| Expressive artifacts are defined as elements arising in musical performance that create or inform an affective response. Traditionally, these artifacts encompass spontaneous and variable elements such as vibrato, articulation, inflection, and varying degrees of ornamentation. The role that expressive artifacts have in a musical performance can be described as anything between humanizing the abstract relationships in a composition to being the very point of activity prescribed by the composer. Historically, and from the perspective of performance practice, these elements can be shown to form a subset of a musical vocabulary which can be codified to the extent that they provide a common basis for communicating information regarding musical affect or intent.;The principal focus of this study is to examine the nature and development of expressive artifacts and their surrogates in electro-acoustic and computer music. Advances in technology have radically altered the means by which music is created and performed. Consequently, this dictates a significant change in the type and implementation of expressive artifacts.;Uncovering the disposition of expressive artifacts in an electronic domain suggests three primary areas of inquiry: (1) The establishment of precedents based on the evolution of artifacts through acoustic performance practice. This paradigm provides a sense of "norm" by which the presence and type of artifact in an electronic medium may be measured and compared. (2) Performance on an electronic, or virtual, instrument can change the dynamic relationship between physical gesture and resultant sound. While this does not necessarily eliminate the presence of traditional types of expressive artifacts, the means of sound production in an electronic environment can present new ways of injecting artifacts into a performance (e.g., digital signal processing). (3) The emergence of music specifically designed for recording (i.e., computer music) alters the nature of performance. This suggests a shift from expressive artifacts being a spontaneous expression on the part of a performer to a calculated type of affective device created by a composer.;Finally, these inquiries will be supported by referring to the author's own electro-acoustic and computer compositions on the CD Strange Lines and Distances... |
