Music Graduate Colloquium: Jonathan De Souza (Western)

Presented by Graduate Studies in Music, the Don Wright Faculty of Music Graduate Colloquium series includes lectures by distinguished guests, Western faculty members, and senior graduate students on all fields of research and creative activity in music.

Jonathan De Souza (Associate Professor, Western University): “‘You Can Hear Their Interaction’: Musical Texture, Ensemble Coordination, and Social Network Analysis”

All are welcome to attend. No advance registration or tickets required. End times are approximate. 

Abstract

Research on musical texture often takes a listener’s perspective: it shows how simultaneous parts are grouped according to principles of auditory perceptual organization. Performers in a musical ensemble have a different viewpoint. A violist in an orchestra, a soprano in a choir, or a rhythm guitarist in a funk band will experience texture from the inside. For ensemble performers, texture combines sonic and interpersonal relations. They coordinate with other musicians, synchronizing or interlocking, leading or following. Texture, then, reveals music as a medium for social interaction, as a kind of “social media”. In this talk, I’ll approach ensemble textures via social network analysis. I’ll present networks where nodes correspond to parts in the ensemble, and links reflect the proportion of shared note onsets. This method facilitates multi-layered analyses that consider relational properties of the whole ensemble, clusters within it, or individual parts—and changes in all of these parameters over time. It can be applied to individual pieces or larger corpora, and my illustrations will include repertoire for symphony orchestra, chamber groups, choir, and jazz big band. Ultimately, I argue that social networks are a powerful tool for analyzing texture in ensemble music, which can engage both listening and performance