IDEAMA / ZKM Karlsruhe (International Electroacoustic Music Digital Archive)
Sound examples from the 1932 Radio and Television Exhibition in Berlin / Electric Instruments:
Text to sound1 (enthusiastically spoken by professor Gustav Leithäuser {Heinrich-Hertz-Institut TH Berlin}):
The sounding board is a very complicated part. Several difficulties such as wood preparation and similar things must be overcome for its construction. On the other hand we control the technology of electric amplifiers much better, and therefore it is much easier to produce beautiful sounds and very loud sounds or any desired loud sounds with an electric amplifier. Before going into more details and talking about the second group of purely electric instruments, I would like to introduce an instrument to you: the electric Neo-Bechstein grand piano, which was developed collaboratively between Bechstein, Siemens and Nernst. Mr. Narand will be so kind and play for you a piece on the Bechstein grand piano that stands there in the corner. ….
Text to sound2 (same event):
Well, now we can leave this kind of music and come back to the instruments with which we started out, a grand piano, violin and cello. Now we will listen to a very good trio. The cello, which you can see there, does not have a sounding board. If we turn it around, you see: it is a simple board on which the strings are stretched. Miss Wolski? will now play the violin, Miss…? the piano and Mister Dr. Reinhold will play the cello. Before they start, however, we want to show you that we can really manage a great deal with a pickup transducer. If we place a magnetic object, for example a bit of iron, between a string and the pickup - now we do this, do you hear a peculiar (?) creaking noise in the loudspeakers caused by change of magnetic flow. If we play the cello while the amplifier is switched on, you will be able to hear the sound well. Please do that! --- Now we switch off the amplifier{crack noise}and you immediately hear that the sound appears thin and insignificant.-…
Text to sound3 (ditto):
After this beautiful performance we want to make another test. Using the violin and the piano, we now want to show you how the sound interplay works. First we will switch off the piano, then the violin and later on both, so that the amplifier does not receive sound anymore. Then you will definitely be able to notice how extraordinarily varying these sounds are, that means, how much is allowed by the amplifier. Please start now: {Duo plays}; switch off the piano; switch on; violin off; please switch on again; switch off both; switch them on again ...
With this example I wanted to make clear that all aspects concerning value and importance are time-related and time-dependent, changing over time (during decades, months, years, from day to day and probably from one moment to another); we now think quite differently about the supposedly "miraculous technology" of amplifiers and the high expectations put on them!! Thus we have today new "wonders" that marvel us and soon after will not marvel anybody!
Alongside the time dependence of value assessment, these aspects are also dependent on place!
Interview with 100 year old Eliott Carter, published in the newspaper Tagesspiegel on 20th. April 2009 (German): whole article; excerpt
Eliott Carter describes time-dependent "spaces" of memory and thus spaces in which "everything is always in motion"…
IDEAMA :
ZKM Karlsruhe (International Electroacoustic Music Digital Archive)
The Werkauslese (work selection), also known as the Title List of the IDEAMA basic collection, is somehow the product of an assessment performed by a jury! Nevertheless it seems to be certain that for this EM-assessment no catalogue of criteria was formulated, although the assessment is still announced until now.
How were then markings for thousands of EM works that existed at that time (1992) given?
(according to my databank "emdoku" :
<1992 results 18820 works;
<1973 results 6336 works;
<1972 in Germany solve 807 works
<1972 Sonology solve 196 works
According to the protocol, it was sufficient to rely upon "the European selection committee’s reputation and to trust their objective expertise "!! Who were those, to whom in 1992 such expertise was awarded?? look to the names at the IDEAMA-Homepage.
I am sure that with a TU representative (who had probably been me) added to the already represented lobbies, would have come a person who surely had tried to score points for the TU; probably like all of the other lobbyists!
Ergo: like this, it simply does not work!!! The whole procedure must be a different one!
In connection to our main topic "Works-Values" I am claiming:
EM starts to exist in society only when it has appeared in some form in the media; in a figuratively sense: that, what is not talked or written about, does not exist.
If EM does not break through the media and publication barrier, it will not only be ignored and forgotten but also in danger of being discarded (what by all means must be prevented).
And that is why we create archives!
And thus we spend time taking care of the catalogues, being responsible for the archive’s systematic organization and preserving the archivists' building structure!
The selection process for the inclusion of works in the archive is not carried out by a jury and not even by someone to whom only "reputation" is attributed, but on the contrary by a professional archivist! The archivist does, in fact, everything! He or she is glad when a generous budged allows purchasing.
The archive ensures that works reported as missing are recovered.
The general misunderstanding of the IDEAMA (the last A letter stands for archive!) stems from the jury’s archiving criteria. And the reason why I greatly engage with this subject is because such misconception about archiving and mediatheque should not happen again!
I am very glad to notice that nowadays there is a worldwide tendency to archive more carefully old treasures along with their playback machines/computers as well as the tendency to employ the appropriate professional staff for that!!
In 2008 the small Berlin publishing house "Edition Robert Zank",edited a 3-Longplay-Box (Schuber) containing 6 radiophonic works by the audio artist Ferdinand Kriwet.
Ferdinand Kriwet (*1942) started his radiophonic work in 1961 with the spoken text Offen. Then followed the Sehtexte, a series of works that moved away from the traditional book medium and were shown in exhibitions and displayed on billboards. In parallel, Kriwet elaborated theoretical manifestos on acoustic literature. These manifestos would become the basis for his radio works. He also created image and sound for Textfilmen which were presented in mixed-media shows held in art spaces, churches and cinemas. His Hörtexte, mostly constructed on media citations, were composed using music-rhythmic structures. More than ten of his audio collages were created in collaboration with the Studio Akustische Kunst (since 1963!) of the WDR, a studio directed during a long time by Klaus Schöning. Kriwet dedicated the Robert Zank edition to Schöning.
I wished that all of the 18 Kriwet early works had been included in the IDEAMA (instead of only two!); how to understand then when anybody who owns these records already has in their hands many more Kriwet works than what is offered by the IDEAMA as a professional archive!
The edition is described as "a beautifully designed 3-LP-Picture-Discs Luxury-Box"; the record is nicely called "Rundscheibe" (round disc).
There is still another reason why I am calling attention to this 3-LP-Box: its graphic design by "Ott & Stein" is really worth seeing!!
Ott & Stein also designed the posters for the first Inventionen concerts
In the case of the WDR-Studio, history took a cruel decision (more precisely said: people took a cruel decision):
some years ago the famous WDR-studio was closed down!
For decades it was a national and international model and I would not want a single missing WDR work, quite the contrary (visit Sendungsarchiv/ WDR broadcasting archive for both studios).
The Bourges International EM contest is organized annually since 1973 by the IMEB (formerly GMEB). Alongside the contest, IMEB organizes an international festival and founded in 1982 the CIME .
The CIME is incorporated in the UNESCO international council (and thus having influence on the IREM {Int. Rostrum für EM}).
Nearly all national societies including the German society (Degem) and the Netherlands' did quit their membership in 1994.
Financial difficulties of IMEB occured this summer, whereat the studio, the guestprogram and the festival is threatened.
On the one side a studio could be threatened (and this must be hindered!!);
on the other side the properties (including EM-works) must remain and we need new ideas of follow up; the peoples fate behind this must be treated in a social way, they must loose their responsability!
A titbit of information: quite a few founding and honorary members of CIME also take part in the IDEAMA jury (at least 10 of them are equal identically).
One more titbit of information: concerning the worldwide EM history, to which the CIME must contribute according to statutes, it is lapidary stated: "ICEM has already received texts of Argentina, Chile, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Espania"!
Tagesspiegel article dated 22nd of April 2009, under the appropriate heading “Bewerten und gleichmachen" (Assessing and levelling); complete articel; excerpt.
This Tagesspiegel article also refers to the interdisciplinary attribute, a widespread concept necessary for any understanding of art:
what would such a catalogue of criteria in an music college look like if instrumentalists and singers engage in discussions with composers and sound designers; and moreover, what it would look like if also fine arts and theatre get involved??
Another interview with Frau Gesine Schwan (Professor and female aspirant to the election of the German Bundespräsident this year!), (Tagesspiegel, 17th May 2009, page 7):
"The moral failure of some people does not explain this crisis. I would like to show how, caused by the dominance of an uncontrollable competition oriented thinking, a structural irresponsibility has spread out– possible also in the sciences".
Such catalogue of criteria seems to me pretentious, dangerous, tasteless, religious.
About this I would like to make some short and pertinent comments:
The search for evaluation criteria, and consequently for a doctrine, has lead to a massive transformation process in the universities (so-called Bologna process) – to be observed are the new master courses where evaluations are traded almost like an elixir or magic potion and even praised as the ultimate "truth".
Connected to that is also the typical "push" to finish studies as quickly as possible, what to my view is foolish since every student is an individual with his own natural talent and learning pace.
is the Motto of the Sezessions-Gebäude in Vienna:
"To every age its art, to art its freedom"
("Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit")
This statement contains much of what is emphasized along this talk, particularly the words
"art", "freedom", "time" and their associations:
trust
in reputation involves the trust only in the value and importance of references, diplomas and any additional comparative/measurement system ...: diplomas are not to be trusted blindly! Life is more complicated than what one can tell by simply looking at the grade or class of a diploma!
other minds
I am sure that the presence of "others / foreigners / experienced minds" is an excellent synergetic complement to the local staff.
For this reason I'm very glad that in the TU-studio, the "Edgard-Varèse Guest Professorship for Computer Music", which is supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) performs precisely such function. Different guest professors are selected for every term. And this "automatically” brings about valuable aspects on music and technology, aesthetics, new technologies in connection to composition and sound art as well as diverse profitable experiences, various opinions and different doctrines, challenge and stimulation!
why EM uses rather unfavorable industry standards?
(In the meantime several EM works have been released on DVD and SACD, including the TU-Anniversary DVD)
Are these industry-standards not so important?
Are ambience and performance conditions instead much more important?
We should point out:
6. a loudspeaker as a part of a linear- or a 2D-array (WFS – Wave Field Synthesis).
example: 2D-array of the sound installation "Soundbits" by Robin Minard, Inventionen 2002, Stadtbad Oderberger Straße Berlin.
Contribute this list of different functions to new and different experiences with a lasting effect and thus allowing us to look at the future with hope of attracting future generations?
small changes of soundsource-movement: static; make only clear the position for location.
Multichannel option is hardly NOT necessary for the representation of "small" changes.
It provides a certain "embellishing" effect.
interactive changes: Objects change their position; a characteristic application can be found in sound installations where visitors are free to move through a setup of loudspeakers and by doing this, having a direct influence on localization themselves: "undefined landscape 2" by Hans Peter Kuhn at Villa Elisabeth Berlin (Inventionen 2008) / photo by Roman März.
drastic changes: The movement of sound objects is a very rare procedure in traditional music as well as in contemporary instrumental music. However, it is a common means of expression and effect in EM and film. One can even say that it is one of the main reasons to turn to EM!
"drastic changes" realise degrees of depth / distance, and the very dominat Dopplershift!
Objects move in different distance ranges, each presenting a specific communicative feature:
It is interesting to note that with loudspeakers not only the acoustic horizon can be stimulated and designed, but also all existing distance ranges!
Examples of a practical configuration:
the truth of perception may be the result of believing that the technical realization is perfect
(that again clearly changes over time).
I am saying this in retrospect of the development from mono to stereo to quadra, since we must honestly admit that we have conceited a lot; at least, I claim this for my person, who can be seen in a photo of 1979, standing in the middle of the old TU-studio surrounded by four monster loudspeakers!
Folkmar Hein, amended in July 2009 and October 2009
