Für die musikalische Analyse ist Klang eine problematische Kategorie, fehlt es doch an genauen begrifflichen Bestimmungen. Diese werden im Rahmen der Sound Studies im Bereich der populären Musik bereitgestellt. Am Beispiel der jeweils ersten Sätze des Klarinettentrios op. 114 und des Klarinettenquintetts op. 115 von Brahms wird versucht, den in Bezug auf populäre Musik etablierten Klang-Begriff auf die Analyse klassischer Musik anzuwenden. Die Analyse soll verdeutlichen, wie die durch die Besetzung bestimmten klanglichen Voraussetzungen eines Werkes dessen musikalischen Charakter wie auch seine formale Anlage prägen. / For the analysis of music sound is a problematic category because of the lack of distinct definitions. Such definitions will be found within the context of Sound Studies of popular music. Using the example of the first movements from the Clarinet Trio op. 114 and the Clarinet Quintet op. 115 of Brahms this article seeks to adapt the concept of sound as established in popular music to the analysis of classical music. The analysis shall explain how sound as determined by instrumentation shapes the musical character and formal structure of both movements.

Ausgehend von Tom Johnsons Rezension über David Tudors Aufführung von Pulsers werden unterschiedliche Reflexionen und Strategien verfolgt, wie über Klang und Geräusch kommuniziert werden kann. / Starting from Tom Johnson’s article on David Tudor’s performance Pulsers, this essay discusses different reflections on and ways to talk about sound.

Note sequence morphing is the combination of two note sequences to create a ‘hybrid transition’, or ‘morph’. The morph is a ‘hybrid’ in the sense that it exhibits properties of both sequences. The morph is also a ‘transition’, in that it can segue between them. An automated and interactive approach allows manipulation in realtime by users who may control the relative influence of source or target and the transition length. The techniques that were developed through this research were designed particularly for popular genres of predominantly instrumental electronic music which I will refer to collectively as Mainstream Electronic Music (MEM). The research has potential for application within contexts such as computer games, multimedia, live electronic music, interactive installations and accessible music or “music therapy”. Musical themes in computer games and multimedia can morph adaptively in response to parameters in realtime. Morphing can be used by electronic music producers as an alternative to mixing in live performance. Interactive installations and accessible music devices can utilise morphing algorithms to enable expressive control over the music through simple interface components. I have developed a software application called LEMorpheus which consists of software infrastructure for morphing and three alternative note sequence morphing algorithms: parametric morphing, probabilistic morphing and evolutionary morphing. Parametric morphing involves converting the source and target into continuous envelopes, interpolation, and converting the interpolated envelopes back into note sequences. Probabilistic morphing involves converting the source and target into probability matrices and seeding them on recent output to generate the next note. Evolutionary morphing involves iteratively mutating the source into multiple possible candidates and selecting those which are judged as more similar to the target, until the target is reached. I formally evaluated the probabilistic morphing algorithm by extracting qualitative feedback from participants in a live electronic music situation, benchmarked against a live, professional DJ. The probabilistic algorithm was competitive, being favoured particularly for long morphs. The evolutionary morphing algorithm was formally evaluated using an online questionnaire, benchmarked against a human composer/producer. For particular samples, the morphing algorithm was competitive and occasionally seen as innovative; however, the morphs created by the human composer typically received more positive feedback, due to coherent, large scale structural changes, as opposed to the forced continuity of the morphing software.