Timbre Spatialisation: The medium is

the space

ROBERT NORMANDEAU
Faculté de musique, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada
E-mail: [email protected]

In this text, the author argues that space should be considered 1. THE SPACE OF THE SOUND
as important a musical parameter in acousmatic music
composition as more conventional musical parameters in There are a few examples in history where composers
instrumental music. There are aspects of sound spatialisation have taken the notion of space into account. One
that can be considered exclusive to the acousmatic language: can think of the music of Giovanni Gabrieli
for example, immersive spatialisation places listeners in an (c. 1557–1612) who used ‘stereo’ choirs in St Mark’s
environment where they are surrounded by speakers. The Basilica in Venice, or Hector Berlioz (1803–69) whose
author traces a history of immersive spatialisation techniques, Requiem, created for Les Invalides in Paris, used
and describes the tools available today and the research distance effects with various wind instruments.
needed to develop this parameter in the future. The author However, their music was rarely determined by this
presents his own cycle of works within which he has developed spatial parameter. The space had been added after-
a new way to compose for a spatial parameter. He calls this
wards, like an effect: sometimes spectacular, but
technique timbre spatialisation.
rarely essential. Stereo listening, even with mono
recordings, doesn’t change the musical value, whereas
in some acousmatic music this idea has been devel-
oped to such an extent that the work loses interest
THE MEDIUM IS THE SPACE when removed from its original context in space.
In 1967 Marshall McLuhan wrote: ‘The medium is
the message’, meaning that when a new medium 1.1. Internal space, external space
appears – such as cinema, television, or the internet
today – it borrows the language of the media from There are two types of space in acousmatic music: the
which it comes at before developing its own language. internal space – put in the work by the composer – and
For example, in the beginning, cinema was essentially the external one – added by the concert hall (Chion
filmed theatre. The camera was fixed and the actors 1988). The first is fixed and is part of the work on the
appeared on the screen from the left or the right, as same basis than the other musical parameters. The
though they were on a stage. There were no crane second is variable, changing according to the differ-
shots, or close-ups, and so on. Yet, progressively, ences in hall and speaker configurations.
cinema developed its own language, including the
aforementioned shots, editing techniques, and camera 1.2. Invariable space
movements. And if this new language was partly
borrowed from the theatre, photography and litera- Yet, one can imagine that there exists in some works
ture, some elements were exclusive to cinema. The an invariable space where internal and external space
medium became the message. The question today is: are fixed in a standardised relationship, like in cinema
what characteristics are specific to electroacoustic with image and Dolby Surround sound. The idea
music? First, let us note that electroacoustic music is behind this standardisation would be to minimise the
a media art much more so than a performance art role of a hall’s acoustics in a concert situation.
such as instrumental music. This distinction plays an
important part in specifying the medium of electro-
2. MULTICHANNEL COMPOSITION
acoustic music. With its introduction in 1948, a form
of music existed that, for the first time in history, did In 1990, the tools in my studio looked like this: a
not need to be played by a live performer. Further- computer (a Mac Plus with 1 Mb of RAM with one
more, there was the possibility for this new medium of the first MIDI sequencers: Master Tracks Pro), a
to introduce space as a musical parameter that could sampler (an Akai S-1000: the first stereo CD-quality
be used side by side with other musical parameters sampler with eight outputs and 2 Mb of RAM!), and
such as pitch, rhythm and duration. an analogue 16-track tape recorder (Fostex) on 12 inch
Organised Sound 14(3): 277–285 & Cambridge University Press, 2009. doi:10.1017/S1355771809990094

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 278 Robert Normandeau

with Dolby S. These tools were quite simple and the performers to different locations in the concert hall
constraints that came with them implied two things (such as Stockhausen’s Gruppen or Carre´). However,
for someone who was interested in composing mul- these works are limited to the timbre of the instru-
tichannel works. Firstly, because this was before ments: the violin on the left side will always sound
digital audio became affordable, there was only a like a violin on the left. The sound and the projection
small amount of memory available in samplers, so source are linked together. What is specific to the
composers had no other option but to compose with acousmatic medium is its virtuality: the sound and
sound objects of short duration. Secondly, these the projection source are not linked.
constraints had an effect on the relationship between A speaker can project any kind of timbre. Fur-
the recorded material on tape and what was spatia- thermore, today, with the appropriate software, all
lised in concert. I was trying then to reach a point these sounds can be located at any point between any
where the mix of the work was created in the com- group of speakers. What is unique in electroacoustic
puter and then recorded on the multitrack tape to be music is the possibility to fragment sound spectra
played in concert as it was. Consequently, the final amongst a network of speakers. When a violin is
result of the cumulated tracks – recorded two at a played, the entire spectrum of the instrument sounds,
time – was really known only at the end of the pro- whereas with multichannel electroacoustic music
cess. But it was so precise that the computer kept the timbre can be distributed over all virtual points
traces of every single gesture made by the composer, available in the defined space.
while in the past only the sounds or the mixes were This is what I call timbre spatialisation: the entire
kept on tape. In the analogue days, there was no way spectrum of a sound is recombined only virtually in
to record the movement of a fader or a rotary button. the space of the concert hall. Each point represents
The recording of these gestures made by the compo- only a part of the ensemble. It is not a conception of
sers was then a major change in the way they figured space that is added at the end of the composition
their relationship with sound material. process – an approach frequently seen, especially
The push towards creating multichannel works is today with multitrack software – but a truly com-
directly related to two main ideas. The first argues posed spatialisation. It is a musical parameter that is
that if a speaker is sent a less complex sound, it is able exclusive to acousmatic music.
to represent that sound with better accuracy and
clarity. Thus, by dividing music into different layers
4. A CYCLE OF WORKS
and directing those layers to different loudspeakers,
the result is much clearer than if you were to multiply In the movement of Clair de terre (1999) entitled
a stereo signal over a group of speakers – even if all ‘Couleurs primaires et secondaires’ (Primary and
the speakers are placed side by side on a stage. Secondary Colours), I had the idea to divide the
The second concept behind multichannel diffusion timbre of a group of transformed sounds of a Balinese
arises out of the ability of human ears (like all gamelan into different registers and to send these
mammals’ ears) to localise sound in space with great different registers to different speakers. It was only a
accuracy. Thus, music spatialised over a group of short movement (20 5400 ) of a large work (360 ), but I had
speakers placed throughout a hall allows the listener the feeling that this way of spatialising the sound was
to better hear the polyphony of the music: each layer quite novel at the time. I decided then to push my
arriving to the listener from a different ___location in music a little bit further in that direction.
space.
I started to compose multichannel works in 1990 with
4.1. StrinGDberg
my first 16-track piece entitled Be´de´ (Normandeau 1994).
It was presented during the Canadian Electroacoustic StrinGDberg (2001–03; 180 ) is a work commissioned
Community conference ..PERSPECTIVES.. in by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris in
1991. This first piece was followed by a number of 2001. The third and final version was completed in
compositions that used multichannel sound diffusion in 2003 (Normandeau 2005).
a one-to-one relationship: one track assigned to one StrinG refers to the only sound sources of the piece
speaker. Amongst those are works such as Éclats de voix – a hurdy-gurdy and a cello – both string instruments.
(1991), Tangram (1992), Spleen (1993) (Normandeau StrinDberg refers to the origin of the piece. It was
1994), Le renard et la rose (1995) (Normandeau 1999) made for Miss Julie, a theatre play by August
and Clair de terre (1999) (Normandeau 2001). Strindberg with stage direction by Brigitte Haentjens,
presented in Montreal in 2001.
The two instruments used in the work represent
3. TIMBRE SPATIALISATION
two eras in instrument design and suggest differences
With instrumental music in the 1960s, composers in social class: the first belongs to a period where
explored spatialisation, creating works that assigned the sonorities were rude and closer to the people; the

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 Timbre Spatialisation: The medium is the space 279

second evokes the refinement of the aristocracy. The diffusion in mind. This is another defining char-
piece is constructed using two superimposed layers. acteristic of what I call ‘spectral diffusion’ or ‘timbre
The first layer is composed of a single recording of an spatialisation’. The different filtered bands are
improvisation on the hurdy-gurdy that lasts about a assigned to different loudspeakers: 16 in the original
minute. Stretched, filtered and layered, the sound of version. The final mix is then formed in the concert
the hurdy-gurdy, distributed in a multiphonic space, hall and in different ways for every listener. It solves
is revealed, layer by layer, over the length of the piece the balance problems caused by the proximity of the
(figure 1). A second layer, made from sounds of the listener to a specific speaker because the sounds are
cello, adds rhythm to the work, as well as a strong constantly changing and evolving in each speaker.
dramatic quality at the end. In an ideal situation, the piece is not presented in a
Using the hurdy-gurdy, the player improvised a conventional concert hall, but in a huge space where
three-part sequence: improvisation 1, melody and people can walk about during the concert. It is not an
improvisation 2. I primarily used the middle part to installation – the piece has to be listened to in its
compose the work. Out of the middle part of this entirety – but it is a deep listening experience that allows
improvisation, I kept the twelve ‘consonants’ – the the audience to move into the sound and to experience
attacks of the notes – and the twelve ‘vowels’ – the their own body completely immersed in the sound.
sustained parts between the attacks.
Both the consonants and vowels were then ‘frozen’.
All 24 were filtered by four dynamic band pass filters, 4.2 Éden
the parameters of which changed over sections and Éden (2003; 160 ) is a work commissioned by the
time. The opening of each filter increased over the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille in
duration of the work and the centre frequency changed 2003 (Normandeau 2005). It is based on music I
constantly. That means that the sound was globally composed for the play L’Éden cine´ma by Marguerite
filtered at the beginning of the work and it ended up at Duras (actually, both the concert piece and the
a point where the entire spectrum was unfiltered. stage music were composed in parallel). In the con-
In StrinGDberg, the form, duration, rhythms and cert version, the music represents the different aspects
proportions were derived from the original impro- of the sonic universe of the play: Vietnam, where
vised melody (figure 2). All the sound files for the Marguerite Duras was born and where she lived up to
work were created and organised with multichannel her teenage years, the Éden cinema’s piano, the sea,

Figure 1. The original recording of the hurdy-gurdy for StrinGDberg.

Figure 2. The general structure of StrinGDberg.

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 280 Robert Normandeau

the sound of Chinese balls, the omnipresence of the with these elements, everything else was made in such
rhythm, the journey and the voice of a Laotian a way that the listening experience would be the same
singer, used in Marguerite Duras’ film India Song. in both directions, including the channels of the ste-
Contrary to StrinGDberg, where there is a pro- reo files, the structure of the 24-track spatialisation,
gression in the integrity of the spectrum over time, in the levels of the different curves of the mix, and the
Éden, a progression is constructed through the musical phrases (figures 4 and 5).
rhythms and the density of the information (figure 3). The form is identical and symmetrical in both
The general amplitude of the work stays the same directions, and it is made from two mixes of the
over time. The general form is based on the con- same 96 tracks whose ‘weight’, instead of the exact
traction/expansion of time around a point two-thirds inversion, is the same from the beginning to the end
of the way through the work. Similar to StrinGDberg, and vice versa. The only difference between the two
every sound file is filtered by four different band pass mixes, introduced for musical reasons, is that the
filters assigned to different loudspeakers. The central first mix is a decrescendo that begins with a tutti
difference is that in Éden there are many different which is gradually filtered to the high-frequency
timbres that are superimposed, one on top of the other, register, while the second mix is a crescendo that
and there is no progression over time – the entire begins with the low-frequency register gradually
spectrum is always present. Only the ‘inner’ nature of increased to a tutti. One can consider this as a vertical
the sounds, the microvariations, change over time. palindrome!
In this work, the timbre spatialisation is made up
of two elements that coexist. The first is a group of
4.3. Palindrome
sound material that is equally distributed amongst the
Palindrome (2006–09; 150 ) is a work commissioned by speakers without any filtering. The second is a group
the Institut de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges filtered with four band-pass filters, like in previous
in 2006. A palindrome is a succession of graphical works, but with one difference: there is no evolution in
signs (letters, numbers, symbolsy) that can be read the width of the filter, nor in the movement of the
from left to right as well as from right to left. central frequencies over time. What changes over time
In this work, the palindrome exists in both the is the mixing of these elements, from the low-frequency
form of the piece and the sound material itself. Along content at the beginning up to a tutti at the end in the

Figure 3. The general structure of Éden.

Figure 4. Palindrome, the forward version.

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 Timbre Spatialisation: The medium is the space 281

Figure 5. Palindrome, the backward version.

of three simultaneous sound sources that could be

moving around the space. There were 350 speakers in 20
amplifier combinations (six amplifiers assigned to track
one, eight assigned to track two, and six assigned to
track three). A fifteen track control tape sent signals to
the projectors and amplifiers. A series of ‘sound routes’
were conceived so that the sounds could appear to
move through the space from different directions. These
were realised by designing an amplifier that would ‘span’
a group of speakers, iterating through them five speak-
ers at a time. For example, a sound path might move
through the space of speakers 121 to 145. The sound
would come first from speakers 121–125, then 122–126,
then 123–127, and so on. This was one of the most
elaborate site-specific projects ever created. The sound
was written for the space and vice versa. The quick
crescendos and abrupt silences were calculated to exploit
the reverberation of the space. (Meyer 2009)

Recent research conducted by Kees Tazelaar

(Institute of Sonology, Den Haag Conservatory,
Holland) and presented in Berlin in 2006 demon-
Figure 6. Philips Pavilion, Brussels 1958. Image thanks to
Philips Archives. Courtesy Electronic Music Foundation. strates that the original version of the work is 5 tracks
but, for technical reasons, it was not possible to play
it under this format at the time of creation. With 25
subwoofers it was the first 5.1 system!
first mix, and from the tutti to the high-frequency
content at the end for the second mix.
5.2. Osaka International Exhibition (Japan)
5. SPATIALISATION ON A DOME OF
In 1970, Karlheinz Stockhausen created a sphere of
SPEAKERS, A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY
50 groups of speakers on seven levels, including one
5.1. Philips Pavilion, Brussels International below the audience (figure 7).
Exhibition 1958 (Belgium) For the 1970 World Expo in Osaka in 1970, Germany
Varèse and Xenakis created an environment incor- built the world’s first, and so far only, spherical concert
porating 350 speakers, including 25 subwoofers, for hall. It was based on artistic concepts by Karlheinz
Stockhausen and an audio-technical concept from the
the Brussels International Exhibition in 1958 (Meyer
Electronic Studio at the Technical University in Berlin.
2007; figure 6).
The audience sat on a sound-permeable grid just below
The audio component was to be a demonstration of the the centre of the sphere, 50 groups of loudspeakers
effects of stereophony, reverberation, and echo. Sounds arranged all around reproduced, fully in three dimen-
were meant to appear to move in space around the sions, electro-acoustic sound compositions that had
audience. Varèse was finally able to realise the movement been specially commissioned or adapted for this unique
of sounds through space from different directions. The space. Works by composers including Bernd Alois
audio tape consisted of three tracks, to give the illusion Zimmermann and Boris Blacher were played from the

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 282 Robert Normandeau

Figure 7. Osaka Pavilion, 1970.

multi-track tape, along with Bach and Beethoven.

(Föllmer 2009)

5.3. Sound Cupolas Roma

The Belgian composer Leo Kupper designed three
Sound Cupolas between 1977 and 1984 (1977, 72
speakers, Rome [figure 8]; 1979, 62 speakers, Avignon;
1984, 104 speakers, Linz). The idea was to design a
sound diffusion system that is ‘no more dependable
from a traditional room form (classical rooms for tra-
ditional music)’ (Kupper 1988). These projects were also
Figure 8. Sound Cupola, Rome 1977.
about the specificity of the space parameter in musical
writing. As he explained, ‘The space parameter is no
more an effect in pitch music, but pitch is only an effect
in space music. Space as a finality in music expression.’

5.4. SARC, Belfast (Northern Ireland)

The Sonic Lab, Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s
University, Belfast (figure 9), was created in 2004, with
40 speakers on four levels including one below the
audience (SARC 2009). Unlike the first three examples
above, which were temporary installations, Sonic Lab is
a permanent space. Thus, it could be considered
the first permanent hemispheric sound hall. One of the
main design characteristics of the space, borrowed from
the Osaka Pavilion, is the ‘transparent’ floor, below
which speakers are located, giving the listeners the
feeling that sounds are coming from everywhere.

5.5. Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie,

Karlsruhe (Germany), Klangdom
In Karsruhe, a dome of 43 speakers (figure 10) was
built in 2006 (ZKM 2009). The dome is virtual in
the sense that there is no real concrete structure
supporting the form of a dome. Speakers are hung to
create a form that represents the way sounds are
generated in our natural environment. The real
novelty here is not the dome itself, which has adopted
the same shape found in Kupper’s Cupolas, but their Figure 9. SARC, Sonic Lab, Belfast 2004.

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 Timbre Spatialisation: The medium is the space 283

specially for the dome of 43 speakers installed in the

Kubus of the ZKM. It is made of 26 audio tracks –
3 groups of 8 tracks and a stereo track.
In Kuppel, there was a major change in the way I
considered the sound spatialisation. Because they
made the decision to build a dome of speakers –
probably the best way to represent the sounds that
surround us – and also because they made the effort
to design software to control spatialisation amongst
the speakers – Zirkonium, coded by Chandrasekhar
Ramakrishnan – it was suddenly possible to imagine
a different perspective in the relationship between the
audio tracks and the speakers.
Up to that point, a one-to-one relationship was
Figure 10. Schematic representation of the Klangdom in used in my works, which means one track was
Karlsruhe. assigned to one speaker. But with Zirkonium, which
is a Vector Base Amplitude Panning based software
(Pulkki 1997), there is no need to lock a track to
a speaker. Every point is spatialised in the space on
the surface of the dome with the help of three
speakers. Thus the spatialisation is virtual, and if the
speaker setup is done properly (and it is certainly
done properly in the Kubus!), the listeners don’t
feel the presence of the speakers, only the presence of
the sound.
I had the chance to work on different projects at
the ZKM in the autumn of 2004 when Zirkonium
development was in its initial stage. As a result,
I had the opportunity to work a bit with the team and
to make some suggestions about which directions the
software could take in order to be helpful for com-
Figure 11. Schematic representation of the dome of speakers, posers. One of the first suggestions I made was to
Université de Montréal. have the ability to group tracks together and to move
them jointly. With that in mind, when I composed
development of software, Zirkonium, to manage the Kuppel I downsized the different layers of the work
space (Ramakrishnan, Goßmann and Brümmer (which includes 58 audio tracks) into three groups of
2006). In creating a hardware/software combination, 8 tracks each. In concert, we added two external MIDI
they have laid a foundation that promotes the flour- controllers (CMLab Motormix) to Zirkonium to allow
ishing of long-term relationships between perceptual for the possibility of controlling various spatialisa-
researchers and composers. tion parameters: the height of the groups, the rotation
of the groups, the rotation speed of the groups, and,
5.6. Université de Montréal (Québec) finally, the volume of the groups. At the ZKM, they
also had the great idea to build a mini sound-dome
The dome at Université de Montréal is based on the one studio with 24 speakers where composers could work
in Karlsruhe and those built by Kupper. It is con- and experiment with sound spatialisation. And
structed using of 32 speakers hung from a scaffold with because Zirkonium is speaker independent, it is very
four subwoofers (not shown in figure 11). Contrary to easy to adjust the strategy developed in the mini
the previous systems, the speakers used are exactly the dome to the larger one. It is then possible to interact
same, ensuring that sound perception is not tainted directly with the acoustics of the big hall and to make
by the different colours introduced by different brands changes in the spatialisation in real-time.
or models of speakers. The dome was built in 2008. Kuppel has been played many times in concert since
its premiere and I have revised it twice. It has been
6. COMPOSING FOR A DOME OF SPEAKERS played once using one real dome (at the ZKM) and a
few times using ‘fake’ domes (Leicester, 2008; Troy,
6.1. Kuppel
NY, 2008; Bangor, 2008; Montréal, 2008). For the
Kuppel (2006–09; 170 ) is a work commissioned by the last three performances I had the opportunity to
ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2006. The work was composed prepare the spatialisation on the newly installed dome

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 284 Robert Normandeau

at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music (36 Digital Performer) and Zirkonium through Zirko-
speakers, built summer 2008). Whatever the speaker nium Audio Unit plugins. These already exist, but
configuration is in these different venues, the use of they do not work properly at the moment. With
VBAP software allows me to make fine adjustments improvements, composers will be able to compose the
according to the specifications of these halls. This is space of a work while they compose materials along a
something that would have been difficult to achieve timeline. The space is not added as a flavor or an
with 16 or 24 track works based on a one-to-one effect at the end of the process; rather, it is part of the
track–to-speaker relationship. composition.

7.2.2. Editable trajectory 3D representation

7. AND THE FUTURE
Software could be added to Zirkonium to help in
7.1. Perception of space editing and configuring the space. In fact, a model
We don’t know that much about the perception of the exists and has been developed at the Groupe de
space in a musical context. Of course, psycho-acousti- musique expérimentale de Marseille (France) and it is
cians have explored the perception of distance and called Holo-Edit. At the moment, the only way to
localisation but most of the time they have done so by design trajectories in Zirkonium is to write every
using very primitive sounds, such as static, that don’t movement line by line, which is not adequate for
address how musical gestures in space are perceived. As complex movements. A trajectory software could be
Robert Sazdov and others have mentioned recently, used, if properly connected to Zirkonium, to gra-
‘Composers of electroacoustic music have engaged phically design in 3D the way sound travels through
with elevated loudspeaker configurations since the first space. Both pieces of software should use Open
performances of these works in the 1950s. Currently, Sound Control (OSC) communication protocol (OSC
the majority of electroacoustic compositions continue 2009), in order to connect them together (Zirkonium
to be presented with a horizontal loudspeaker config- is already compatible with OSC).
uration. Although human auditory perception is three
dimensional, music composition has not adequately 7.2.3. Gestural control over the trajectories
exploited the creative possibilities of the elevated As mentioned above, it is possible to connect external
dimension’ (Sazdov, Paine and Stevens 2007). devices such as MIDI automated mixers or joysticks
We still have a great deal to explore about space to the Zirkonium, but we think that further devel-
perception and I think that this research should be opment should include more adequate gestural con-
made in parallel with music composition. This research trollers such as 3D controllers. Some already exist,
could include experiments on how we perceive sound including a number in Montréal at the CIRMMT1
movement in 3D, how we perceive the same musical labs, where the Musical gestures, devices and motion
gesture presented at the front of the audience compared capture axis group has designed many controllers
to the back, how we perceive low-frequency content that are able to detect 3D movements. Instead of
from different locations, what the perceptual threshold using a mouse, a keyboard, or even a joystick, it
regarding ___location angle is, and thus how many would more appropriate to use these new devices to
speakers we need to feel completely immersed by the interact more directly with the space.
sound. In other words, what is relevant in terms of
musical perception in an immersive environment?
7.3. Research programmes, 2009–2012

7.2. Development of Zirkonium In the summer of 2009, a research programme, sub-

sidised by Hexagram, has taken place at Université de
The development of Zirkonium is currently being Montréal to work on the development of Zirkonium.
continued by both the Faculty of Music at Université The goal was to present a fully functional version of
de Montréal and the ZKM. Both institutions work the software to the electroacoustic music community
collaboratively on this project. Future versions of the by the end of the summer. Then, over the next three
software will comprise: years (2009–12), an important research programme
> an Audio Unit plugin at the school, financed by the Social Sciences
> editable trajectory 3D representation and and Humanities Research Council of Canada, will
> gestural control over the trajectories. investigate immersive environments in audio and
video.2
7.2.1. Audio Unit plugin
1
Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Tech-
Better communication should be developed between nology
2
a regular audio sequencer (such as Logic Pro and With my colleagues Jean Piché et Zack Settel.

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 Timbre Spatialisation: The medium is the space 285

Acknowledgement Normandeau, R. 1994. Be´dé (1990), Éclats de voix (1991),

Spleen (1993), Tangram (1992). On Tangram. Montréal:
Thanks to Theo Mathien and Terri Hron for the Empreintes Digitales, IMED 9920.
revision of the text. Normandeau, R. 1999. Le renard et la rose (1995). On
Figures. Montréal: Empreintes Digitales, IMED 0944.
Normandeau, R. 2001. Clair de terre (1999). On Clair de
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