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The impact of the research by the Echochroma New Music Research Group at Leeds Metropolitan University relates to new approaches to interactivity in music performance and composition. The group has produced internationally recognised creative works as well as outputs that discuss and establish theoretical models and approaches within contemporary composition, new media and entertainment. These works have been presented internationally to both professionals and the wider public, gaining recognition for outstanding work through international prizes, and influencing practice in the areas of education, entertainment and composition at local, national and international level.
This case study outlines the impacts arising from practice-based research in composition undertaken within the UoA by Wright (Reader in Composition and Sonic Art). The examples provided below detail the impact of this research upon a) the performance practices of contemporary music ensembles and soloists; b) the programming practices of festivals and venues; c) the public understanding and appreciation of new forms of contemporary music. The key drivers to achieving impact have been the innovative use of technologies and performance practices beyond the traditional concert platform. The global reach of these impacts is demonstrated by the geographical spread and the internationally recognised quality of the participating ensembles, artists and festivals.
Research by the University of Huddersfield has made a significant contribution through the development of state-of-the-art, modular, open-source software used in the creation and enhancement of electronic music. The HISSTools Impulse Response Toolbox allows users to deploy custom convolution-related solutions specific to their needs rather than having to rely on fixed and therefore inherently limited options, as was commonly the case previously. Its deliberately musician-centric approach has been acknowledged via international commercial adoption, including integration into a world-leading product with a user base of 1.7m and a crucial role in the design of concert halls by a global firm of engineering consultants.
Research by Professor Michael Finnissy at the University Southampton into the development of musical notation and works of extended duration has resulted in the composition of more than ninety new musical works, which have been publicly performed hundreds of times in classrooms, concert halls, at international music festivals and on radio, by both amateurs and professionals, to audiences totalling more than 700,000. Through concerts, recordings, public lectures and media coverage, Finnissy has disseminated his research insights and creative approach to a growing audience, contributing to popular knowledge of contemporary music and compositional practice, the democratisation of new music performance, and the involvement of new music in social and political debate.
Encounters in the Republic of Heaven is an electroacoustic composition by Trevor Wishart, based on the speech of people in north-east England. The project relied on extensive engagement with local communities, a process which benefited not only the composer but also the people who provided the material for the composition, through public talks and composition workshops. Further beneficiaries were national and international audiences of the finished work, the promoters who organised these and related events, and other users of the software tools developed by Wishart. The production of Encounters has therefore involved three distinct elements, which have each had significant impacts:
Integra was a €3.1M international research collaboration led by Birmingham Conservatoire and funded by the Culture programme of the European Union. It brought together fourteen new music ensembles and research centres across Europe and Canada between 2005 and 2012. Integra achieved impact along three axes:
Technology was transformed through Integra Live, a new application for live interactive music production and through the modernisation of electronic components for musical works from obsolete to sustainable technologies;
Culture was enriched through the commissioning of 16 new musical works with live electronics receiving over 50 international performances;
Education was enhanced through the Integra "curriculum pilot", a programme establishing a culture of live electronics pedagogy in music higher education institutions.
Research (2003-12) by Osborne at the Reid School of Music (RSM) revealed a need for a new musical instrument for disabled users. Under the direction of Osborne, between 2006-8 an interdisciplinary team across Music, Psychology and Physics, including RSM-based Schögler, developed a new musical `object', the Skoog, which allowed people with a wide range of disabilities accessible expressive control of sound. A spin-off company, Skoog Music, was formed in 2010, which now employs six staff, and has sold more than 1,000 units in 16 countries, generating an income of around £600k. The Skoog is widely used by schools and education services and in clinical music therapy by institutions such as Drake Music. It featured in the Best of the Best 2010 in Able Magazine. It was one of three instruments to inspire the composition Technophonia by Oliver Searle, performed at the South Bank as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and short-listed for a 2013 British Composer Award.
Dr Slater researches processes of musical creativity that involve technology. Music from two distinct projects reaches a public beyond academia via radio broadcasts, DJ and club culture, the commercial mechanisms of the music industry and more localised community pedagogy. His work contributes to an international audio culture that draws upon jazz, dance, electronica and orchestral music. Such resources provide rich material for education projects that offer young musicians and sound engineers an insight into the technical, social and musical processes of music production, composition and performance. Broadcast and pedagogy represent the two main routes through which his work has a wider impact. This case study documents impact on quality of life, cultural life and on pedagogy.
The University of York's research in surround sound production, conducted over twenty years, has in recent years been implemented and further developed in The Morning Line, a huge, transportable sculpture by Matthew Ritchie, produced by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21). T-B A21 have to date commissioned thirty professional composers and sound artists of international standing to create new works of sound art for the structure, all realised with software systems developed at York. The installation has been exhibited in large public outdoor spaces in European cities between 2008 and 2012. The Morning Line (TML) integrates into contemporary artistic practice the long-term, York-based research uniting sound reproduction technologies and human spatial perception. The research has, in this way, generated new forms of creative practice, transforming the work of a large number of sound artists and, through repeated, open, long-term public exhibition, contributed to public experience and understanding of sound art and audio perception.
Nicola Dibben's research into the music of international pop icon Björk led to her creative role in Björk's ambitious multi-media project Biophilia. The Biophilia app is the first of a new format, a touchstone for developments in artist apps, sold in 200 countries, and described by the New York Times as "among the most creative, innovative and important new projects in popular culture" (2011). Dibben contributed musicological expertise and provided accompanying narrative to help create this internationally-renowned and pioneering artefact. Her research was pivotal to the development of public understanding of music and science, as evidenced by critics' use of Dibben's research, and feedback from teachers and students on associated educational activities. Her research also brought economic benefits to the music industry through the financial premium of products using her materials.