Workshop: HYDRA Spatialization System

Abstract

Interpretation of electroacoustic music developed since the 1950^th, when the first loudspeaker orchestras emerged. A musician controls with a sound diffusion desk (mixing console) from the middle of the hall the dynamically changing levels of the loudspeakers.

Choices need to be made on which loudspeakers specific passages of the composition are to be heard and how the composed spatial qualities can be projected with the given loudspeaker system in the current concert hall.

The workshop will explain the Hydra diffusion system and the connection between musical analysis and interpretative choices. The participants can witness the impact of performed gestures by comparing simple stereo playback and dynamic interpretation.

Biography

Hans Tutschku is a composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music. In 1982 he joined the “Ensemble for intuitive music Weimar” and later studied theatre and composition in Berlin, Dresden, The Hague, Paris, and Birmingham. He collaborated in film, theatre and dance productions, and participated in concert cycles with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Since 2004 he directs the electroacoustic studios at Harvard University.

Improvisation with electronics has been a core activity over the past 35 years. He is the winner of several international competitions, among others: Hanns Eisler Preis, Bourges, CIMESP Sao Paulo, Prix Ars Electronica, Prix Noroit, Prix Musica Nova, ZKM Giga-Hertz, CIME ICEM and Klang!. In 2005 he received the culture prize of the city of Weimar.

Besides his regular courses at the university, he has taught international workshops for musicians and non-musicians on aspects of art appreciation, listening, creativity, composition, improvisation, live-electronics, and sound spatialization in more than 20 countries.