David Wessel

Wessel In memory of David Wessel, who passed away on October 13th at the age of 73, we offer some testimonials.

First, his 1977 piece, Anthony.

In reality, Wessel was always a researcher rather than a composer, and his musical output is rare. Anthony is a typical piece constructed with cross-fading sound layers and was one of the first pieces created with the real-time synthesis machines built by Peppino Di Giugno at IRCAM.

The one used here is the 4A from 1975, one of the first models, the first to go beyond the prototype stage. It was a processor capable of generating in real time up to 256 digital oscillators in wavetable (i.e. with a stored waveform and therefore with harmonic content defined by the user) with relative amplitude envelope. Despite the fact that the oscillators could not be connected to each other, it was a significant step forward for those years, because with the analog systems of the time, it was already difficult to reach 10 oscillators (for more details, see the entries 4A and Giuseppe Di Giugno on Alex Di Nunzio's blog).

While the 4A was a significant step forward in terms of quantity, the sound quality was limited by the fact that it was impossible to implement variable-spectrum synthesis methods (e.g., with filters or frequency modulation) without resorting to additive methods. In Anthony, Wessel circumvents this limitation by avoiding a melodic characterization of the sound material, relying instead on large clusters of slowly changing harmonic sounds.

Warning: the piece starts very softly. Furthermore, with the computer speakers, you can only hear half of it.

A second video contribution concerns David Wessel's work as a researcher primarily interested in human-computer interaction, so much so that in 1985 he founded a research department at IRCAM dedicated to the development of interactive music software.

Here we see the SLAB, a control device composed of a series of position- and pressure-sensitive touch pads. Each pad transmits information to the computer regarding the xy position of the finger pressing it and the pressure applied. The data flow is Ethernet, not MIDI, so the measurements are accurate and the response is fast (this story of overcoming MIDI will be with us for the rest of our lives; to quote Philip Dick, the grasshopper oppresses us). More technical data on the SLAB here. For those who can't wait, the performance in the video starts at 2:40.

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