Electroacoustic Composition

Gabriele Vanoni

Authored by Gabriele Vanoni

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Course Code: OCOMP-494

Learn how to use technology as a creative tool for composing music in any style. This undergraduate music composition course covers modern techniques like algorithmic and experimental approaches while teaching you to work with music software for sound design, production, and live electronics.

Level 4
Advanced
Modality
Online
Duration
12 Weeks
3-Credit Tuition
$1,575
Semester Starts
June 29
Accreditation
NECHE

Key Learning Outcomes

  • Use technology as a compositional tool to generate, transform, and develop musical ideas across the creative process
  • Manipulate sound as a core musical parameter—alongside pitch, rhythm, and form—to shape structure and expression
  • Compose works that integrate technology as an essential structural element rather than an external add-on
  • Design and perform music using live electronics, including real-time effects and interactive performance environments
Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors
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Course Description

Electroacoustic Composition is an advanced course in composition, which introduces composing with technology in a stylistically open way. You will learn about a broad set of tools and techniques aimed at enhancing your writing of melody, harmony, rhythm, and more, by means of compositional techniques such as controlled algorithmic composition, spectralism, aleatoric, and others.

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You will use software in sound analysis, music formalization, music production, and live electronics at different stages of the creative process, from the conception of a musical idea to a fully realized composition.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Create algorithmic and constraint-based systems to generate melody, harmony, and rhythm using computer-assisted composition techniques
  • Analyze sound using spectral tools and transform analysis data into compositional material
  • Design and notate real-time scores that incorporate chance operations, parameter mapping, and performer interaction
  • Integrate advanced electronic processing techniques—including spectral delay, granular synthesis, and filtering—into live performance contexts
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: Introduction to Electroacoustic Composition

  • What Is Electroacoustic Composition?
  • How Can Technology Help Me Compose?
  • Introduction to Class Software
  • Focus on Max: Tutorials and Simple Operation
  • From Concept to Material: Exporting Ideas to DAW and Notation
  • Assignment 1: Writing a Simple Max Patch

Lesson 2: Enhancing Melody with Technology

  • Multiple Options: The Computer as a Tool
  • Generate a Random Melody with Constraints: Scales and Modes
  • Using Graphics to Compose a Melody
  • Putting It All Together
  • Assignment 2: Composing a Melody

Lesson 3: Enhancing Harmony with Technology

  • Harmony by Constraints
  • Interpolating Chords
  • Assignment 3: Piece for Solo Piano

Lesson 4: Enhancing Rhythm

  • Creating Rhythm Cells Using Constraints
  • Messiaen's Rhythm Applied: Additive Rhythm
  • Polyrhythm Applied: Create Chains of Rhythmic Cells
  • Assignment 4: Building a Rhythmic Structure

Lesson 5: Collage/Acousmatic Music

  • Thinking About Sources and Form
  • Spectral Techniques in SPEAR: Understanding the Spectrogram
  • Spectral Techniques in SPEAR: Frequency Shift, Partials Editing
  • Acousmatic Music: The "Space" Parameter
  • Assignment 5: Short Collage Piece

Lesson 6: Serialism and Spectralism Revisited: Advanced Techniques

  • Exporting Full Analysis as SDIF Files
  • Mapping Sound to Rhythm Using Markers
  • Intro to Spectral Orchestration
  • Assignment 6: Applying Explored Techniques in a Composition

Lesson 7: Real-Time Scores

  • Real-Time and Modular Scores: An Introduction
  • Live Score: Graphic Notation
  • Live Score: Generative Score
  • Assignment 7: Creating a Real-Time Score

Lesson 8: Introduction to Live Electronics and Final Project

  • Introduction to MSP (the "Other Side" of Max)
  • Triggering Audio Files: The Single Track Option
  • Triggering Audio Files: The File Triggering Option
  • Introduction to Final Project
  • Assignment 8: Final Project (Part 1)

Lesson 9: Live Electronics: Delay, Reverb, and Other Basic Effects

  • Adding Effects: Reverb and Ring Modulation
  • Adding Effects: Delay, Filter, Harmonizer/Pitch Shift
  • Remote Messaging and Feedback Routing
  • How to Notate Live Electronics?
  • Composers Corner: Composing and Using Electronics
  • Assignment 9: Present an Electronics or CAC Mock-Up/Etude

Lesson 10: Live Electronics: Spectral Effects and Tools

  • Advanced Effects: Granular Synth and Resonant Filter
  • Advanced Effects: FFT in Max - Freeze, Denoiser, Spectral Delay
  • Advanced Effects: SuperVP, BEAP, VST, and Beyond
  • Combining All Effects in One
  • Assignment 10: Final Project (Part 2) - Patch Experimentation and Focus on Score (First Sketch)

Lesson 11: Beyond Effects: Advanced Live Processing and Spatialization

  • Create a Mockup
  • Sound Detection and Analysis
  • Spatialization and Live
  • Finalizing Your Score
  • Assignment 11: Final Project (Part 3) - Score and Mock-Up for Instrumental Part

Lesson 12: Final Performance and Introduction to Live Video

  • Finalize Your Space/Patch
  • More Tools to Explore: Mira and MiraWeb
  • Beyond Max: Max for Live
  • Expanding into Visual with Jitter
  • Assignment 12: Final Project

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Contemporary Techniques in Music Composition 2 or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.

Software

  • Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Free options, such as GarageBand (Mac) or Cakewalk by BandLab (PC), are acceptable.
  • Notation software, such as Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore (free), etc.
  • Cycling '74 Max 8 or higher
    • Subscription or permanent license acceptable
    • Max for Live is not sufficient for the course
  • SPEAR (Sinusoidal Partial Editing Analysis and Resynthesis)
  • Software to record computer screen and audio, such as OBS

Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.

General Course Requirements

Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course. 

Mac Users

  • macOS Monterey 12.0 or later

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Gabriele Vanoni
Gabriele Vanoni

Author & Instructor

Gabriele Vanoni was born in Milan, Italy in 1980. He obtained two Bachelor’s degrees in Piano and Composition at Milan Conservatory, followed by a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Harvard University. His compositional interests range from acoustic music to live electronics. His works have been widely performed in Europe and the Americas, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Biennale di Venezia, ManiFeste, Moscow Conservatory, June in Buffalo, IRCAM, NYU, BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen, and Accademia Chigiana di Siena, among many others. Likewise, various soloists and ensembles have now been involved in performing his music, such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Talea Ensemble, Moscow Studio for New Music Ensemble, Ensemble L’arsenale, Mario Caroli, Diotima Quartet, Les Cris de Paris, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and many more. Gabriele was also awarded several prizes and mentions in local and international competitions. In addition to his activity as a composer, he served as the artistic director and founder of Suggestioni, a festival of Italian music in the United States. He also holds a degree in Business for the Arts, Culture and Communication from Bocconi University.

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After two years in Paris attending Cursus 1 and 2 at IRCAM, he moved back to the United States where he is currently an Assistant Chair in the composition department at Berklee College of Music. His recent commissions include a piece for the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan (Nutrire La Musica) and a new piece for accordion and string orchestra. Read Less

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Electroacoustic Composition can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Certificate Programs

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