Otto Laske: Navigating New Musical Horizons

by Jerry N. Tabor

Overview

Revolutionary approaches to compositional practice and musicological research have been associated with Otto Laske's work for over a quarter of a century. Laske's scientific understanding of the compositional process has made it possible to systematically formalize computer-assisted and computer synthesized music. In this book, international scholars survey new directions in compositional and musicological practices as influenced by Laske's pioneering work. These two seemingly independent areas of inquiry, composition,and musicology, are presented as a comprehensive integration. The essays offer an interdisciplinary examination of issues imbued with ethnographic considerations of the musical experience, research in perception and brain functions, the design of computer-based neural networks that emulate human musical activities, investigations into the psychological make-up of artists, and a unique perspective on how computers are used in many different areas of music. Compositional and cognitive musicological research are placed in a historical perspective and accompanied with contemporary issues surrounding this research. An interview with Otto Laske and two of his own essays are also included.

This study of Otto Laske will appeal to musicologists and students of music theory and composition. Its interdisciplinary content will also interest scholars in a variety of fields including electronic music, ethnomusicology, computer science, artificial intelligence and other cognitive sciences, psychology, and philosophy. Researchers will appreciate the comprehensive bibliography of Laske's compositions and writings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313306327
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/1999
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance , #53
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

JERRY TABOR is Assistant Professor of Music at Salisbury State University in Maryland where he coordinates and teaches in the composition, computer music, and theory programs./e His music is performed throughout the United States and is recorded on the Neuma label.

Table of Contents

Introduction
A Pioneer in Composition and Research by Jerry Tabor
Composition and Composition Theory
Sonology: A Questionable Science Revisited by Barry Truax
Structure as Performance: Cognitive Musicology and the Objectification of Compositional Procedure by Michael Hamman
PROJECT 1 Revisited: On the Analysis and Interpretation of PR1 Tables by Gottfried Michael Koenig
Cognitive Musicology
A Brief Overview of Otto Laske's Work by Joel Chadabe
Portrait of an Extraterrestrian by Bernard Bel
Adequacy Criteria for Models of Musical Cognition by Marc Leman
Modeling Musical Thinking by Jukka Louhivuori
Composition and Cognitive Musicology in Practice
A Composer's Cognitive Musicology by Nico Schüler
"Furies and Voices": Composition-Theoretical Observations by Otto Laske
Creating Music as an Articulation of Prelinguistic Senses of Self (A Lecture) by Otto Laske
The Newcomp Experiment by Curtis Roads
Bibliography: Selected Works of Otto Laske (1964-1998)
Index

Editorial Reviews

An overview of Laske's musical thought as manifested in his original compositions, published lectures, articles, and books. The 11 essays, two by Laske himself, demonstrate the changing environment of composition and research, especially the impact of computer-based technologies; and illuminate the thinking of a pioneer in computer music composition and cognitive musicological research. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews