Di­gi­tal sound ar­chi­ve for bas­so­on

The­re is no way around the crea­ti­ve, con­s­truc­ti­ve and also cri­ti­cal ex­ami­na­ti­on of the op­por­tu­ni­ties and risks of di­gi­tal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on for art and cul­tu­re. The in­te­rest of cul­tu­ral in­sti­tu­ti­ons that ap­plied to the Aven­tis Foun­da­ti­on for fun­ding for their di­gi­tal pro­jects as part of the "ex­pe­ri­men­te#di­gi­tal" cul­tu­ral in­itia­ti­ve show­ed that the to­pic is to­pi­cal and is ga­i­ning in im­portance as di­gi­tal tech­no­lo­gy and net­wor­king pro­gress.

The foun­da­ti­on award­ed fun­ding to se­ven pro­jects. One of the fun­ded pro­jects was the di­gi­tal sound ar­chi­ve for bas­so­on, which was crea­ted at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the In­sti­tu­te for Con­tem­po­ra­ry Mu­sic IzM un­der the pro­ject ma­nage­ment of Jo­han­nes Schwarz.

Di­gi­tal Sound Ar­chi­ve for Bas­so­on: A Pi­lot Pro­ject

With the help of di­gi­tal tech­ni­ques, the In­sti­tu­te for Con­tem­po­ra­ry Mu­sic at the Frank­furt Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts aims to make the to­nal pos­si­bi­li­ties of in­stru­ments ac­ces­si­ble to an ext­ent not pre­vious­ly known. Start­ing with the bas­so­on, the di­gi­tal sound ar­chi­ve will pro­mo­te con­tem­po­ra­ry ar­tis­tic crea­ti­on th­rough the ex­ch­an­ge of play­ing tech­ni­ques. It will be available free of char­ge on the In­ter­net and will be used as a re­fe­rence work and source of to­nal in­spi­ra­ti­on as well as for ba­sic sci­en­ti­fic re­se­arch.

Af­ter com­ple­ti­on of the pi­lot pro­ject for bas­so­on and its re­cor­ding com­ple­ti­on, the sound ar­chi­ve will be ex­ten­ded to other in­stru­ments. With an in­tui­tively un­der­stan­da­ble and user-fri­end­ly ap­pearance, mul­ti­l­in­gu­al ex­plana­ti­ons, in­s­truc­tions on play­ing tech­ni­ques as well as search and lis­tening func­tions will be usable. With this sound ar­chi­ve and its in­te­gra­ti­on into the trai­ning sys­tem, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts is ta­king on a pio­nee­ring role.

With the kind sup­port of the Aven­tis Foun­da­ti­on.

Bas­so­on no­ta­ti­on da­ta­ba­se, 26000 sound samples and roll­over "baooooh"

We (MESO Di­gi­tal In­te­ri­ors GmbH) de­ve­lo­ped an on­line bas­so­on sound-en­cy­clo­pe­dia for bas­soo­nist Jo­han­nes Schwarz. It is the most ex­ten­si­ve con­tem­po­ra­ry sound ar­chi­ve for the bas­so­on, in­clu­ding more than 26,000 dif­fe­rent sounds and more than 100,000 spe­ci­fic items of in­for­ma­ti­on on to­nes, noi­ses, no­ta­ti­on, and dif­fe­rent styl­es of play­ing. The on­line ar­chi­ve is available all over the world and is sui­ta­ble for both ama­teurs and mu­si­co­lo­gists.

The ar­chi­ve is in­ten­ded to pro­vi­de com­po­sers and mu­si­ci­ans with a com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on tool to ex­plo­re the pos­si­bi­li­ties of the bas­so­on. At the same time, ama­teurs have a com­pre­hen­si­ve source of ge­ne­ral in­for­ma­ti­on and can ea­si­ly find ans­wers to more spe­ci­fic ques­ti­ons.

The ar­chi­ve con­ta­ins tra­di­tio­nal play­ing styl­es as well as all other pos­si­ble play­ing styl­es of the in­stru­ment, in­clu­ding re­cor­dings, ana­ly­sis, and de­scrip­ti­ons of all playa­ble to­nes and noi­ses.

The tool is al­re­a­dy be­ing used in the aca­de­mic and ar­tis­tic field, for ex­am­p­le, in joint work­shops with stu­dents of the mas­ter's cour­se or at re­hear­sals for cham­ber or­chestra per­for­man­ces. Fur­ther ex­pan­si­ons such as an in­tui­ti­ve in­put of fin­ge­ring op­ti­ons, a mo­bi­le ver­si­on, and a tool for au­to­ma­tic tone de­tec­tion via smart­phone are conceiva­ble.