Permanence – Variation

In an attempt to define the identity of the musical instrument, Schaeffer (1966) presents a theory: the law of permanence – variation. Permanence is the timbre of an instrument, whose definition initially is tautological: “Timbre is what enables us to identify one instrument rather than another”, or “timbre is how we recognize that various sounds come from the same instrument” (Chion, 1983, p. 48). Furthermore, it is possible to attribute timbre to electronic sound treatments such as filtering and playing sounds backwards, and even a hi-fi system has a timbre. The physicists define timbre as the produced spectrum of frequencies, however, experiments show that dynamics of a sound play an important role in the perception of timbre as well:

So timbre is not a simple morphological criterion; with each instrument it defines itself as a particular structure of criteria which confers a particular ‘genre’ on the sound objects produced by that instrument (p. 49).

Instrumental timbre is not completely defined by the timbre of individual notes, “but by a law of variation in the genre of these objects right across the register” (p. 49). With the aid of this law, we can compare and identify sounds from different instruments with respect to pitch, as well as many other characteristics. Schaeffer goes as far as saying: “we must give up the concept of timbre, which is too vaguely defined, and stop re-enlisting it as a value […]” (p. 52). Timbre may be replaced by more general concept of characteristic or genre, or more subtly, a criterion: “The concept of timbreis therefore a kind of abstractionsensed by the ear in all the potential sounds of a certain instrument” (p. 52). Within this pseudo-permanence, there are variations of two kinds: abstractvariations that deal with values of register, mainly pitch and to a lesser extent intensity; and concretevariations, that are about characteristics in manner of playing. These concrete variations are mainly dependent on the potential given by the instrument with respect to an instrumentalist’s playing style. Therefore, the three criteria for instrumental analysis timbre, register,and playing potentialmay be used to analyze an existing instrument, a new electronic instrument (sound-devices), or techniques that intends to go beyond the concept of instrument.

An idiosyncrasy of musical instruments implies that they reveal musical structures with meaning, starting with a range of concrete sounds, which establish an equilibrium between abstract capabilities and their concrete playing potential: 

The ‘the instrumental fact’, which is at the origin of all music as a ‘precondition’ (chap.1: the instrumental precondition, 41-50) respects this complementary duality, in traditional musics, by establishing the two ‘correlative aspects’ of the ‘musical phenomenon’: ‘A tendency to abstraction, in so far as playing releases structures; the adherence to the concrete, in so far as it remains limited to the potential of the instrument’(p. 53, italics in original).

Schaeffer regards “the instrumental fact” the concrete basis of all traditional music: “A precondition even to musical systems and languages” (p. 54). Schaeffer suggests a “broadening of the notion of the instrument” (p. 54, italics in original). By redefining the laws of the instrument, a music that articulates suitablesonic objects of the same genre, classified in perceptual fields, and calibrationsof criteria, Schaeffer will state a law of all music: “Permanence of characteristics, variation of values” (p. 54, italics in original).

 

Ecological Perception

According to the ecological theory, perception is a self-tuning process. That is, environmental information intrinsically reinforces the perceptual system such that the system self-adjusts in order to optimize its resonance with the environment. Erik Clarke, in his book, Ways of Listening: an Ecological Approach to thePerception of Musical Meaning claims: “Resonance is not passive: it is a perceiving organism’s active exploratory engagement with its environment” (p. 19). One important concept in ecological psychology is the action of progressive differentiation in the context of perceptual learning. A newborn is equipped with undifferentiated perceptual capacities that, on exposure to the environment, eventually take shape, and permit previously unnoticed distinctions to become detectable. The vast majority of perceptual learning happens passively, which is to say that there is no explicit training involved, no supervisor that points out characteristic features and suitable responses. In addition to this passive perceptual learning that continuously happens in a rich environment, directed perceptual learning also occurs.

The three factors of perception/action, adoption and perceptual learning are by no means predetermined or mysterious: “The tuning of a perceiver’s perceptual system [...] is a consequence of the flexibility of perception, and the plasticity of the nervous system in the context of a shaping environment” (Clarke p. 25).

In a performance situation, according to Clarke, we are aware of, and place our attention on general sonic activity rather than the details. By being exposed to certain combinations of sound events repeatedly, we become attuned to certain sonic structures. One such example is idiomatic music: certain sequences and combinations of sounds and timbres are more common than others, and by repetition, a listener gets tuned to them, and almost unconsciously achieves the skill of recognizing and assessing that particular music. I assume that exposure to unexpected and unusual combinations and/or sequences of sound events, such as unknown music or music with less fixed conventions, will challenge previously tuned resonances and create surprise. In order to be able to evaluate the design of new digital musical instruments, tuning seems important as well. It is feasible to say that my evaluation of the walking bass instruments is bound to be based, to some extent, on comparisons with these previously tuned resonances.

 

Virtual Skills

In game design, one important distinction to make is to distinguish between real skills andvirtual skills. The former deals directly with a player’s ability, while the latter is about skills in game characters that a player controls. An example would be a swordfighter in an adventure game who may increase skill by means of reward within the game. Therefore, virtual skills may improve independently of the player’s non-virtual skills, or for instance, based on a player’s mental or problem solving skills. As game designer Jessie Schell states: “Virtual skills are a great way to give a player a feeling of power” (p. 151). It is easy to think that a game is just about one skill, when in reality it is a blend of many skills. By listing necessary skills, the game designer will have a good overview of the demands of a player.