Music and Technology
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My latest talks here and there at various International Conferences
In these last few days leading up to the end of 2025, I would like to share my latest presentations, which I have had the pleasure of giving over the last six months. I have spoken a lot about Teresa Rampazzi, and I am very happy about that, but I also discuss about the birth…
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What can we deduce from the composers’ personal archives?
What do archives tell us about the person who has collected and organised (or disorganised) them over the years, about their own creative process, about their ‘workshop’? In this book (just published) “XENAKIS – BACK TO THE ROOTS. Philological Approaches to Electroacoustic Music” edited by Reinhold Friedl, Thomas Grĭll, Nikolaus Urbanek, and Michelle Ziegler, I…
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A history of the first computer sound spatialization system: John Chowning’s investigations at Stanford University (1962-1972)
Atmos? Spatial Audio? Immersive sound? Where did it all begin?Digital sound spatialisation systems for music, cinema, videogames, VR or portable systems, would not exist without John Chowning’s algorithm.François-Xavier Féron and I are delighted to have reconstructed the “History of the first computer sound spatialisation system: John Chowning’s investigations at Stanford University (1962-1972)” published in the…
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My keynote @TENOR 2024 conference (Zurich ZHdK)
Overjoyed that my keynote “Unexplored Archives, Philology and Real People – How to study ‘sound-based art’ through sketches (design thinking, embryonic projects, first meetings, software programming)”, at the TENOR 2024 conference – International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation, is now online. 2024: 4 April: Full video (my keynote and other talks): https://vimeo.com/930542621 Abstract: My presentation considers…
Analysis of Sound Design Practices, archives, Collaborative Art, CSC, Ircam, John Chowning, Music and Technology, Musical Assistant, Notation in Electroacoustic Music, Oral History, philology of music, Pioneers of electronic music, Sound Art, sound design, sound engineer, SOundNOiseMUsic, sources for the study of electronic music, Spectral music, Technology and Society, Teresa Rampazzi, Tracking the Creative Process in Music, women and music
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L’Ircam et les 50 ans du Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou celebrates 50 years. Next Tuesday, at the Center Pompidou in Paris, I will give a talk about the history of IRCAM (founded by Pierre Boulez to associate the Center for art and culture with a Center for musical creation) in the context of the seminars organized by the History Commission of the…
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Computer Sounds in Luigi Nono’s Prometeo
As part of my research on collaborative creativity, on the music-technology relationship, and on the role of computer music designers / musical assistants, I studied the genesis of the computer sounds used in Luigi Nono’s Prometeo, generated with Giuseppe (Peppino) di Giugno’s 4i workstation.My paper “The Use of Technology in Revolutionary Perspective. Computer Music Research…
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My review of Electronic Inspirations: Technologies of the Cold War Musical Avant-Garde, by Jennifer Iverson (2019)
The final version of my review of this wonderful book was published in August 2021 in the Journal of the American Musicological Society.
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A JOURNEY AMONG ELECTRONIC MUSIC SOURCES #4 – #5
My last two articles for the column A JOURNEY AMONG ELECTRONIC MUSIC SOURCES focusses on a couple of amazing material sources (the Music 5 software in Padova and Pierre Schaeffer’s dedication to the N.P.S. Group) (#4) and the importance of oral history in the study of electroacoustic music (#5). Musica, tecnologia e società attraverso le…
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My co-edited issue “Notation in Electroacoustic Music”, Music/Technology XIII, 2019
This marvel is now out! The new issue of Musica/Tecnologia (XIII), edited by Stefano Alessandretti and me, is titled “La notazione della musica elettroacustica. Scrutare il passato per contemplare il futuro” (Notation in Electroacoustic Music). The journal is committed to OPEN ACCESS, so enjoy it! (for paper version, please contact the publishing house). https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/mt/index TABLE…
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My contribution for The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound Art
It’s out! I am honoured to have a chapter in this new book edited by Sanne Krogh Groth and Holger Schulze. My chapter “Audiogrammi of a Collective Intelligence. The Composers-Researchers of S2FM, SMET, NPS, and Other Mavericks” revisits the impact of 1960s-1970s Italian electronic music experiences in the light of their interdisciplinary experimentation opening up to Sound Art,…
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