The Intellect of Sound Symposium for Electronic Music

The aims of the CEMPE project The Intellect of Sound Symposium for Electronic Music are threefold: (i) to foster artistic research-based higher music performance education (ii) to enhance students’ abilities to learn and perform a diverse selection of contemporary music with technology from around the world through new works created especially for the students and by world-renowned composers and students (ii) to enhance participants’ abilities to learn and perform contemporary music through performance with world-class guest ensembles and experts in music technology (iii) to present the results of the collaboration to the community via concerts, seminars and a website, involving community members in an open exchange of ideas about composition and reflection, the place and meaning of new music in an age of globalized aesthetic and technological innovation.

The current pandemic has underscored how students of music have been confronted with the challenges of creating and performing new music in a globalized world. With the increased possibilities to share and distribute music through the internet, students are confronted with a pluralism of musical languages as never before. Without a common musical language, both composers and interpreters are increasingly challenged to develop and understand these new musical languages. Simultaneously, the increased inaccessibility to travel has also placed students in a new kind of globalized music cultural scene and introduced different technological frameworks into the creation and performance of contemporary music. Within this framework, the current course will explore how new technologies of AI change our understanding of music creation and performance, while having larger philosophical, sociological and scientific ramifications.

These developments present several questions in terms of contemporary music education. What is the best way for students to learn, perform and understand the complexities of contemporary music in this increasingly international community linked by technology? How does a creative and educational connection with their immediate community affect their motivation and sense of purpose in learning music in hybrid settings involving new technology? How can the contextualization of musical creation and practice in such a globalized context enhance their learning experience and allow music students to achieve a new level of professionalism? How does the communication with the larger community through symposia, concerts and interactive websites affect students’ appreciation and knowledge of contemporary music with technology and its larger societal implications?

With the focus on relationships between music creation, music performance and music technology, the symposium, scheduled for June 20-25, 2022, seeks to investigate the intersection between traditional forms of music creation and performance with those assisted by technology and AI. Many of the invited composers have integrated traditional forms of music production into a technology-based compositional framework: Marta Gentillucci has looked into applying computational analysis methods of the voice within an extended technological framework. Samir Odeh–Tamimi integrates Palestinian vocal techniques, poetry and electronic processes into his works while Örjan Sandred has explored relationships between the voice, composition and Artificial Intelligence. These composers, along with Dániel Péter Biró, principle investigator of the Sounding Philosophy project of the Norwegian Artistic Research Program, will work together with composition and performance students from the Grieg Academy, the members of the Neue Vocalsolisten, the BIT20 Ensemble and the SWR Experimentalstudio. The symposium will present concerts, colloquia, interviews, lectures and masterclasses to students as well as to the larger public. In order that the materials be accessible to everyone, all events will be recorded on video and presented on the Research Catalogue website.