Curtis Roads, who teaches in the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technologies, Department of Music and also the Media Arts and Technology Graduate Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses his just-released book, Microsound (MIT Press, March 2002) which includes an audio CD. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, copies of Microsound will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

Book Description

Below the level of the musical note lies the realm of microsound, of sound particles lasting less than one-tenth of a second. Recent technological advances allow us to probe and manipulate these pinpoints of sound, dissolving the traditional building blocks of music--notes and their intervals--into a more fluid and supple medium. The sensations of point, pulse (series of points), line (tone), and surface (texture) emerge as particle density increases. Sounds coalesce, evaporate, and mutate into other sounds.

Composers have used theories of microsound in computer music since the 1950s. Distinguished practitioners include Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. Today, with the increased interest in computer and electronic music, many young composers and software synthesis developers are exploring its advantages. Covering all aspects of composition with sound particles, Microsound offers composition theory, historical accounts, technical overviews, acoustical experiments, descriptions of musical works, and aesthetic reflections. The book is accompanied by an audio CD of examples.

About the Author

Curtis Roads teaches in CREATE, Department of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara and also He studied music composition at California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, San Diego (B. A. Summa Cum Laude), and the University of Paris VIII (Ph.D). From 1980 to 1987 he was a researcher in computer music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then taught at the University of Naples "Federico II," Harvard University, Oberlin Conservatory, Les Ateliers UPIC (Paris), and the University of Paris VIII. He has recently led master classes at the Australian National Conservatory (Melbourne) and the Prometeo Laboratorio (Parma), among others. He is co-organizer of international workshops on musical signal processing in Sorrento, Capri, and Santa Barbara (1988,1991,1997,2000). He has served on the composition juries of the Ars Electronica (Linz) and the International Bourges Competition.

Certain of his compositions feature granular and pulsar synthesis, methods he developed for generating sound from acoustical particles. He has recently developed the Creatophone, a system for spatial projection of sound in concert. Another new invention is the Creatovox, an expressive new instrument for virtuoso performance that is based on the synthesis of sound particles. The Creatovox, developed in collaboration with Alberto de Campo, was first demonstrated to the public in March 2000. His composition Clang-Tint (1994) was commissioned by the Japan Ministry of Culture (Bunka-cho) and the Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo. His music is available on compact discs produced by the MIT Media Laboratory and by Wergo.

A co-founder of the International Computer Music Association in 1979, he was Editor of Computer Music Journal (The MIT Press) from 1978 to 1989, and Associate Editor 1990-2000. His writings include over a hundred monographs, research articles, reports, and reviews. Some of these have been translated and printed in Italian, French, German, Finnish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Recent books include the textbook The Computer Music Tutorial (1996, The MIT Press), Musical Signal Processing (co-editor, 1997, Swets and Zeitlinger, Amsterdam), L'audionumerique (1998, Dunod, Paris), The Computer Music Tutorial - Japanese edition (forthcoming, Denki Daigaku Shuppan, Tokyo). The Computer Music Tutorial - Korean edition (forthcoming, Eumaksekye Music Publishing, Seoul).

This event is cosponsored by UCSB Center for Research in Electronic Art Technologies, Department of Music, Media Arts and Technology Program, and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.