New educational technologies for musical activity. Health-saving technologies in musical education

Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution of higher professional education

SAINT PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

General Economic Faculty

Abstract on the topic:

Information technology in music

St. Petersburg 2009

Introduction

1. New technologies and music

2. Sound recording

3. Prospects for the development of information technologies in music

Bibliography

Introduction

One of the main characteristics of the post-industrial period should be considered the rapid development of electronic technologies that contributed to the automation of the storage and processing of information using computers.

The emergence of sufficiently powerful computers and new computer technologies had a huge impact on the formation of modern musical culture. The capabilities of modern computers are increasing every day in parallel with advances in the scientific and technical field and developments in the field of programming.

The time has come for a mature constructive relationship, a time for the construction of a common building, where both parties will feel an increasing need for mutually enriching projects. So different and once seemingly distant spheres of human intellectual activity over the last decades of the past century have not only been imbued with mutual respect, but one can already safely predict the brilliant fruitful development of their cooperation.

The obviousness of the fundamentally new opportunities provided by the musical computer in the development of the professional thinking of a musician in all areas of musical creativity will inevitably lead to the increasing introduction of music and computer technologies, which will significantly supplement and even change the very nature of the work of a composer, musicologist, performer and teacher.

Numerous experiments with electronic (and not only) machines capable of extracting sound have led to the emergence various ways writing music, and hence to the emergence of a variety of styles and directions. The new sound, unusual and unaccustomed to the ear, became an innovation in music. Many well-known modern composers, for example, K. Stockhausen, O. Messiaen, A. Schnittke, despite the complexity of working with technology, created works using new electronic instruments or only on them.

The development of electronic computing technology itself is already early stages led her to "invasion" into music. Already in the 50s, using the very first computers, scientists made attempts to synthesize music: to compose a melody or arrange it with artificial timbres. This is how algorithmic music appeared, the principle of which was proposed back in 1206 by Guido Marzano, and later applied by V.A. Mozart to automate the composition of minuets - writing music according to the fallout random numbers. Algorithmic compositions were created by K. Shannon, R. Zaripov, J. Xenakis and others. In the 1980s, composers had the opportunity to use computers equipped with special programs, which could memorize, play and edit music, and also allowed you to create new timbres, print scores of your own creations. It became possible to use a computer in concert practice.

So, today the computer is a multi-timbral instrument and an integral part of any recording studio. Undoubtedly, the very word "studio" for many people is associated with the concept of "mass culture" or "third layer", that is, with manifestations of pop culture and modern show business. Perhaps this is one of the main factors that attracts applicants when entering sound engineering or any other faculties, one way or another related to music and computer technologies. The question arises: what role does the introduction of computers play in the education of future music teachers?

It is quite possible that a certain timbre-rhythmic code of computer music will help to cure some diseases. The availability of computer technology and the convenience of software will create unprecedented conditions for musical creativity (musical “needlework”), comparable in part to the current avalanche-like spread of amateur music-making in pop and rock styles. The expressions: “my music”, “my home studio”, “my CDs”, “my video clips”, “my music site” (everywhere “my” - in the sense of “created by me”) will also become familiar mass concepts. Everyone will be able to try himself as a composer, arranger, sound engineer, composer of new timbres, sound effects.

1. New technologies and music

The influence of new technologies on music can be traced from ancient times. Music has evolved along with the development of the means of its performance, that is, musical instruments. It is impossible to imagine, for example, Mozart's fortieth symphony played, say, on a branch sticking out of a stump. And that's where the music comes from. Some kind of troglodyte there in the Mesozoic era sat and pulled a branch from nothing to do. Another troglodyte walked by, heard sounds, caught some harmony in them and decided to try too. The third, the most intelligent troglodyte, guessed that it was better to pull not a branch, but some kind of fiber, for example, horsehair, made a frame for him from wood and pulled this same hair across it. This is approximately the story of the birth of the first stringed plucked musical instrument. I note that if the third troglodyte had not known the technology of wood processing, then nothing would have come of it.

In the future, with the development of mainly woodworking and metallurgical technologies, people began to notice the dependence of sound on the type of wood from which the frame is made. Also, the fragile horse hair gave way to a metal string. And somewhere in the two thousand years before our era, such instruments as the lyre or harp appear.

Over the entire period of human history from the invention of the lyre to the present day, a huge number of musical instruments have been created. But three groups have been most influenced by new technologies over the past one hundred and fifty years - keyboards, drums and strings (mainly guitar).

When electricity was discovered, people began to try to apply it in almost all areas of their activity. The classical piano was no exception. People tried to make string vibrations undamped, that is, they wanted the volume of the sound not to decrease over time, like wind instruments. As a result, the following design was invented: a contact was established under the key, which turned on the electromagnet. At the same time, as in an ordinary piano, the hammer hit the string, it began to vibrate, and when it reached the magnet, it was turned off by pressing the string on another contact. When the string, under the action of elastic forces, deviated back, the contact opened, and the magnet again began to work and attract the string to itself. Due to the fact that the string periodically touched the contact on the electromagnet, this instrument had a very sharp sound and therefore was not widely used.

Another keyboard instrument - the organ - suffered from another problem: its high cost and size. After all, each frequency needed its own pipe there, so classical organs occupied entire halls. Yes, and the furs for him had to be pumped continuously. With the invention of the electric generator, the question arose about its use in musical instruments - after all, if you rotate it at different angular speeds, then when you connect it to a speaker, you can hear sounds of different frequencies. The first instrument using this principle was invented in Chicago in the late eighties of the last century. It was named Telharmonium. Since there was a separate generator for each frequency, it occupied a whole basement. In this cellar, a musician, usually an experienced organist, sat and played. At the same time, the telephone was invented, and the first speakers.

And so, to listen to music, Chicagoans called a certain number and connected to the Telharmonium. Due to its bulkiness and complexity of manufacture and adjustment, telharmonium has not received a sufficiently wide distribution. However, later, on the basis of telharmonium, in the thirties of the last century, an American engineer Hammond created an instrument that very much resembled the sound of an organ. They called it the Hammond organ. It has become very popular due to its low cost and good sound. Also, the Hammond organ began to be used not only in classical music, but also in rock music, which was gaining momentum at that time.

Modern keyboard instruments - synthesizers - originated, in principle, from the Hammond organ. With the development of electronics, people tried to somehow improve its sound. Gradually, mechanical oscillators were replaced first by multivibrators and then by integrated circuits.

Also with further development microelectronics, it became possible to receive almost any timbre. In modern popular music, the synthesizer is king and god today. Because of its ease of use, it is now used by anyone who can play the piano even a little bit. Enough three classes of ordinary music school to play it more or less tolerably.

AT last decade the synthesizer had a powerful ally - the computer. Modern computers, as you know, allow you to do whatever your heart desires. With the invention of sound cards for a computer, it became possible to insert chips with a bank of instruments from any modern synthesizer onto them. With the help of special sequencer programs, you can drive any melody into your computer and play it. It looks like a synthesizer. More recently, so-called software samplers have appeared. A sampler is a device that allows you to record a sound sample (in English sample, where the name comes from), indicate which note it corresponds to and, by connecting it to a synthesizer, play this timbre. Hardware samplers were expensive and difficult to handle, so writing a software sampler created a sensation among musicians. Now, in general, it was possible to get by only with a computer, knowing a little musical literacy and not being able to play on anything. The price-to-sound ratio of synthesizer and computer made them indispensable instruments for rock and pop musicians.

2. Sound recording

Since ancient times, people have tried to somehow perpetuate musical works.

After all, for a composer to play some of his compositions every time is the same as for an artist to re-paint his picture every time. Therefore, the musicians somehow thought about perpetuating their own works. The most technically simple, and therefore the most ancient method is musical notation.

It does not require any technical devices, except for a pen with ink and a piece of parchment, and then paper. Musical notation consists in the conventional designation of musical sounds on a sheet. An experienced musician, seeing these signs, immediately plays a melody in his head, and he can reproduce it almost the same as the original.

The invention of musical notation, of course, greatly contributed to the development of music as an art, but at first it was naturally different in different countries. In the process of spreading a civilized people over the earth, musical writing came to a certain standard. However, the writing that we now use is suitable for recording music, the roots of which lie entirely in classical European music. It is difficult for them to record, for example, Chinese, Indian or African music.

In the process of the formation of music as an art, a need arose for a more perfect method of sound recording than notes. After all, not everyone who loved music knew how to play something. Of course, rich people could afford to keep a court musician, or go to the theater for concerts of some famous musician. And what about the poor, who can not afford either one or the other? It was they who invented the first devices that made it possible to play music without being able to play anything. These were hurdy-gurdies. In fact, in order to play the barrel organ, no musical knowledge and skills are required, just turn the knob.

The mechanical method of sound recording has been used over the past few centuries. They could, for example, record a piece for organ. Slits were made on a roll of paper in certain places, then this roll was scrolled between the organ pipes and bellows. Where there were slots, air passed into the pipes and sound was made. However, this method of sound recording had a number of disadvantages, in particular, the complexity of manufacturing such a roll, the unevenness of its movement caused an uneven sound. This method is not widely used.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the American Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. This invention is considered a turning point in the history of sound recording. A new method of recording sounds was applied - wave, that is, due to the fact that sound is a mechanical wave, it causes vibrations of the membrane, which are recorded on any medium. During playback, the recorded vibrations from the carrier are transmitted to the membrane, which oscillates and vibrates the air in which the waves arise.

The invention of wave sound recording made it possible to record any instrument, but what is there an instrument, in general, now any sound could be recorded. However, a lot of time passed from the invention of the phonograph to the invention of high-quality players and tape recorders. At first, the phonograph did not find recognition because of the terrible sound quality. But the further improvement of this method of sound recording and the invention of high-quality electric players and tape recorders dotted the i. They appeared in the forties and fifties of the last century.

It was in these conditions that rock music arose - the first truly mass music. It became massive precisely thanks to the invention of simple, high-quality and cheap sound recording devices. Do not confuse rock music and pop. Pops, also a product of new technologies, I devoted a separate chapter. Rock music is first and foremost an art. To create a quality work in this genre requires no less skill and talent, as well as for another art form.

The development of rock music is most closely associated with the introduction of new technologies in instruments and sound recording. One a prime example I already cited - this is the improvement of a solo guitar to the level of a Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul. Another impressive example is the invention of stereo players and stereo tape recorders. Monophonic players did not allow to achieve such sound quality, even if a rock band created something truly grandiose, it could not be conveyed to the masses, much was lost.

Approximately immediately after the invention of the stereo player, such masterpieces of rock appeared, the album The Beatles“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar is the first and so far the only successful project to merge rock with the classics. Also at that time (the end of the sixties) the so-called "gadgets" for electric guitars appeared, which made their sound truly fantastic for that time, and to some extent contributed to the emergence of new styles, such as heavy metal. In principle, heavy metal is the same rock, only very loud and faster.

Sometimes rock is unfairly called the music of the sixties-seventies generation, evil tongues say that it is already dead. Actually it is not. With truly great works of rock, about the same thing will happen as with Mozart's Fortieth Symphony, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, or swan lake» Tchaikovsky - they will never be forgotten. Due to the fact that the heyday of rock did not last long, new technologies are again partly to blame. Approximately in the mid-seventies, a new generation of musical instruments began: microprocessor - basically these were all sorts of different synthesizers, and a little later, computers. The next generation of youth has changed, and, as you know, youth is the mover of everything new and denies everything old. Rock became the music of the fathers, and therefore unfashionable. However, that new generation did not offer anything new, but stubbornly asserted that “rock and roll is dead, but I am not yet” (B.B. Grebenshchikov). The ease of use of synthesizers and computers has made them accessible to every fool, and now, perhaps, if in about fifty years to look at today's music, then maybe some masterpieces will be found that are now tightly clogged with pop.

3. Prospects for the development of information technologies in music

Nevertheless, we will try to "foresee" the directions that seem to be the most promising from the point of view of the future application of a musical computer. The most realistic for us is to assume that the technology of distance music education will be widely used. So, first of all, the history and theory of music, but, in part, practical advice, will become available in any remote from reputable educational institutions geographic point. Therefore, we can count on the fact that scientifically reliable and practical musical knowledge will be possessed by many more people passionate about music, this beautiful and powerful art. The computer is already ready today to offer a lot of things that will finally make it possible to realize the historically and socially mature slogan "Music for everyone!".

Easily and excitingly, all people will master musical literacy, as if learning their native language, as if adopting the tunes of her favorite songs from their mother, and the music computer will become a reliable guide for every inquisitive traveler to the World of Sounds. Thanks to a computer equipped with musical training programs based on medical and pedagogical methods, the deaf and dumb, for example, will hear music and, in the end, even speak (there are already methodological developments in this direction today).

Thanks to a computer equipped with musical training programs based on medical and pedagogical methods, the deaf and dumb, for example, will hear music and, in the end, even speak (there are already methodological developments in this direction today). It is quite possible that a certain timbre-rhythmic code of computer music will help to cure some diseases.

The availability of computer technology and the convenience of software will create unprecedented conditions for musical creativity (musical “needlework”), comparable in part to the current avalanche-like spread of amateur music-making in pop and rock styles. The expressions: “my music”, “my home studio”, “my CDs”, “my video clips”, “my music site” (everywhere “my” means “created by me”) will also become familiar mass concepts. Everyone will be able to try himself as a composer, arranger, sound engineer, composer of new timbres, sound effects.

Against the background of such a mass enthusiasm, the prestige and quality of music education will increase many times over, the content of which, thanks to the computer, will change significantly, become more high-tech and intensive, flexibly customizable for any specific tasks. Each music teacher in a special lyceum or a general school (it doesn't matter) will be fluent in music and computer technologies. Of course, he will be able to lead his subject in an interesting and exciting way, it will not be difficult for him to compose a song or dance, make full-sounding arrangements, form a bright school concert, record it on a digital disc with high quality and then give his pupils such a record as a memory of the wonderful time of childhood and youth .

It is possible that music-computer technologies will even more squeeze the labor-intensive musical professions, due to which, under the coercion of parents, not too diligent boys and girls are often deprived of their childhood happiness for 10-15 years in a row. The joy of momentary direct music-making will be brought to them by even more ingeniously designed synthesizers and musical computers. And only truly talented, enthusiastic and patient musicians will become virtuosos (violinists, pianists, clarinetists, trumpeters).

Bibliography

1. Informatics and computer intelligence / A.V. Timofeev. - M. Pedagogy, 1991.

2. Information technology. Yu.A. Shafrin. - M. Lab. basic knowledge, 1998.

3. Informatics: textbook. for students of tech. directions and specialties of universities / V.A. Ostreikovskiy. - Ed. 2nd, sr. - M.: Higher. school, 2004.

4. Continuous course of informatics / S.A. Beshenkov. - M. BINOM. Lab. knowledge, 2008.

5. S. Kastalsky. Rock Encyclopedia / M. Peer, 1997.

“...Music should teach you to freely and directly express your feeling in sounds and sympathize with all the voices and all the calls that only sound in the world... Art should approach each age in a form corresponding to its understanding and skill, for everyone should become his accustomed to speak, move, hear, see, act freely, the child in his life will be without embarrassment, it will be easy to use these skills to fulfill his creative will, he will know the way to give an outcome to this will .. Through art, the creative will of children, their will to action should be nurtured; where listening, watching or performing works of art made by others, children should, as it were, re-create them, internally experience that strong will and the strong feeling that this work created ... This direction of aesthetic education is not at all like teaching art in the old school, where children were taught only to listen, look and perform what was planned, to agree with what was done before them, to accustom their own taste to the old, conditional patterns ... ". Theoretical knowledge and methods that characterize new technologies in music education, using the example of modeling the artistic and creative process, allow the music director to achieve the main goal - to form the student's idea of ​​​​the activities of the Musician - composer, performer, listener - as a high manifestation of human creativity, as a great work souls as the highest need for the transformation of man and the world.

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MURMANSK REGIONAL INSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EMPLOYEES

NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN MUSIC EDUCATION

(modeling of the artistic and creative process)

Performed:

Musical director

MBDOU " Kindergarten No. 1 "Yakorek" of the combined type, the city of Gadzhiyevo, Murmansk region.

Ivanova Yu.P.

Checked:

Golovina B.G.

Murmansk 2012

Introduction

Part I. Theoretical. Psychological - pedagogical aspect.

1.1. The term "technology" in pedagogy.

1.2. Modeling of the artistic and creative process.

Part II. Practical. Forms and methods of work with children.

2.2. "Choose Music"

2.4. "I compose music."

2.5. "Child and Music".

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

One of the new concepts for pedagogy is the concept of technology, which is often found in pedagogical literature(scientific, journalistic, educational). The heterogeneity of the content invested in this concept by various authors suggests that it has not yet reached the need for the legitimate use of the degree of formation.

The novelty of the approach to the study of the process of formation of musical culture lies mainly in the interpretation of the data obtained. What comes to the fore is not individual indicators according to individual methods (and they give a certain idea of ​​the state and level of development of musical culture), but the understanding of one or another particular result as a form of expression of certain aspects of the child’s spiritual development, as a form of spiritual development. emotional response to the high spiritual values ​​of art. The idea of ​​such an interpretation of the data becomes the “key” to all methods where the spiritual is necessarily present and must be “read” by the educator-researcher (and the music director, exploring the process of developing the musical culture of children, as if “automatically” acquires this status) in all individual components formation of musical culture. Therefore, the study includes a special technique designed to figuratively express the child's assessment of his relationship with the spiritual essence of music.

The purpose of this essay is to explicate the range of concepts, theoretical knowledge and methods that characterize new technologies in music education using the examplemodeling of the artistic and creative process.

In connection with the goal, the following tasks can be distinguished:

1. Consider the psychological and pedagogical aspect associated with the use of new technologies in pedagogy.
2. Explore the modeling of the artistic and creative process.
3. In the practical part, reflect the forms and methods of working with children.
4. Make conclusions in accordance with the goal.

Research methods are the study of methodological literature and Internet resources.

Part I. Theoretical.

Psychological - pedagogical aspect.

1. The term "technology" in pedagogy.

Development pedagogical science shows that the appearance of the term technology and the direction of research in pedagogy is not an accident. Why is it that the “accidental” transition of the term “technology” from the field of information technology to pedagogy is in fact not accidental and has a serious basis. The definition of technology can be formulated as follows: technology should be understood as a set and sequence of methods and processes for converting raw materials that make it possible to obtain products with specified parameters. If we transfer this meaning of the term "technology" to pedagogy, then the technology of learning will mean a certain way of learning, in which the main load on the implementation of the learning function is performed by a learning tool under the control of a person. With technology, the music director performs the function of managing the learning tool, as well as the functions of stimulating and coordinating activities. In view of the fact that the technology involves the preliminary determination of a diagnostic goal, it is first necessary to consider whether it is possible to set a diagnostic goal in music education. This may be a certain amount musical material. Thus, the main goal of the music director is to form the foundations of spiritual and moral education through familiarization with the musical culture using new technologies, as the most important component of the harmonious development of the individual. You can also highlight the following tasks:

1. to instill love and respect for music as a subject of art;
2. teach to perceive music as an important part of every person's life;
3. contribute to the formation of emotional responsiveness, love for the world around;
4. instill the foundations of artistic taste;
5. to teach to see the relationship between music and other art forms;
6. teach the basics of musical literacy;
7. create a need for communication with music;
8. simulate the artistic and creative process.

1. Modeling of the artistic and creative process.

The main methodological position that ensures the implementation of the ideas of developing education in music (generally in art classes) should be the modeling of the artistic and creative process, when students are put in the position of a creator-composer, creator-artist, as if re-creating works of art for themselves and for other people. Modeling the artistic and creative process is, in fact, is the passage of the path of the birth of music, recreating it, as it were, "from the inside" and living the very moment of re-creation. This is especially important when children master compositions that have always been intended only “for listening”; this is also important for mastering the layer of folk music - folklore, when preschoolers immerse themselves in the element of the birth and natural existence of music, they themselves compose and say proverbs, sayings, riddles, epics in the musical language; this is important both when mastering (learning) any song, and for instrumental music-making. This universal and common method for art requires: independence in acquiring and appropriating knowledge (which is not alienated from the child during the path of the composer), creativity (when the child, relying on musical experience and on imagination, fantasy, intuition, compares, compares, transforms, chooses , creates, etc.), developing the ability for individual hearing and creative interpretation.

Is it difficult to distinguish between "folk" and "composer's" music? It turns out that children almost unmistakably feel this difference already ... from the age of four!

The purpose of such questions is clear: before doing anything, the child must understand the meaning of his activity. Therefore, it is necessary to model the creative process so that the child looks into himself, sees himself from the position of another person, i.e. speaking scientifically, he would explore his value orientations in this world: what is significant for him, what can become significant for all people. And this important thing, called in art "artistic idea", will then determine the choice of all musical means. Only after passing the path of the creator, the child can understand what it means how to make a melody, how to play music, how to listen to it. Perhaps, after such experiences, the children will stop saying that they sing in the choir, "to develop their voice, because it's interesting together"; want to be an artist in order to “perform on stage, they will clap me”; playing an instrument well means “playing all the notes correctly and following the teacher’s instructions” and much more. It is clear that this universal method is completely organically applicable to music lessons. Is it possible to apply the method of modeling the artistic and creative process to the lessons of rhythm, artistic movement, musical theater, and in general in free musical activity? How can this be done?

In connection with the method of modeling the artistic and creative process, it is appropriate to raise the question of revising the attitude towards children's musical creativity. Traditionally, in musical education, creativity was seen as separate view activities associated primarily with improvisation. However, this "creativity" in practice was reduced to the assimilation by children of traditional "general musical" rhythmic and melodic formulas, intonation schemes, when thinking, internal hearing of music by children moves along a predetermined path. Such an approach to creativity is unlawful, since any form of familiarization with art, being an activity as such, and not work according to a model, must be precisely creative in the true sense of this concept.

The criterion of creativity is not necessarily something complete (for example, the final phrase of a song, which is “completed”, but does not require anything other than the search for “melodic stamps” in their experience), but that readiness for creativity, when the pupil wants and is ready to comprehend the meaning of his activity, when he has a feeling of the need to compare, correlate, choose and find something that can best express his hearing and vision of a particular phenomenon, event, fact, his own artistic attitude as a whole. The result can sometimes be expressed in just one intonation, in one poetic phrase, movement, line, or at first it may not even appear at all. The meaning of readiness for creativity is that music can sound inside the child, that he can have a clear idea of ​​what kind of music it should be, but his musical thoughts may not yet materialize in a clear form, in a specific melody. It is this inner work - the process of mental experimentation with expressive means, that is much more important than the finished result, especially on early stages entry into music.

Misunderstanding of nature and conditions children's creativity, the indispensable desire of the music director to definitely get the result can lead to trauma to the child's psyche and a violation of the naturalness and freedom of the creative process. There are two important implications from this.

Firstly, the main thing is not so much the development of children (education in its “pure form”!), How much to observe their development in contact with music and the outside world. And secondly, the focus on the musical development of the child requires the rejection of many clichés and stereotypes of pedagogical thinking. First of all, you need to understand that the process of entering art cannot be forced, which means that there is no need to “pull” a child into music. In other words, with regard to musical development, one should not engage in self-deception by falsifying a quick result. What is needed is the naturalness of the process when the music director goes along the path to music together with the child, in accordance with the nature of the child and the nature of art. To do this, you need to be sure: in the correct choice of the goal - the development of the personality of the pupil, his talents, individuality; in music that is chosen for children and that is sincerely felt by the music director himself; in methods and techniques that may interest children in music; and, of course, that every child is an artist, and necessarily talented. The ability to see the child's abilities, which he himself may not be aware of, and to convince him of this is the highest, which can only be in musical education and education in general.

Of course, these are generalized criteria. They will be identified directly in the research methods through more particular, “technological” criteria, where the level of manifestation of the general in the particular will make it possible to judge the formation of one or another parameter (component, element) of musical literacy and musical culture as a whole.

Part II. Practical.

Forms and methods of work with children.

2.1. "Musical Life Associations".

The first method can be conditionally called "Musical Life Associations". It reveals the level of pupils' perception of music: it makes it possible to judge the direction of musical-life associations, the degree of their correspondence to the musical-life content, reveals emotional responsiveness to the music heard, and the reliance of perception on musical patterns. The music chosen for this purpose must contain several images, the degree of contrast of which may be different, but the contrast must be “read” in relief. At the same time, one condition is observed: the music must be unfamiliar to children. You can recommend, for example: "Humoresque" P.I. Tchaikovsky (preparatory group, October).

The sound of music is preceded by a confidential conversation between the music director and the children in order to adjust the perception. This is a conversation about the fact that music accompanies a person’s whole life, it can recall events that happened before, evoke feelings that we have already experienced, help a person in a life situation - calm, support, cheer. Next, it is proposed to listen to music and answer the following questions:

1. What memories did this music evoke in you, what events in your life could it be associated with?

2. Where in life could this music sound and how could it affect people?

3. What in music allowed you to come to such conclusions (meaning what the music tells about and how it tells, what are its expressive means in each individual work)?

For research, it is fruitful to offer children different ages the same music: this additionally allows you to identify what each age is looking for in music, what it relies on in its associations. Depending on the formulation of the educational process, the third question may have a different degree of complexity, professional content: how many images, what genres we attribute, in what form the music is written, how the unity of visual and expressive means is realized, etc. After listening to music, an individual conversation is held with each child; if there are difficulties with answers, the children are reminded of musical fragments. The answers are best recorded in writing (for "history": it is interesting to compare the answers of children in a few years in order to trace the dynamics of musical development). The results are processed according to the following parameters: accuracy musical characteristic, unfolding and, artistic associations, emotional coloring of answers. Particular attention is paid to the direction of children's thinking: from the general to the particular: from the figurative content of music to expressive means, language elements, genre, style, etc. If the children's answers show that they understand the form of a work as a secondary phenomenon, determined by the content, then we can say about the developing holistic perception musical image.

2.2. "Choose Music"

The second technique "Choose music"is devoted to the definition of music related in content: how reasonably children can, when comparing 3-4 fragments, find consonant in content. The proposed music should be similar in appearance: similarity of texture, sound dynamics, elements of musical speech, composition of performers, instrumentation, etc. The difficulty of the technique is that the works do not contrast with each other. For example, you can offer such works:

Option 1: "March" D.D. Shostakovich and "March" by D. Rossini (middle group, January);

Option 2: “Rain” by A. Lyadov and “Sad rain” by D.B. Kabalevsky (middle group, March).

After listening, the pupils must determine which works are related in the "spirit" of music and tell on what grounds they determined the commonality.

The technique allows to reveal a special “sense of music”. The main thing in it: what children evaluate: their own emotions caused by music, or simply expressive means, cut off from the life content. Reliance only on means indicates a low level of perception; reliance only on their emotions - the average level. The highest level should be considered the establishment of a relationship between one's emotions and the sounding music, when the child can tell in sufficient detail why he has these particular emotions and not others.

2.3. "Discover yourself through music."

The third method, "Open Yourself Through Music," aims to penetrate into the depths of the personal relationship and perception of children by music. To some extent, it allows revealing a very important thing: to what extent children “discover themselves” to themselves through music, to what extent they are aware of their feelings and experiences, whether they feel their involvement in the content of music, its images, events.

For this, one work is offered, for example, a fragment from the "Dance of the Elves" by E. Grieg, "Dance of the Dragee Fairy" by P.I. Tchaikovsky and "In the cave of the mountain king" by E. Grieg and others, and three tasks are associated with it ( senior group, April). In the 1st task, the children are put in the position of "the interlocutor of music." She “tells” them about something, and then they must tell about their feelings, about what was born in them during the “dialogue”. The 2nd task involves the child revealing the musical content in plastic, in motion (this can be a plastic miniature pantomime improvisation or, in extreme cases, you can simply “breathe” with your hands). The 3rd task is connected with the embodiment of "himself" in the drawing. Let us emphasize in particular: the pupil does not draw the music that he hears, but rather himself, how he felt during the sounding of this music. This condition applies to all three tasks of the methodology, since in it we are not interested in music itself, but in the child, his spiritual world in the assessment of himself, i.e. self-esteem, music acts here as its source, a meaningful occasion.

2.4. "I compose music."

The fourth technique "I compose music"- is carried out with each child individually and helps to identify the degree of development of figurative representations, fantasy, imagination, thinking within the framework of artistic tasks, figurative hearing, vision, etc. The procedure for conducting the technique resembles a creative process. An initial creative task is given, which serves as the first impetus for the child to organize independent artistic activity. You can offer several situations, from which pupils choose the ones they like the most. These can be, for example, such situations: “Spring Voices”, “Summer Day”, “Sounds of a Big City”, “Winter Road”, fairy tale events, etc. After choosing a situation, the children, together with the music director (his participation, if possible, should be as limited as possible) reflect on the logic and originality of the development of the figurative content of the future work of art. For example, how life awakens in the spring: the snow melts, the sun burns, drops, icicles fall, streams murmur - how to hear and express all this, and your attitude to it? ... Or: “Winter Road”: quietly, gloomy, falling rare snowflakes, “the transparent forest turns black alone”... You can embody your idea on the piano, on other instruments (children's and folk), with voice, plasticity. The first landscape sketch becomes a “background”, against which gradually appearing characters (as a rule, children choose fairy tale characters and animals) act out invented actions, the music director traditionally monitors what character the characters are, their relationships, how they appear, what habits, etc. .d. Organizing creative activity as independent as possible, he observes the process of embodying an artistic idea: how children look for means of expression, select tools, turn on their voice, plasticity - behind all these actions, the child’s thinking is easily “deciphered” when creating artistic images, the content of which he talks about. himself (or with the help of careful leading questions).

It is very difficult to analyze the creativity of children, because, as a rule, the "technical skill" of the incarnation is of a low level, and the creativity of children itself often remains only at the level of an idea and sketches for it. However, the following parameters can be distinguished as evaluation parameters:

The degree of awareness of the intention. Here the independence of the idea is revealed, its logicality, the feeling of time and space in it (which we judge by the content side of creativity);

Inventiveness, originality, individuality in the choice of means of embodiment. Here important role plays non-standard, non-traditional, but it is desirable that it be argued;

To what extent the child is attracted by the musical experience he already has. For example, whether he instructs the characters to perform songs known to him, whether he relies on knowledge and ideas about the phenomena and facts of music.

The main attention in the analysis of children's creativity should be directed to the study of how the child plans his activity, starting with the motive of creativity and ending with the real embodiment of the idea. The main criterion here is, as already noted, the degree of harmony of the attributes of musical and creative activity: the harmony between “I hear-think-feel-act”.

So, each selected component of musical culture corresponds to certain methods. Some of them (questionnaires, questions, observations) are of a traditional nature, others were created specifically for the program of studying musical culture, are authorial (but they are also close to traditional motifs).

2.5. "Child and Music".

Fifth technique "Child and music". The music director asks the children: “Imagine that music is a living being. Try to draw this creature, this personality in such a way as you feel it, understand it when you listen to it or perform it. And don't forget to depict yourself in your drawing." The difference between this technique is that children do not draw specific music (impressions from the work) - their drawing is not connected with live sound at all. The purpose of the methodology: to find out how much the child identifies with music as a huge and important phenomenon in the world. He draws music in general. It can be seen from the drawing whether he feels small in front of her or feels like a part of her, identifies himself with her; how holistically he perceives the “image of music” (for example, expressing it in something unified - color, impulse, movement, etc.), or presents it as overly detailed. No more than 15 minutes are allotted for this procedure, after which, in an individual conversation with each child, it is possible to clarify why he portrayed himself and the music as such. It has been noticed that through emotional richness and an attempt to express the “image of music” in children, a genuine (sometimes unconscious) attitude towards it is manifested. This method becomes “the final chord of the program for diagnosing the musical culture of preschoolers.

Conclusion

“... Music should teach you to freely and directly express your feeling in sounds and sympathize with all the voices and all the calls that only sound in the world... Art should approach each age in a form corresponding to its understanding and skill, for everyone it should become his own property, his own language... Having become accustomed to speak, move, hear, see, act freely, the child in his life will be without embarrassment, it will be easy to use these skills to fulfill his creative will, he will know the way to give the outcome of this will ... Through art, the creative will of children, their will to action, must be brought up; where, listening to, watching or performing works of art made by others, children should, as it were, create them again, internally experience that strong will and that strong feeling that this work created ... This direction of aesthetic education is not at all like teaching art in old school, where children were taught only to listen, look and fulfill what was planned, to agree with what was done before them, to accustom their taste to old, conventional models ... ".

Theoretical knowledge and methods characterizing new technologies in music education on the examplesimulations of the artistic and creative process allow the music director to achieve the main goal - to form the pupil's idea of ​​the activities of the Musician - composer, performer, listener - as a high manifestation of human creativity, as a great work of the soul, as the highest need for the transformation of man and the world.

Bibliography

1. Burenina A.I. A world of exciting activities. Issue 1: The world of sounds, images and moods. SPb., 1999
2. Zimina A.N. Fundamentals of musical education and development of children younger age. M., 2000
3. Kabalevsky D.B. The beautiful awakens the good. M.: Enlightenment, 1973
4. Linchenko N.M., Kirillova O.A. Serious music for kids: a guide for educators and music directors of preschool educational institutions. Murmansk, 2000
5. Minaeva V.M. The development of emotions in preschoolers. Lessons. Games: a manual for practitioners of preschool institutions. M., Arkti. 2001
6. Novikova G.P. Musical education of preschool children. M., 2000
7. Radynova O.P., Gruzdova I.V., Komissarova L.N. Workshop on the method of musical education of preschoolers. M., 1999
8. Radynova O.P., Katenene A.I., Palandishvili M.L. Musical education of preschool children. M., 2000

Methodological development "The use of music and computer technologies in the activities of a music director"

A modern educational institution needs a teacher who owns all the capabilities of a modern computer sound “canvas”. A music director who knows information technology in the same way as a piano keyboard is able to captivate children with various forms of work with musical repertoire not only due to their vocal abilities, academic knowledge, but also computer technology. Obviously, the technical principle should not suppress either the teacher or the pupil of the artist-creator with a delicate ear for music and uncontrollable imagination.
Not every teacher who uses ready-made multimedia tools in his practice is satisfied with their quality, construction, management, level of content, etc. educational process is in high degree individual, requiring differentiated approach depending on a large number of variables.
Therefore, a preschool teacher, a music director, who thinks quite freely and creatively, should be able to independently prepare multimedia material for classes, holidays, etc.
Along with the traditional musical instruments that music education is focused on, music-computer technologies (MCT) with a wide range of possibilities are becoming more widespread. The musical computer is becoming indispensable in the activities of a composer, arranger, musical designer, music editor, and is increasingly being used in teaching. These technologies open up new opportunities for creative experimentation, expanding the musical horizons, the artistic thesaurus of students, and this makes learning to master them especially relevant.
New information technologies focused on modern music education create conditions for the training of a musical figure who, in addition to traditional musical disciplines, owns a musical computer as a new musical instrument.
The most important areas of application and development of ICT today are:
MCT in professional music education (as a means to expand creative possibilities);
ICT in general education (as one of the means of education);
ICT as a means of rehabilitation of people with disabilities;
ICT as a section of the discipline "Computer Science", "Information Technology";
MCT as a new direction in the education of technical specialists, associated, in particular, with the modeling of elements of musical creativity, sound-timbral programming, which leads to the emergence of new creative technical specialties.

The use of MCT in the music education of a preschool organization solves the following tasks:
1. Significantly intensify the development of musical ear and thinking, which is due to their intensive learning capabilities based on the integration of logical-perceptual forms of activity. Understanding the elements of the musical language occurs with the help of sensations and visual representations, which complements the possibilities of verbal communication. Non-creative forms of teacher's work are transferred to the computer, which makes it possible to demonstrate
2. expressive possibilities harmony (primarily constructive logic), observe the patterns of musical morphology and syntax, simplifies the acquisition of orientation skills in the intonation-semantic plane, hearing and understanding the content-figurative plan, contributes to the convergence of educational material with artistic practice, and finally, enriches the timbre hearing of pupils, their ideas about colorful-multidimensional sound quality;
3. Musical training programs can be widely used in those cases when intensive restoration of skills is required after a long break in training or when it is necessary to quickly and firmly form special musical skills.

USE OF MULTIMEDIA PROGRAMS IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

When creating a multimedia program, it is necessary to clearly imagine for whom and for what it is being created. The content of information slides can be compiled on any topic of the curriculum of the subject, or be of a developmental nature for classroom and / or extracurricular activities.
A multimedia program is a combination of dynamics with reasonable amounts of transmitted information. This is a synthesis of computer technologies that combines sound, video clips, information, still and moving images. Unlike video films, they need a much smaller amount of information to be transmitted.
The creation of multimedia programs, telecommunications projects involves the development of a script, concept, directing, editing, editing, sound design (if necessary).
To create a multimedia program, first of all, a script is developed and the sequence of presentation of the material is determined, taking into account the percentage of use of the text, visual and sound range. It is quite obvious that it is not practical to create a multimedia program including only textual information. Such material can be prepared within the Microsoft Word program. When searching for information, you can use links to collections of educational sites, sites with a selection of images.
When selecting material for a multimedia program, it must be remembered that we are talking about the creation of such information that will flow and grow in dynamics as the student progresses in the proposed material. This is especially important when individual training, when the user can stop, write down the main thing for him, go back to clarify concepts and move on (such options are provided).
It must be remembered that the presented material is a capacious presentation of the accumulated material, where the textual presentation is often replaced by symbols, tables, diagrams, drawings, photographs, reproductions.
Selected video and sound for your program.
All this provides the user with the most comfortable conditions for the perception of the material. Multimedia elements create additional psychological structures that contribute to the perception and memorization of the material.
Advantages music lessons using multimedia presentations in Power Point:
- the use of animation and surprise moments makes cognitive process interesting and expressive;
- children receive approval not only from the teacher, but also from the computer in the form of pictures-prizes, accompanied by sound design;
- a harmonious combination of traditional means with the use of presentations in the Power Point program can significantly increase the motivation of children to study.

Designing classes using multimedia technologies is a completely new direction in the activities of a teacher, and it is here that you can apply all the accumulated experience, knowledge and skills, and a creative approach. Classes conducted in schools using electronic publications educational direction, will be remembered by children for a long time. At the same time, of course, it is still in the matter of education musical taste The most important role remains the role of the teacher, which cannot be replaced by any computer.
Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude that the creation and use of multimedia lesson scenarios is one of the promising areas for the use of information and communication technologies in schools. However, it is necessary not to forget about the scientific nature, expediency, logic of presentation of multimedia information.

Educational interactive games with triggers

What is a trigger? A trigger is an animation tool that allows you to set an action on the selected element, the animation starts on click.
It is the use of triggers in educational presentation games that makes them interactive.
Consider the algorithm for recording animation time using a trigger.
1. We will select the necessary pictures and think over the questions, if any. It is better to rename the names of the pictures to convenient ones before placing them in the presentation. The object of animation and triggers can be both pictures and text objects with which, according to the plan, the action will take place.
2. On the slide, place the objects to which the animation and trigger will be applied. Think about the content of the use of animation, for example:
Selection: Rotate or Resize;
Travel paths: Direction of travel or Draw custom path. (Fig.1)
Important: Do not take animation Entrance

3. Bind the animation effect to the object so that it starts on the slide on click. We want the object to disappear when clicking on incorrect answers, for example, and when clicking on the correct answer, it will increase with a sound signal. To do this, select the object or “click” the arrow next to the effect in the task pane (circled rectangle) to open the drop-down menu and select the Time command (Fig. 2).

In the open window, activate the Switches button, it is responsible for the operation of the trigger. Select - Start effect on click. Attention! Select from the list on the right required an element from the proposed options for animation effects created by us. (Fig.3).
After this action, we will see the word “trigger” above the object in the Animation settings task area (Fig. 4). The trigger has been created.

When showing a presentation, the arrow cursor on the object with the trigger turns into a palm cursor.
4. Repeat all actions with the remaining objects.
5. You can check yourself in the Animation Settings: each object with the same name has an animation, a trigger and a music file (if any).
6. Now let's set up the objects for the appearance of sound. Attention! The sound file must be small! Insert a sound (applause, etc.) through the menu Insert - Sound - select the desired file (from a file, from the organizer of clips, own recording) and play the sound on click (Fig. 5).

Drag the sound to the desired object. We set the microphone icon to invisible mode (Fig. 2) (Effects parameters - Sounds parameters - Hide the icon during the show, set V).
7. Adjust the sound: select the "sound" object or "click" the arrow next to the sound in the animation area (circled rectangle) to open the drop-down menu, and select the Time command (Fig. 2).
8. Attention! (Fig.6)

Beginning - After the previous one.
Start effect on click - find the object with which the music will sound.
9. Add a button to go to the next slide. We select in the menu Insert - Shapes - Control buttons (Fig. 7). We draw below (the cursor became +) the selected figure. The Action Settings window opens.

10. Perform the Action settings (Fig. 8): On mouse click - Follow the hyperlink - Select the slide to go to in the window that opens - OK.
11. When the presentation is shown, the arrow cursor on the Control button turns into a palm cursor, just like on the object with a trigger.
Applying triggers is not always convenient, for example, to WordArt objects. In them, only the surface of the letters is active and it is difficult to get into it with the cursor. In such cases, the method of transparent triggers is used, when the trigger is assigned not to the object itself, but to a transparent figure superimposed on this object.
1. Insert menu - Shapes - select, for example, a rectangle and draw it on the WordArt object. Select it, right-click and select the "Shape Format" line: Fill - Color white, transparency 100%; Line color - No lines.
2. We apply animation to the WordArt object, and in it - a trigger to the object. The surface of the rectangle is active, which means it is easier to hit it with the cursor.
For some games, it is convenient to use moving triggers, for example, “shooting” at a moving target, “Bubble Pop”, etc.
- Objects start moving automatically when changing slides: Animation Paths of movement - Start of the first object On click, subsequent ones - With the previous one.
- Add animation to objects. The speed of the object movement in Animation is set (Fig.3) in the Time tab.
- To prevent unintended slide transitions when you accidentally click past during the game, uncheck the “On click” slide change and set a control button or an object with a hyperlink to the next slide.

A hyperlink is a highlighted object (text or picture) that is linked to another document or location within that document and responds to a mouse click.
First, we create the required number of slides: we recommend using themes or layouts "Title Only" or "Blank Slide".
To create one level of an interactive game, we need three slides (one - with a task; the second - with the value of an incorrect answer and returning to the slide with the task; the third - with the value of the correct answer and moving to the next level) (Fig. 9).

On the slide with the task we place objects that we will link with a hyperlink to another slide (place in the document)
Select the object, go to the "Insert" tab, select the "Hyperlink" command (Fig. 10)

In the window that appears (Fig. 11), in the "Link to" field, select "Place in the document". In the "Select a place in the document" field, click "Slide Title", find the slide that you want to use as the target of the hyperlink (you can see it in the "View Slide" window). Click "OK".

If there is a need to remove a hyperlink, in the same window (Fig. 11) there is a button "Delete hyperlink", click "OK".
We connect each object on the slide with the task with a hyperlink to the slide that is necessary in meaning.
In order to return to the slide with the task or go to the next level of the game, you can create a text hyperlink, as in Fig. 9, or you can use the Control buttons. Select the menu Insert - Shapes - Control buttons (Fig. 12).

We draw below (the cursor became +) the selected figure. The Action Settings window opens. We perform the Action Settings (Fig. 13): By clicking on the mouse - Go to the hyperlink - Select the slide to go to in the window that opens (we recommend SLIDE) - a window will open where you can see the slide you are going to - OK.

We can drag the control button to any place on the slide, reduce or increase its size, use the Drawing Tools to change the color, fill, write text, etc.
We create the number of game levels we need in a similar way and we can start the game. Additionally, you can attach sound files.

RECORDING AND CUTTING AUDIO

You can record and edit an audio file in a professional studio with special programs, or you can use improvised tools - standard programs and utilities of the Windows operating system. In addition to this, we need ready-made files with different resolutions, a microphone for voice recording and some skills.

sound recording

You can record a small sound file using the Sound Recorder program, which is a Windows system program designed for recording, mixing, playing and editing sound recordings. In addition, the Sound Recorder program allows you to link sounds to another document or insert them into it. Sound source - microphone, CD-ROM drive or external device.
Open the program: Start Menu - All Programs - Accessories - Entertainment - Sound Recorder. To record audio, select the New command from the File menu. To start recording, click the Record button. To stop recording, click the Stop button. We get a file with WAV resolution, the sound duration is no more than 60 seconds.

To mount several sound files into one or paste one file into another, choose File - Open. Find the file you want to edit, move the slider to the location where you want to paste the other file. On the Edit menu, choose Insert File and double-click the file you want to open. The duration of the sound can be increased in this way.
The file can be played in reverse order, for this we enter the Effects menu - Invert and click the Play button, in the Effects menu, change the file - the Add echo command.
You can overwrite a music file using a karaoke player. The KAR or midi file is adjusted at the desired tempo and key, then turn on Playback of the entire file or its fragment on the player and at the same time Record in the Sound Recorder program. We get the output and save the file with WAV resolution.

Windows Movie Maker

Another option for recording and editing files (sound and video) using Windows programs movie maker.

Audio recorded with a microphone is saved as a Windows Media format audio file with a .wma extension. By default, the audio memo file is saved in the "Comment" folder located in the "My Videos" folder on your hard drive. The program allows you to add sound effects: the volume of the sound gradually increases to the final playback level or gradually decreases until the sound disappears completely.
To edit the sound, open the file through Record video - Import sound or music, a note will appear in the central field, which we drag to the timeline below.
On the right in the window, turn on Play, use the Split clip into parts button (Fig. 3) when listening. Unnecessary fragments remove Del on the keyboard, pull up the remaining fragments and end up with a potpourri, which we then save on the computer in the Windows Media Audio File format.

The same thing happens with a video file, only through Import Video.

Trim mp3 file online

Your attention is presented to the online cutting of music on the Internet. (http://mp3cut.foxcom.su/) . In the past, we have been looking for sophisticated audio file editing programs. With the free service of the site mp3cut.ru, cutting has become easier, faster and more convenient (Fig. 4).

Step 1. Click the "Download mp3" button, select the required file from your computer and wait for it to load. Once the file is editable, the track will turn pink and the play button will turn red.
Step 2.Now you can cut the mp3 file. Runners-scissors expose the desired segment of the composition.
Step 3. Click the "Crop" button, the download will start instantly.

Features of the on-line program for cutting music

The music cutter supports most audio formats: mp3, wav, wma, flac, ogg, aac, ac3, ra, gsm, al, ul, voc, vox, allowing you to use online service as a converter of audio files to mp3: wav to mp3, wma to mp3, ogg to mp3, flac to mp3, etc.
The presence of the function of amplifying / attenuating the sound at the beginning and at the end of the selected segment. Thanks to this option, you can create a ringtone yourself that will not scare you with a sudden start or suddenly end at the end.
Double the cut volume. The function allows you to increase the volume of cutting, which is often necessary, especially when creating a ringtone.
The duration of cutting has no limit. And the segment is selected exactly to the milliseconds. Using the keyboard (left / right arrows), you can set very precisely the beginning and end of the musical segment.
Possibility of multiple trimming of one audio file without additional download. those. it is possible to create several ringtones from one song, melody, musical composition.
File size is almost unlimited

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Altshuller, G.S. Creativity as an exact science: The theory of inventive problem solving / G.S. Altshuller. - M., 2008. - 84 p.
2. Gorbunova I.B. The Phenomenon of Music and Computer Technologies as a New Educational Creative Environment // Izvestiya RGPU im. A.I. Herzen. 2004. No. 4 (9). pp. 123–138.
3. Graphic editor Paint. PowerPoint Presentation Editor (+ CD) /under. ed. Zhitkova O.A. and Kudryavtseva E.K. - M.: Intellect-Center. 2003 - 80 p.
4. Ermolaeva-Tomina, L.B. The problem of development of children's creative abilities / L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina // Questions of psychology. - 2009. - No. 5. - P.166-175.
5. Krasilnikov I.M. Electronic musical creativity in the system of art education / I.M. Krasilnikov. - Dubna, 2009. - 496 p.
6. Plotnikov K.Yu. Methodical system of teaching informatics using music-computer technologies: monograph. SPb., 2013. 268 p.
7. Tarasova K.V. Musicality and its constituent musical abilities // Musical director. - 2009. - No. 5.
8. Teplov B.M. "Psychology musical ability"- M., 1978.
9. Ulyanich, V.S. Notes on computer music / V.S. Ulyanich // Musical life. - 2008. No. 15.
10. Creating presentations in Power Point - [Electronic resource]

It would seem that not so many years have passed since the time when the first computers, which occupied entire rooms and at the same time were absolutely not intended for writing music, turned into small personal computers, combining the capabilities of working not only with calculations, but also with graphics, video, sound and more. In the context of growth in all areas of activity, it seems absolutely logical to introduce a computer into the educational process, not only as such, but also as an aid to learning.

Let's take a brief digression into the history of the first attempts to combine soulless machines with art.

A long time ago, since the time of Pythagoras, and perhaps even earlier, mathematicians paid attention to the formal side of the organization of music - the time and frequency scales. However, the mechanisms that play music according to the program appeared before the calculator mechanisms, so we would venture to call the musicians the very first programmers. However, in the written heritage of ancient cultures, perhaps, musical notation as a description of a temporary process, closest to the texts of programs. There are blocks, conditions, loops and labels in both forms, but not all programmers and musicians are aware of these parallels. But if you remember them, you can no longer be surprised that, creating the very first computers, engineers forced them to play melodies. True, the musicians could not attribute machine music to real music, perhaps because there was nothing in it but "dead" sounds or a plan. And the machine sound itself, which at the first steps was a simple meander, was extremely far from the sound of acoustic instruments. However, numerous experiments with electronic machines capable of producing sound have led to the emergence of various ways of writing music, and hence to the emergence of various styles and directions. The new sound, unusual and unaccustomed to the ear, became an innovation in music. Many well-known modern composers, for example, K. Stockhausen, O. Messiaen, A. Schnittke, despite the complexity of working with technology, created works using new electronic instruments or only on them.

The next stage in the development of musical computer technologies was the research and development of sound synthesis methods.

Engineers turned to the analysis of the spectra of acoustic instruments and to algorithms for the synthesis of electronic timbres. At first, the calculation of sound vibrations was performed by the central processor, but, as a rule, not in real time. Therefore, on the first computers, the creation of a musical work was a very tedious process. It was necessary to encode notes and assign timbres, then run the program to calculate the sound wave and wait a few hours to listen to the result. If a musician, or rather, a programmer-operator, made some change to the score-program, he again had to wait several hours before listening. It is clear that such a musical practice could not be mass, but the researchers of the phenomenon of music wanted to go further than simply using the machine as an electronic music box. Thus, another - quite natural - direction in the musical use of computers arose: the generation, generation of the musical text itself.

Already in the 50s, using the very first computers, scientists made attempts to synthesize music: to compose a melody or arrange it with artificial timbres. This is how algorithmic music appeared, the principle of which was proposed back in 1206 by Guido Marzano, and later applied by W. Mozart to automate the composition of minuets - writing music according to the loss of random numbers.

Algorithmic compositions were created by P. Boulez, J. Xenakis, K. Shannon and others. The author of the famous "Illiac Suite" (1957) was, first of all, a computer, and the co-authors were the composer Leyaren Hiller and the programmer Leonard Isaacson. Three parts are close to strict music, and the fourth uses mathematical formulas that have nothing to do with musical styles. P. Boulez and J. Xenakis created special programs for their works, each for a specific composition. The first work by J. Xenakis, demonstrating the stochastic (or algorithmic) method of musical composition, was "Metastasis" (1954) - a work in which J. Xenakis calculated the algorithm, which he then applied to implement Corbusier's architectural project in the form of the Philips Pavilion at the World's Fair in 1958.

The history of the development of musical computer technologies is largely associated with Russian scientists and researchers. L. Theremin, E. Murzin, A. Volodin created unique means of sound synthesis not “after”, but “before” their Western colleagues. A. Tangyan worked on the problems of recognition and autonotation. R. Zaripov, who “composed” musical pieces on the Ural machine, devoted his research to the analysis and generation of musical texts, the creation of algorithmic compositions. The basis of such algorithms was a detailed process for various elements musical texture(shape, rhythm, pitch, etc.). Zaripov deduced a whole set of mathematical rules for composing such melodies. "Ural tunes", as he called these melodies, were monophonic and were either a waltz or a march.

Moreover, these are only the names of those researchers whose work is recognized outside of Russia. However, there were many other, local developments. Not the only one, but one of the notable ones is the first domestic sound card and MIDI interface for the Agat-7 PC (analogous to Apple II) with its own music software. All this was back in the mid-80s. XX century, when IBM-XT was still far from all technical universities, and the average user had no idea about the Sound Blaster trademarks (Creative Labs, http://www.creat.com) and Voyetra (Voyetra Technologies, http://www.voyetra.com).

As in other areas (for example, in graphics and animation), two fundamentally different approaches were developed in music computer technology. The first is connected with the control of the parametric model of sound, part, work, the second - with the operation of an analogue of a real object. Both approaches have both advantages and disadvantages and are constantly evolving. While some engineers were trying to achieve maximum plausibility in the synthesis of acoustic timbres, others were developing methods for operating with real sound. If the former solved the problems of optimizing the parameters of synthesis and performance control, then the latter worked on data compression and decompression, i.e., on the problems of sound waves. But parametric models of objects are always more attractive for an engineer, they are much better suited for operation and transformation. The whole question is how accurately the models describe the real object, if the goal is to achieve plausibility. From research in the field of psychology of perception, it is known that thresholds of reliability and mechanisms for restoring images play a special role in the process of pattern recognition. A non-professional will no longer be able to distinguish the synthesized timbre of the piano from the real one, precisely because it does not have a high threshold of reliability. And it is quite possible that the future of musical computer technologies lies with parametric modeling.

A huge number of programs / environments that exist today are based on three basic methods: stochastic, some fixed algorithm and systems with artificial intelligence.

The stochastic method is based on the generation of arbitrary series of sounds or musical passages and can be presented both with and without a computer, as, for example, in the work of Stockhausen.

The algorithmic method itself is a set of certain algorithms that implement the composer's intention. The algorithm can be presented as a compositional technique or as a sound-generating model. It is also possible to combine these two functions. A unique sound programming system is the CSound program, which is the main instrument of electroacoustic musicians. The program uses almost any type of synthesis, including FM, AM, subtractive and additive, physical modeling, resynthesis, granular, as well as any other digital method. Many other systems have been created based on CSound (AC Toolbox, CYBIL, Silence, etc.). For a musician, creating compositions in such an environment is somewhat difficult, as it requires skills and knowledge of programming (although the developers claim otherwise). The composer writes commands to two text files, one of which is responsible for the description of the timbre/instrument itself, the second should contain the actual score. There are countless operators in the program, those building blocks that make up the sound space we program.

No less popular environment for programming virtual instruments and creating algorithms for interactive performance is the MAX / MSP program developed by the Paris Institute of Electronic Music (IRCAM). It is implemented as a software application with an object-oriented user interface. The possibilities of such an environment include, first of all, the creation of interactive music (during a performance, a pre-written software module interacts with the music being played via a MIDI interface). It is a pleasure to work in such an environment, as it gives complete freedom of action, both to the composer and the performer. This program is widely used during live concerts - the sound of the same piece at different concerts will be different, only the algorithm of interaction between the computer and the performer remains unchanged. The program is used by many major composers such as Richard Boulanger and Dror Feiler.

Finally, it is possible to use systems that use artificial intelligence. These are also rule-based systems, but their main feature is the ability to learn. The goal is to create compositions that have feeling, subtlety and intellectual appeal. The algorithm created as a result can be either an autonomous, but artificially created, musical system, or based on the analysis of the work of a composer. Analyzing this or that composition, a certain set of compositional rules, instructions for thematic development, timbre, texture is derived. And here a paradoxical case arises, on the one hand, we have a machine capable of producing a product that is more or less close to the human standard, but, on the other hand, bearing the stamp of the composer's technique. The same can be said about the composers who created their own algorithmic programs. In such compositions, the functions of the composer and the actual “composing process” of the program are clearly separated.

Today, the machine is not yet capable of surpassing human intelligence and turning its product into art. This or that system is not capable of independently generating thoughts, feelings. With any degree of perfection, she will never become not only a "brilliant", but also a "talented" composer. Even an ideal machine will not be able to acquire that elusive thing that will always distinguish between animate and inanimate nature (albeit brought to an ideal degree of perfection). However, it became a good help in the hands of the master, the composer, saving him from wasting a huge amount of time on technological calculations and constructions, which become more and more complicated as the sphere of expressive means of music expands.

Thus, today for musicians, the computer opens up wide opportunities for creative search. In such a specific activity as the art of music, the computer is not only an excellent assistant, but, in some cases, an adviser and teacher. It is possible to enumerate only some of the possibilities of the musical computer: recording, editing and printing of scores; recording, editing and further performance of scores using computer sound cards or external synthesizers connected via MIDI interface; digitization of sounds, noises of a different nature, and their further processing and transformation using sequencer programs; harmonization and arrangement of the finished melody using selected musical styles and the possibility of editing them up to the invention of your own (styles); composing melodies on a random basis by sequential selection of musical sounds; control the sound of electronic instruments by entering certain parameters before the start of the performance; recording parts of acoustic instruments and voice accompaniment in digital format with their subsequent storage and processing in sound editor programs; software synthesis of new sounds using mathematical algorithms; recording audio CDs.

All these diverse capabilities of the computer make it possible to use it both in the field of music education and in the field of professional creativity of composers, sound engineers, and arrangers.

I decided to publish my abstract of the course of lectures given by Andrey Smirnov at the Theremin Center at the Conservatory under the general theme "Music and Technology". The twentieth century is considered both from the point of view of the history of art and from the point of view of technical progress. All classes are divided according to the same principle - aesthetic concepts and physical and technical basic information. In addition, of course, musical examples and the practice of handling electronic instruments and related software. The program is very extensive and is designed for one year of weekly classes. I have presented only the main points in a very concise, almost thesis form, since each topic contains a huge amount of material that I cannot systematize. I hope that a significant part of it will soon appear on the Theremin Center server. In the meantime, I propose to get acquainted with what I myself most remember.

PSYCHOACOUSTICS

I’ll make a reservation right away - this topic has nothing to do with experiments with ultra / infrasound, pressure on the subconscious and other extreme experiments - it’s just about the physical structure of the hearing aid and the principles of its interaction with the human higher nervous system. I won't in the most detailed way dwell on the structure of all three sections of the ear, although this is very interesting. Especially the processes in the cochlea - it turns out that on the surface of the membrane located inside it, the sound is located in the form of a standing wave, due to which there is auditory inertia. Remember - if you listen to music loudly, it seems that the volume decreases over time. If you turn off loud music, pause and then turn it on again, it hits your ears more in the first seconds than before it was turned off. It turns out that the outer ear canal is a resonator tuned to a specific frequency - somewhere in the region of 2.5-3.5 kHz. Therefore, at medium frequencies there are sounds that itch - enter into resonance. Another resonant frequency is at 10 kHz. The sensitivity of the ear has a frequency, of course, a logarithmic characteristic. Loudness too. They took characteristics, selecting from 1000 18-year-old boys three with the best rumors. Therefore, to make the volume control in the amplifier smooth, you need to change it exponentially. I did not know that! With a simple sine waveform generator like the one at SoundForge, you can test your hearing. The task is this: to determine how many periods of the signal the hearing is able to recognize the pitch? Theorists say that somewhere in 5-7 periods. But it turns out that 3 periods are enough for some. I "guessed the tune" from 5 periods. By the way, all studies have confirmed - in physiological terms, all people have equal opportunities for hearing aids. Which of them has the best ear for music is decided at the level of the analytical abilities of the brain.

SPATIAL SOUND

The localization of sound sources is a very interesting feature of human hearing, which gives a person much more in terms of orientation in space than, say, vision. The structure of the auricle plays a huge role in this - despite the fact that it is different for all people, it is it that provides a fairly high accuracy in determining the location of sources. In the horizontal plane, we are best able to fix the source - the error is only 2 degrees in the front, 7-8 in the rear. And on the sides is the so-called cone of uncertainty (spherical sector with a solid angle of 30 degrees), in which the error increases to 10-12 degrees. In the vertical plane, the error is on average higher - 15-17 degrees. Of course, these characteristics indicate that hearing works in close interaction with other senses, and is also subject to stereotypes (for example, a false relationship between the pitch of a sound and the location of its source). The dependence of localization on the frequency of sound is also interesting. Knowing the linear dimensions of the head (20 by 25 cm on average) and the speed of sound (340 m / s), we can calculate that at a frequency of 2.5 kHz, the sound will reach one ear a period later than the other. And at a frequency of 1.2 kHz, the delay will be half a period. Accordingly, all sounds with a frequency of less than 1.2 kHz will be localized by phase shift within a half-cycle. For frequencies from 1.2 to 2.5 kHz, the phase shift does not work, because the brain does not understand - whether they are ahead of the phase of this period, or behind the previous one. But on the other hand, for them (as for other high frequencies), frequency localization operates - for them, the head is an obstacle (the so-called acoustic shadow), that is, a diffraction phenomenon occurs, as a result of which we hear both the direct and the reflected wave and, comparing their intensity, we determine the location of the source. And low frequencies, the wavelength of which is greater than the distance between the ears (i.e., less than 150 Hz), are not localized at all (therefore, the low-frequency emitter, the so-called subwoofer, is only one and is located anywhere). The well-known Dolby Surround system is built taking into account these patterns - two radiators at the front, high-frequency ones in the rear, plus a subwoofer. A relatively new I-Max system is used in some cinemas, in which a ring with speakers attached to it is put on the head of the viewer at a certain fixed distance from the ears, which does not give him the opportunity to change the sound panorama by rotating his head while the film is shown at ultra-wide (almost semicircular) screen. The Theremin Center has a mac with an octophonic sound card and an 8-channel DAT, but the speakers have not yet been assembled, so octo- and quadraphonic examples have to be listened to under normal conditions.

ANALOG SYNTHESIS AND SPECTRA

The history of analog synthesizers dates back to the advent of electrical devices. In the beginning, there were mechanical instruments, in particular, the pianola, which was very popular with the futurists (a mechanical piano, a prototype of a sequencer - the data was recorded on a wide punched tape, which was also shown to us). Unforgettable works of the futurists - Russolo's "Serenata" and "Choral", as well as a large set of his "intonarumori" - noise membrane instruments separately - are classics of electro-acoustic music. The first officially recognized electronic instrument, the theremin by Lev Theremin, stands apart, the only one that combines electronic sound and live game. Bizarre instruments with even more bizarre names appeared one after the other. For example, mel lotron (a keyboard instrument, each key of which corresponded to a looped film with a recording of some beautiful sound - a choir or a violin tutti). The presence of a motor with a gearbox made it possible to change the speed of the tape drive, which achieved an effect similar to the principle of the sampler (by the way, our people offered a similar technology even before the acquisition of the tape recorder in 1935 - on film. As always, this was ignored, and therefore the patent received by the Americans). Interest in speech synthesizers, the voder and vocoder, dates back to the same time. The first vocoder model, assembled by Bowd in 1935, consisted of a keyboard with which vowels were extracted with the left hand (low frequency spectrum), and hissing consonants (high frequency) with the right hand. For articulating voiced consonants type v, w, h there was a pedal that controlled the "mixer" of the tone and noise generator. Voiceless consonants type p, k, t were expressed by pauses, controlled by a ring on the index finger. It turns out that human speech (NOT voice!) lends itself very easily to synthesis. Max Matthews, using his MUSIC II (1957) program, recorded a song with synthesized vocals, which was then bought by MGM for some movie where it was sung by a robot. Also, a completely elementary, textbook example of computer synthesis is the sound of bird singing. Trutonium is the first polyphonic instrument invented in the USA in 1928. In addition to the keyboard, Trutonium also had a neck, which made it possible to make glissando in a large range. There were also many timbres that, with the advent of the transistor in 1937, later models (the latter date back to the 70s) were already created using analog synthesis. By the way, Robert Moog was not at all the inventor of the analog synthesizer, as some mistakenly believe - he was Donald Buckla. Moog was simply the first to commercialize them and offer them as rock/pop instruments.

Analog synthesis, as you know, is divided into two large areas. The first type of analog synthesis is additive, that is, consisting in the successive superposition of the simplest sinusoids, or harmonics in the spectral band, on top of each other. A very difficult, tedious method that, in addition to great patience, also requires a lot of time and resources. Jean-Claude Risset's work "Suite for a little boy" (I can't vouch for the first word in the title, but little boy is the name of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki) was recorded for about a year due to the low speed of computer calculations that were used for modeling sound by additive synthesis. A very funny three-piece piece, a bit reminiscent of the Hafler Trio with rhythmic inserts a la Kraftwerk. It is precisely with spectra that most acoustic phenomena are associated, in particular, the fact that when two sinusoids with frequencies that have the least common multiple are added, non-existent sounds arise that are audible at points in space that are separated from each other by the value corresponding to it. The effect of an infinite increase in tone with the periodic repetition of glis sando is also interesting (as an example, there was a completely inhumane piece by James Tenney, using the first computer program for sound synthesis, created by Max Matthews in the late 50s). By the way, I was surprised to learn that the first synthesizer is essentially an organ - it uses additive synthesis to generate the sound of different timbres. The second synthesis method is subtractive. As the name implies, it is inherently opposite to additive and consists in the fact that everything superfluous is simply cut out (filtered) from broadband white noise so that the desired spectrum can be obtained immediately. By the way, an important note - it turns out that the timbre of the sound is determined not at all by the shape of the wave, as it seemed to me before, but by the shape of the spectrum. Therefore, subtractive synthesis immediately gained leadership in the first models of analog synthesizers and held it until John Chowning invented frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis), which is based on changing the frequency of an audible signal resulting from simultaneous sounding two or more signal generators of different frequencies arranged in a certain way.

DIGITAL SYNTHESIS

The beginning of the era of digital synthesis is traditionally considered the beginning of the 80s. What was it about? Three reasons why analog technology was inconvenient: firstly, loudness and unconstructiveness (the Moog synthesizer was the size of a cabinet and had several oscillators and filters. If it was necessary to carry out further processing of the received sound, it was necessary to buy another expensive module ). The second is inconvenience in handling. Each sound was portrayed as a huge system of connections between sockets, which took a lot of time and nerves to assemble. And the third is the instability of electrical equipment, mainly temperature. Because of it, the sounds turned into something very far from the original. The solution proposed by the developers - heating the entire system to 50-80 degrees, led to rapid wear of parts, but was taken into service as the only possible one. The first digital synthesizer was designed by two American technicians(programmer and engineer - I don't remember the names) and composer John Appleton. It was called the Synclavier and was put into circulation in 1981. John Appleton, by the way, is a rather mysterious person. No one took him as a serious electro-acoustic composer, because. his music always teetered on the verge of atonal, noisy and evocatively touching, melodic composition. But this did not prevent him from being a member of the jury of the most influential electro-acoustic music competition in Bourges (as a pioneer in the implementation of digital synthesis systems). We have a similar case, of course - Eduard Artemyev. In a short time, the Synclavier had a competitor - Fairlight. Both instruments were essentially digital samplers (Synclavier 100%, Fairlight 50%). In the same way that Moog's name was bought from him (Moog could not release his developments under it), Hollywood bought the Synclavier and the company that produced it (all soundtracks for American films with an orchestra in the credits were actually made on the Synclavier). Due to their small size and convenient operation, they were a great success and continue to be produced to this day (already more like a relic, of course). In computer synthesis, the Macintosh has always held the lead, which was specially designed to work with sound and graphics, unlike the PC. Later, its extension was patented - the STEP system, which, despite the bankruptcy of the project in 1993, is still used in the IRCAM and CCRMA computer centers. The Atari 1040 offered little competition to the Macs in price, but the software market for that system was near zero. The same was true of the Amiga, although the Amiga is still in development and there are fans of this computer. As an illustration of the first experiences in synclavier music, we listened to a couple of Appleton's songs (I really liked "Brush Cany on", although the frankly sentimental mood made it difficult to focus on the timbre of the sound). And a couple of things - duets of live instruments and their synclavier copies. Everyone tried to determine by ear how many instruments were playing at the same time.

ALGORITHMIC MUSIC

Starting a conversation about algorithmic music, it should be noted that this idea is as old as the world - already in 1206, Guido Marzano proposed to oppose a certain pitch to each vowel and thus make music. Mozart had the idea to use dice to automate the writing of minuets: each combination of bones corresponded to a number in the list of typical minuet measures, which the composer counted about 10 thousand! Minuet 50 bars long - 50 dice rolls. The same was later proposed to be done with waltzes. The first serious attempts to deal with algorithmic music, of course, date back to the time of the emergence of computers, the power of which was sufficient to process the simplest algorithms. At the University of Illinois, such a computer appeared in 1953, it had an incredibly large amount of memory and - 1 kilobyte (memory cabinets occupied an entire room). At the same time, one must understand that the computer did not produce anything resembling music - they were just columns of numbers that the composer had to convert into a score and only after that transfer it to the musician. Of course, this approach was primarily interested in composers who used serial techniques, so serial and algorithmic music went hand in hand for some time. Series could be formed from pitches, timbres, durations, etc. What could be easier than writing a program that produces non-repeating notes (repetitions are prohibited in a series, as well as interval consonances - thirds, fifths). Several composers are considered to be the founders of algorithmic music, the most famous of which are, of course, Pierre Boulez and Janis Xenakis. Many of them wrote their own programs, but only for a specific composition, and used them as well as instruments. Only Xenakis stands apart, whose SMP (stochastic music program) was used by other musicians. At a concert in Moscow, they said, Xenakis waved his Talmud with formulas as a sign of greeting, with which he never parted, fearing that someone would take possession of it and create something more significant than himself ... In algorithmic music as a starting point, fluctuation of a certain value in a certain range according to a random law is often used. Now, when serial technology is no longer in vogue, algorithms are used, for example, for granular synthesis. That is, the same sounds of microscopic duration, following each other with a high frequency (called granules), are able to form a new timbre. The number of granules is from 100 to 2500 per second. As an example, we can recommend Barry Truax's compositions "Wave Edge" and "River Run", the concept of which is a look at the surrounding world through the eyes of a grain of sand on the river bottom. They were recorded in 1986 and are close in structure to the industrial music of the third wave - Cranioclast, Illusion Of Safety, etc. Paul Lansky (one of the pioneers of algorithmic music, has recently been writing some kind of alternative pop music) implemented an algorithm for transforming English and Chinese speech. That is, the program generated sound, controlled by voice intonation and speech articulation.

There is an interesting film at the Theremin Center on the topic of algorithmic music, more precisely on that part of its evolution, which is called fractal synthesis. It is somehow customary in our country to believe that the visual is realistic, and the musical is abstract, so the fractal algorithms in music, which until recently many were very fond of, are not clearly traced in the sound itself. Well, God bless him computer graphics also an entertaining sight. The inventors of fractal geometry are Benoit Mandelbrot (not to be confused with the German group of the same name from the environment of Ars Moriendi!) and Lorenz, who proposed two different ways to explain the nature of fractals. Just in case, I will explain that a fractal (from "fraction" - part) is a recursive structure, each part of which contains information about general form. Mandelbrot proposed to consider any natural formation (clouds, mountains, plants) that cannot be described in the classical theory of geometry within the framework of fractal geometry. In an interview, he took a head of cauliflower, broke off a piece from it and said that it looked like a head of cabbage, a reduced form of e. Then he did the same with a fragment, and so on. The mountain surface, no matter how we zoom in, will always have a similar uneven surface with peaks and valleys. The classic example of this is the attempt to measure the length of the UK's coastline. With a decrease in the length of the standard used for measurement, it turns out that the length is constantly growing, forming a non-convergent series! Lorentz, a famous mathematician, proposed to consider an ordinary pendulum as a physical model of a fractal, but not in an ordinary gravitational field, but in the field of three magnets equally spaced from its attachment point. It turned out that at first glance, the random deceleration of the pendulum near one of the magnets actually depends on the initial position of the pendulum. When with the help of a computer it was possible to experimentally find this dependence, it turned out that the field (two-dimensional function) painted with three colors corresponding to magnets is a fractal of stunning beauty! Why fractal synthesis has recently been forgotten, I do not understand. Apparently, like everything else, it needs to be rediscovered by the composers of the future!

CONCEPTUALISTS

Each of these composers is unique in itself, not only as a creative person, but also as the inventor of his own direction of research in music, so firmly connected with his life experience and worldview that it seems completely meaningless to consider him outside the biography of a particular person.

Alwyn Lucier - American composer With French surname, one of the most prominent innovators in electro-acoustic music, who worked closely with Martin Tetro and other composers involved in the avant-garde jazz field. Many of his works have been reissued on CD by Les Ambiances Magnetiques and Lovely Music. The most interesting in its concept and implementation is, of course, a thing called "I" m sitting in the room ", consisting of multiple re-recordings of one single phrase. A microphone was installed in one room, and a tape recorder in the other. First, Lucier recorded his voice , then a played recording instead, and so on, about 40 times.The phrase was something like this: "I am sitting in a room different from the one where you are now, and recording the sounds of my speech. Then I play them back and record them again, and I will do this until the resonant frequencies of the room itself completely destroy the sound of my voice. I'm not doing this to illustrate a well-known physical fact, I'm just there to listen to these very resonant frequencies." And indeed, the sound was distorted and transformed until it became like a smoothly vibrating, muffled, but sharp a hum articulated by the rhythm of the voice, almost like an Arcane Device in the end!

John Cousins Composer from New Zealand. In general, it should be noted that this part of the world, least of all mastered by civilization, is nevertheless very rich in talented electro-acoustic composers, about whom very little is known in Russia, and even in Europe. Australia and New Zealand build relations between themselves in much the same way as Russia and Ukraine, that is, they compete in everything! John Cousins ​​is not a programmer, not an engineer, and taught music for a long time at a regular conservatory at the University of Wellington. But in the last 15 years, he has completely abandoned traditional methods and prefers not to teach composition to students, but to try to discern, fix, preserve and develop the individual perception of music in each of them. The first two years students (who come straight out of high school, not college) are on their own, during which time it becomes clear who is worth what and how he should be treated in the future. Cousins' personal experience in music is very peculiar - he comes not from theory, skills and trends, but from his own feelings from communication with nature. For example, he comes to an uninhabited ocean coast and lives there for two months, never parting with a tape recorder. Even walking after one's own shadow can bring unusual sensations - for example, the individualization of a stone that comes across in the shadow's path, that is, placing it in an unnatural vertical position. In general, the very principle of the virginity of nature, which changes the landscape beyond recognition with each new ebb / flow, brings us closer to the realization of our belonging / purpose. John dragged the stones from the place where the ocean carried them to another and listened - how the world reacted to his intrusion. Of course, such experiments require full concentration on your inner world. The culmination of Cousins' experiments was the construction of the so-called. eolian harps, that is, structures with a fixed string and a resonator. Being set on the ocean shore, the aeolian harp begins to sound under the influence of the wind - an amazing singing sound. Cousins ​​built about 50 of these harps, in which the pitch (string tension) was regulated by weights. And in the largest harp, besides polyphonic (15 meters high), he hung himself as a load! A truly mystical picture - a clear sky, a bright sun, deserted coast, an ensemble of aeolian harps and a bound man, swaying in the wind to the endless singing of the wind!

Paul Dolden- living in Canada, but not having citizenship, the composer, at one time was the favorite of international competitions in Bourges. In particular, his composition "Under The Walls Of Jericho" won first place in 1990. Apparently the loudest in electroacoustics, this thing is nevertheless difficult to relate to it, since the only kind of sound manipulation is transposing the sound of wind instruments, of which there are about 300 - collected from all over the world, they sound simultaneously on 330 channels (the remaining 30 are given to percussion) with a temperament of 48 steps per octave. Almost acoustic music, but with an incredibly strong impact. Forcing, tension, anguish in every moment!

THE ROLE OF RUSSIA IN THE HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC

In 1995, a film was made about the first Russian people experimenting with electronic sound, collected from archival recordings. I have already read about one of them, Arseniy Avramov. But most of all I was struck by the fact that it turns out that the birthplace of the sampler is also Russia! It turns out that a certain Yankovsky in the early 30s (even before the advent of magnetic recording in 35) successfully applied the graphical representation of sound (in particular, orchestral music) for decomposition into harmonics using the Fourier transform, and then synthesized it at any sound frequencies . And Avramov personally addressed Lunacharsky with a proposal to destroy or remake all keyboard instruments using equal temperament, since, in his opinion, they distorted the proper idea of ​​​​the perception of music. For example, Chopin should have been performed in a completely different way, not in the way that his notes suggested - it was simply not technically feasible in his time. Of course, he was refused, but he did not refuse his experiments. I grabbed ideas and tools in an armful and went to Switzerland for an international music Festival where got the first place! The rapid development of musical ideas in Soviet Russia took place on the wave of enthusiasm for constructivism and even had some support from the state. In particular, the HYMN (State Institute of Musical Science) was created, with which the names of many Russian researchers of electronic sound are associated. In the middle of the twentieth century, many developments appeared, but for obvious historical reasons they were not given a move, so most of them remained on paper. The closest to recognition were Volodin's ekvodins (a two-voice analog synthesizer that appeared in the late 30s). Volodin was not a musician and used the advice of acquaintances when creating his instruments. In general, he pursued a completely different goal than the creation of music, namely analysis through synthesis. That is, while doing psychoacoustics, he needed the source material for experiments - various sounds, on which one could study the features of human perception. Volodin worked in a mailbox (I think it was called TsNIIARTI - automation for the defense industry). It turns out that all the inventions in electronic music, the percentage of which is very high compared to other countries, appeared in Russia as a by-product of military research. And, as a result, - none of the inventions could wait to be used for its intended purpose - the creators simply did not have enough health to bring it to this stage (the only exception was the ANS - many composers studied and recorded works on it, a studio was created electronic music at the Scriabin Museum - they promise to take us there). So - our suffering with you with the magazine, it turns out, is not just bad luck or injustice, but an echo of the good old tradition. Volodin died right in the laboratory in 1982. His 9th Aquodyne almost went into production - it was almost a success! The legendary ANS synthesizer, which was built by Evgeny Murzin in the late 50s and named after Scriabin's initials, as well as the electronic music studio in the Scriabin Museum, has always enjoyed great attention from composers of different generations. Existing in a single copy, this unique device was specially assembled for an international exhibition in Italy (the required amount of money was allocated for this), and after the triumph of the authorities they simply forgot about it. In 1982, the record company Melodiya, as the largest of the co-founders of the studio, laid claim to ANS and placed it in a damp basement for several years, as a result of which it fell into a deplorable state. At present, it has been partially restored (some timbres have perished irretrievably) and is located at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. In the ANS, discs were used as timbres (very similar to CDs) with concentric tracks filled with risks (something around 140 circles, one disc per two octaves, i.e. with a temperament of 1/12 tone !!) The scores were drawn on glass covered with black mastic, arbitrarily in the frequency-time coordinate system. Robert Moog, who visited the Theremin Center, was very inspired by the ANS and looked at it for a long time. All the famous avant-garde artists of that time tried to work at ANS - Schnittke, Denisov, Gubaidulina... We listened to Schnittke's play "Flow" - a very interesting, deep ambient-noise music that somehow reminded me of Maeror Tri. By the way, after recording a single thing for the ANS, many refused electronics. Schnittke, in particular, motivated this by the fact that in acoustic instruments the interval is a path, and in electronic instruments it is a distance. However, Schnittke subsequently, as is known, wrote a lot of electronic music for films, but never took it seriously.

MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

Of course, one can argue for a long time that with excessive enthusiasm for the theory of sound synthesis, the line between art and science is lost. Opponents of the scientific approach explain their position by disagreeing with the imitation of a creative approach with the help of unprecedented, and therefore at first incomprehensible scientific methods. Of course, only a select few manage to classify their activities as art, all the rest are laboratory assistants. This position largely reflects the problem of the confrontation in my soul between two entities: as a listener, the most important thing for me is a creative impulse that can develop aesthetic perception and make me experience excitement, feelings, ecstasy, etc. But as a music journalist, I need to know the history, conceptology and theory of electronic technology as applied to music in order to at least avoid amateurism and shameful mistakes in publications. And in the first, and in the second case, you have to go to donations. For the listener, musical cuisine - no matter what it consists of, from musical notation and exhausting rehearsals, or from physical formulas, sinusoids and plexus of wires - this is a descent from heaven to earth, a demystification of the secret of creating a masterpiece. At the same time, not every journalist can force himself to listen to the same phrase for 45 minutes or listen to a monotonous buzz for 12 minutes.

The rapprochement of science and art only at a superficial glance seems like a loophole for mediocrity. It was the brilliant intuition of the scientist-physicist that allowed Jean-Claude Risset to get a wonderful and complex timbre, which he called "electronic cirrus clouds". If he were just a composer, it would take him years of blind search and empty calculations. Despite the fact that we may be amazed by the work created through incredible efforts in the 50s, we still make allowances for working conditions. But every year the quality requirements increase. I mean not only the sound quality, but also the quality of everything else. For a mediocre musician, it becomes more and more difficult to do something worthy with a "minimum of funds". The higher the level of technology development, the easier it becomes to discern mediocrity. And the more it becomes - perhaps the solution to this paradox is yet to be solved.

Another one flip side complication of technology is an increase in the degree of abstraction of electronic music, which complicates and branches out the processes of perception. Those who are primarily interested in knowing what the musician thought during his work, what guided him, what inspired him, it should be noted that the composer and the listener cannot always be considered as two equal and compatible links of a single communication network. If we analyze the act of their interaction from the point of view of formal psychology (that is, just do not forget that these are people first of all, and then everything else), then it turns out that the complexity we are talking about is primarily due to the discrepancy between their personal experience. That is, if the experience of a musician absorbs some part of your personal experience, then you tend to trust him. If it's the other way around, then maybe you're better off not knowing his motives. After all, in addition to the human factor, in creative process important is the role of the unconscious, some higher power (which, in my opinion, is also amenable to study, but much more difficult). Perhaps this is a very primitive explanation, but it has been verified by me personally many times and gives grounds to draw several conclusions about the mechanisms of perception and the predictability of the reaction. First, mystification in music is very important. Nothing is more capable of spurring the listener's interest than a thick veil of secrecy. And this is quite natural - everything plays into the success of musicians here: natural curiosity, and the need for unusual sensations, and a lot of rumors around all this, etc. It happened to me a hundred times that I wanted to hear some album for so long and devoted so much time and effort to searching for it and guessing that when it finally gets to me, I already like it in advance. And disappointment, even if it is inevitable, is still nothing compared to the joy of a dream come true. And the opposite example - how many albums exist that were recorded with unprecedented dedication and impressed by great ideas and works, contained several years of work, demanded recognition from the author in a very serious attitude to work, but .... no response in the heart of the listener did not get. Secondly, what is the meaning of creativity? I think that a creative act can be considered accomplished if it is able to awaken in the soul of the people to whom it is addressed a stimulus to their own creativity. It doesn't matter what kind - music, visual art, finally, just reflection and communication - in a word, the desire to live and improve. Note that at the same time, no specific requirements are imposed either on the subject of creativity or on the areas to which it is related. All of the above was said by me solely from the standpoint of the listener. Journalism is a completely different matter. Music journalism is seen by many (and, unfortunately, often deservedly so) as a means of propaganda. I try very hard in my journalistic field to give the leading role to my listener's intuition, and therefore my materials are structured in such a way as to make a person think about applied areas of creativity, using music as a key element. Learn the structure of the world with your own ears.

Dmitry Vasiliev