ear training and Music

Theory, Music History, Electroacoustic Music

History, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics,

Electroacoustic, Music Composition, Musical

Computer Science, Electroacoustic Music

performance, Electroacoustic Music Composition,

Ethnomusicology.

At the end of the studies, the successful student

should be able to compose a piece using different

technologies including the mixed techniques, such as

the blending of instrumental and vocal composition

and live electronics. The main tools are based on

Digital Sound Processing (DSP) techniques that use

software, referred as Digital Audio Workstation

(DAW). DAW uses special functions or instruments,

called VST (Virtual Sound Technology), for sound

generating or processing. Amongst well established

commercial packages, we acknowledge Cycling ’74

Max/MSP and Ableton Live. Beside commercial

software, we cite open-source audio programmable

environments such as Open Music by IRCAM or Pure

Data. Some of the open-source audio resources have

been developed as an independent programming

language, such as C-Sound or Faust by GRAME.

2.1 Learning Electroacoustic Music in

Italy

Since 2004, the Italian Academic Institutions

(‘Conservatori di Musica’) have been included by

MUR (Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca) in

the context of University studies. The first approach

to Electroacoustic Music takes place in the first year

of undergraduate studies, referred as Triennio I

(Licence). The entire training course of the

Electroacoustic Composition faculty lasts five years

and is divided into a basic three-years (Triennio) and

a higher two-years period (Biennio or Master). Table

1 shows the program of the first year of the

undergraduate curriculum in Electroacoustic Music

Composition, at the Conservatorio ‘G. Verdi’ in

Milan. One of the most popular textbooks used in

electronic music courses for the practical training

(analog synthesis, sound processing and MIDI

synthesis) is Musica elettronica e sound design by

Alessandro Cipriani e Maurizio Giri, a work in 3

volumes widely used in Italian institutions. This work

is a comprehensive guide to electronic music, and it

includes a wide range of the topics with a practical

approach with examples and exercises. According to

Cipriani and Giri, Max/MPS is considered the

program that most 'contributed to the development of

computer science in real time' (Cipriani, Giri, 2009,

VII), but despite being a very popular program, it is

not intended to be used for free.

Table 1: disciplines of the first year, Electroacoustic Music

Composition, Conservatorio ‘G. Verdi’, Milano.

Discipline

typology

discipline Hours ECTS

Theory and

analysis

Ear training 36 6

musicology History of music 36 6

History of

electroacoustic

music

36 6

technology Acoustics and

psychoacoustics

18 3

electroacoustics 36 6

Composition composition 10 2

Computer assisted

comp.

18 3

Electroacoustic

comp.

18 3

Music informatics 18 3

Performance Electroacoustic

music performance

18 3

Beside DSP software, also special hardware is

required for performing electroacoustics

compositions. An important reference text for

theoretical disciplines is Studiare la Computer music

by Laura Zattra (2011) focused on the importance of

electronic music in all musical genres. The text of

Zattra is a precious resource also in terms of musical

examples, since the excerpts cited in the book are not

easily available and can be found only in specialised

music collections and libraries. I will quote among all

a well-known Italian text that collects important

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articles for the research carried out in the first decades

of diffusion of electronic music: La musica

elettronica, testi scelti e commentati da Henri

Pousseur (A.A.V.V., 1976). Practical training takes

place in the laboratory. At home, the same tools are

not always easily accessible to the students.

2.2 Learning Electroacoustic Music in

France

According to the Association Européenne des

Conservatoires (AEC), 12 French institutions can

provide higher education in Electroacoustic Music:

 2 Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique

et de Danse (CNSMD), one in Paris and one in

Lyon.

 10 Pôles d’enseignement supérieur de la

musique (PESM), some of those are linked to the

neighbour CRR (Pre-academic courses).

French composers in the second half of the XX

century have a wide experience in electroacoustic

music and the associated bibliography seems to be

quite heterogeneous, according to the Association des

Enseignants de la Composition en Musique

Électroacoustique. Amongst the most used

bibliography we cite La Musique électroacoustique

by Michel Chion and L’analyse des musiques

électroacoustiques, Modèles et propositions, by

Stéphane Roy. Michel Chion suggests that the

approach of the student and scholar to composing

with electroacoustic music, is mostly based on

experimenting the acoustic objects, rather than using

the traditional approach of music composing, such as

in Ecriture Musicale classes. The approach of the

electroacoustic composer is quite different: starting

from an acoustic sound, he manipulates the acoustic

object until obtaining a new, surprising sound

according to the expressive needs of the musical

composition. The notion of alterity is a key concept

in electroacoustic music (Delalande, 2003), and the

undergraduate programme in Electroacoustic

Composition in France dedicates several teaching

modules to improvisation and practical research. In

the following table a synthesis of the programme

during the first three years of study in the

conservatory of Lyon (CNSMD). Most of the

students that start the academic path in

electroacoustic music do not have the mathematical

vocabulary and information technology skills used in

sound processing and synthesis.

To ensure pedagogical homogeneity in

electroacoustic programme of studies, even between

institutions that do not share the same student level,

the teaching staff created a society: Association des

Enseignants de la Composition Électroacoustique

(AECME).

Couprié (2003) points out that the electroacoustic

composer should have an extremely wide range of

artistic and scientific skills and knowledge, including

music, physics, mathematics, programming

languages, electronics, material science. From the

point of view of sustainability, an academic

curriculum deeply exploring all these disciplines can

not be set in a three year long undergraduate course.

For this reason, a musicological approach to

electroacoustic music seems the most successful in

undergraduate studies. This approach is completed by

a practice-based overview of the techniques

specifically used for composing electroacoustic

music.

Table 2: The Programme of undergraduate studies in

Electroacoustic Music in the Conservatoire National

Superieur de Musique et Danse (CNSMD) of Lyon.

LICENCE: SEMESTERS 1-6 Hours ECTS

UE1

Composition

cours individuels

3 16

cours collectifs

UE2

projet de recherche - 15

Programmation en informatique

musicale

sessions 2

technologies musicales sessions 2

Piano complementaire/ analyse

XX-XXI

2 15

UE3

Aspects pratiques du

métier/improvisation

Conf. 05

Chant choral / discipline

spécifique

2 15

UE4

langue vivante 15 15

discipline complémentaire 2 15

TOTAL 105 x 3 30 x 3

3 AIMS AND METHODS

This description of the pedagogical methods in

electroacoustic music studies in Italy and France

shows some aspects on which the hypothesis for the

Towards Accessible and Sustainable Learning of Real Time Electroacoustic Composition and Performance at Undergraduate Academic

Level

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research work is based on. Both countries seem to

have extremely similar pedagogical approaches.

Current pedagogy in undergraduate courses on

electroacoustic music shows a good compromise

between artistic and scientific theoretical knowledge

and technical skills. An historical and musicological

approach points out the need for specialized hardware

and software during the last decades of the XX

century. Often, only well-established institutions are

equipped with the machines and the software for

reproducing the original setup for mixed

electroacoustic performance. France and Italy both

have specialised and well-known research centres for

this purpose: IRCAM in Paris, GRAME in Lyon,

Laboratorio d’Informatica Musicale in Milan and

Centro di Sonologia Computazionale in Padova, to

mention only the well-known.

However, these research environments are

adapted to professional composers and researcher,

while this paper focus on undergraduate studies. The

main criteria for this work are:

 practical approach to electroacoustic

composition tools: sound processing, recording

and notation tools.

 open-source tools: the proposed method should

be available free of charge.

 online (web based) availability: the tools should

be available out of the institution.

3.1 The Need for Sustainability and

Accessibility in Electroacoustic

Music Studies

In section 2 we pointed out the problem of

sustainability, in particular the accessibility of

pedagogical facilities and tools from practical and

economical point of view.

 Only a limited number of institutions can afford

hardware and software for historically informed

performance in electroacoustic music

 mastering DSP software requires a deep

amount of knowledge more similar to IT

practice than the musical one.

Moreover, with the pandemic situation the

practice of distant learning has a negative impact on

practical experiences and workshops: in fact, the

access for students to the institution’s material is

critically reduced.

The concept of sustainability should lead to a

critical consideration of the choice of musical

examples made by the tutor/professor. The authors

should point out that some electroacoustic

composition, despite the evolution and availability of

technology will always present technical difficulties.

As an example, we cite A Pierre. Dell’azzurro

silenzio inquietum composed by Luigi Nono in 1985

for bass flute, bass clarinet and live electronics.

According to (Zattra, 2011), the live performance

requires expensive equipment and skilled technicians.

(Sallis, 2012) points out that the use of live

electronics made by Nono, required high quality

studio techniques in 1985, mainly based on digital

electronics. Since the beginning of the third

millennium, Digital Sound Processing (DSP) has

become more and more popular for amplified music.

Now, Virtual Sound Technology allows the

reproduction of expansive analogic sound machines.

As explained in an essay by different authors (Sallis,

and others, 2012) A Pierre is a work that requires

technical means present only in recording studios.

“Nono employed the studio technologies of

electroacoustic music to experiment with new types

of performance practice and to develop new forms of

notation to accommodate this practice”. (Sallis a.o.,

2012, p. 1).

On the other hand, works depending on

technology developed in ’60 and ’70 now should be

sustainable by using modern DSP technology. The

case of Solo shows a piece that could be played in

1966 (the year of its composition) with analogical

means and with the assistance of three sound

technicians, today can be performed by the performer

itself (Sargenti, 2017) using a downloadable

application for smartphone.

3.2 Methods

In this section we want to illustrate a practical

approach to sustainable composition with live

electronics. It is divided into:

 a short description of sustainable DSP tools used

in presence of the teaching staff in the

institution, but also at home (developed in

section 4.1)

 a practical example of application consisting of

two short instrumental pieces with live

electronics (developed in section 4.2)

In order to ensure sustainability in terms of economic

viability and reduction of the digital divide shat affect

most of the programmable audio device, the key point

of the methods proposed in our paper are:

 open-source resources (no cost)

 no install required (browser-based approach)

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 easy to use (no previous programming

experience is required)

This enhanced practice of electroacoustic music,

suggests “a new figure of musician: the interpreter of

electronic musical instruments that combines

traditional musical skills with the sonological skills of

the signal processing expert.” (Vidolin, 2009)

A pedagogical sequence based on these methods

should include:

 listening and analysis to excerpts from the

repertoire with live electronics. Sargenti (2018)

suggests that several sustainable (online or

freeware) tools can be used for achieving this

taks, such as Sonic Visualiser (by Queen Mary

University, London) and e-Analyse (P. Couprie,

IRCAM).

 composition practice: choice of instrumentation,

style, and structure of the piece according to the

sound processing.

 live electronics design: effects, duration,

technical realisation, and materials.

 pedagogical output: realisation of the piece with

the participation of the students as vocal/

instrumental and live electronics performers.

Section 4 is providing some guidelines for this

point.

4 PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

In this section we want to briefly describe the

sustainable tools used to produce practical examples.

We have identified the cost-free accessibility as a

criterion of sustainability. Faust provides functions

similar to MAX/MSP for free, indicated in section 2.2

as one of the most used programs in the field of

education.

4.1 Web based Real Time DSP with

Faust

Faust (Functional Audio Stream) is a functional

programming language for sound synthesis and audio

processing with a strong focus on the design of

synthesizers, musical instruments, audio effects, etc.

Faust targets high-performance signal processing

applications and audio plug-ins for a variety of

platforms and standards.

The language was developed by GRAME

(Générateur de Ressources et d’Activités Musicales

Exploratoires), created in Lyon (France) in 1982. In

this work, Faust is used for low latency digital sound

processing from a live recorded audio signal,

captured by USB microphone. Figure 1 shows the

block diagram between an instrumental input and the

output of a digitally processed sound by Faust with a

web browser.

Figure 1: Block diagram.

The Faust language can be implemented by using

the Faust Playground via web browser. Faust

Playground is an online tool to assemble programs

written in Faust in a simple way with a graphical

interface. The Figure 2 shows a patch of Faust

Playground composed of four tuneable effects: echo,

reverb, ring modulation, and flanger. Each effect is

acting like a transfer function with its own input and

output.

Figure 2: A patch for Faust Playground.

Individual patches can also be used via web browser.

One of the patches used in this research work is a

Dual Pitch Shifter developed by Oliver Larkin

(Figure 3). Window size is set to a small value for

latency reduction. Input value “50” is set to no-shift

in the pitch.

Figure 3: The Dual Pitch Shifter web interface.

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4.2 Short Compositions using Web

based DSP

In order to illustrate our idea, we present two short

examples of instrumental compositions with live

electronics for our educational purpose, one for flute,

piano and live electronics, the other for violin and live

electronics.

The score of the two pieces can be found

in the appendix. An audio recording of the pieces will

be presented during the Conference. In the next

paragraphs you can find:

 Short description of the piece for flute and piano.

 Short description of the piece for solo violin.

4.2.1 Lumen, for Flute, Piano and Live

Electronics

Lumen is a short chamber music work for flute, piano

and live electronics composed by Andrea Bareggi.

The duration of the piece is approximately 2 minutes.

The work can be performed by two instrumentists and

a technician, or even by two instrumentists if the two

musicians manipulate the interface of live electronics.

The piece was video recorded in the lecture hall of

ESME Sudria – Lyon, (approximately 10x15x5 m

)

with a Huawey smartphone. The setup for live DSP is

extremely simple: a USB Blue Yeti microphone and

a portable loudspeaker connected to a 2004 HP

MiniTower computer by a double jack cable. The

setup is intentionally simple since the goal of this

research work is a democratically approach to the

electroacoustic music.

The score (see Appendix) includes specific

instructions for the instrumentists and the technicians.

The DSP patches are easily available on the internet.

They are programmed in FAUST language,

developed by GRAME.

4.2.2 Schegge, for Solo Violin and Live

Electronics

The piece entitled Schegge, composed for solo violin

and live electronics by Simonetta Sargenti is a short

piece lasting about 1 minute and 30 seconds.

It includes some musical gestures characterizing

of the basic violin technique processed with effects

like reverb, echo, delay etc.

It consists of 8 fragments (‘Splinters’) as shown

in table 3. The sound processing procedures are

applied to the piece using the Faust patches. As an

example of the first patch implemented in measures

1-4 of the violin piece, we take the ‘echo and

freeverb’ as how it looks in the Faust Playground

(fig.4). Each fragment making up the formal structure

of the piece is separated from the next by rests. This

is to allow the performer to be able to manipulate

Faust. All sections of the piece are composed so that

the performer can manipulate DSP effect during the

rests in the score. The composition ends with short,

improvised section ad libitum where the

improvisation involves the live electronics using

granulation from Faust Playground and the patch

Dual Pitch Shifter described in fig. 3.

Table 3: Formal structure of the violin piece Schegge.

Fragment Character and

technique

Effect

mm.1-4 Long held note Reverber and echo

mm.5-9 Short pizzicato

notes

Delay

mm.10-13 Expressive short

sentence

Short rev.

mm.14-20 Tremolo Echo

mm.21-25 Double note pizz.

And arco staccato

No effects

mm.26-31 Expressive

sentence

Rev.

mm.32-34 Long held note Rev. Echo and delay

mm.35-38 Improvisation Granulation and dual

pitch shifter

Figure 4: Effects of reverb and echo in mm.1-4 of the piece

Schegge.

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Besides a sustainability of means we are pursuing

even a sustainability of the performance. In fact,

Schegge should be performed by the violinist itself

managing the live electronics in real time. The audio

example of Schegge presented during the Conference

was recorded in LTW3 Studio in Milano.

Our approach can be successfully applied to the

latest pedagogical approach, opposing traditional

individual learning to group pedagogy and flipped

classroom. With this approach in mind, students can

share multiple tasks such as instrumental playing,

composition, sound shaping by DSP and

spatialisation. In this way, each student can grasp a

wide range of techniques and know-how by

practicing different roles in the ensemble.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In this research work we reconsidered the

electroacoustic music teaching process in relation to

modern pedagogical approaches, more practical and

student centred (learning by practice). We based our

analysis on the current situation in France and Italy

(section 2). Despite the validity of the traditional

approach from the theoretical and analytical point of

view, the authors point out a lack of sustainability in

the pedagogical tools. The consequence of this

pedagogical approach lead to digital divide and a

steep learning curve in Information Technology, with

a consequent reduction of the musical content. The

choice we made in this research work is reducing

these downsides of the traditional approach with more

user friendly tools for DSP (section 3).

In order to demonstrate our approach, the authors

composed and recorded two practical examples using

sustainable DSP tools. These examples can be easily

applied to group pedagogy (section 4). Thus a

learning by practice approach is gaining popularity in

the last decades, the pandemic situation is not helping

the evolution of new teaching styles. The sustainable

tools presented in this paper can be easily exported

out of the music institution, and used by the students

at home for their practice.

This approach open the chance for each student

for playing the role of composer, instrumental of

vocal performer and sound engineer. This early stage

work is based on a small amount of experimental

results developed by the authors. Further works

include:

 Complete range of sustainable tools.

 More examples to make students comfortable

with the practical approach.

 Experiments with students.

 Design of the evaluation process for students

works.

REFERENCES

A.A.V.V.,1976,. La musica elettronica, testi scelti e

commentati da Henri Pousseur, Feltrinelli, Milano

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In WWW '18: Companion Proceedings of the The Web

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https://doi.org/10.1145/3184558.3188737

Cipriani, A., Giri, M., 2013. Musica Elettronica e Sound

Design. Teoria e pratica con Max e MSP. ISBN-13:

978-88905484-3-7.

Chion, M., 1982. La Musique électroacoustique. P.U.F.

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Sargenti, S., 2018, Listening and analysing

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Vidolin, A.(2009) Interpretazione musicale e signal

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Zattra, L., 2003. La musique électroacoustique : analyse

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Zattra, L., Burleigh, I., Sallis, F., 2011. Studying Luigi

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Towards Accessible and Sustainable Learning of Real Time Electroacoustic Composition and Performance at Undergraduate Academic

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APPENDIX

Score: Lumen by Andrea Bareggi for flute, piano and

live electronics.

Score: Schegge by Simonetta Sargenti for violin and live

electronics.

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