THE RESEARCH-CREATION PROJECT

More and more electroacoustic music is being created for live performance. Whether with invented instruments, effects pedals, turntables, controllers, or modular synthesizers, these performances require no less instrumental virtuosity than classical interpretation.

Unlike most Western music, the sounds produced by electroacoustic instruments are often noisy. While a piano sounds like a piano, electroacoustic instruments are often multitimbral and produce a variety of timbres. A synthesizer can produce a sound close to that of a piano, or a guitar... or a completely unheard sound. This research project is particularly interested in these unheard sounds.

This raises the question of writing and transmitting notation adapted to this growing practice of playing electroacoustic instruments. While some, such as doctoral student Pierre-Luc Lecours, are interested in the interpretation of works by a third party, this research project will focus particularly on the context of performative composition, where the artist is the interpreter of their creation. From this complex issue emerges our main research question:

How can timbres and technical manipulations be noted on a score in the context of electroacoustic performance?

It is with this question in mind that the Performative Notation project will develop primarily through the creation of works based on notational experiments that should lead to the development of a graphic method contributing to this expanding field.

PUBLICATIONS

Lecours, P.-L., & Bernier, N. (in press). Contemporary Notations Framework: Approaches, Encoding and Medium. Organised Sound.

Caulet, D., & Bernier, N. (in press). Notation strategies for effect pedals in the compositional process of Étude n°1. Organised Sound.

Bernier, N. (July 22, 2025). Don’t Patch ! 5 counterintuitive strategies for performative composition on modular synthesizer. Patch & Tweak. http://patchandtweak.com

Lecours, P.-L., & Bernier, N. (2024). Sound Synthesis Notation Applied to Performance : Two Case Studies. TENOR 2024, 142‑149. https://zenodo.org/records/13144433

SIGN/e
Symbol-based interface for graphic notation edition

In development: SIGN/e is a new visual editing plugin (AMXD) allowing to write graphic scores directly in Ableton Live. Easy to use, it allows to import, move, modify, and animate visual elements (PNGs), thus creating and reading directly in Ableton without the need for additional external graphics software.

Download the Alpha version with basic features: https://github.com/LFO-lab/GraphicScoreMaker/tree/2025-09-10-alpha

Programming: Evan Montpellier
Coordination: Pierre-Luc Lecours
Direction: Nicolas Bernier

ACTIVITIES

WINTER 2026: SEMINAR MIN6951
Notation in Sound Performance Seminar as part of graduate studies in composition and sound design at the Université de Montréal.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2025: CONFERENCE @UDEM
Conference entitled 5 Counterintuitive Strategies for Performative Composition on Modular Synthesizer. As part of the graduate studies in composition and sound design colloquium.

10 SEPTEMBRE 2025 : ALPHA VERSION RELEASE OF GSM
Release of Graphic Score Maker (GSM) as a development version for user-tests: https://github.com/LFO-lab/GraphicScoreMaker/tree/2025-09-10-alpha

JUNE 14, 2025: CONCERT IN KUTNA HORA
Concert at the A Day of Sound event at the GASK Gallery in Kutná Hora.

JUNE 12, 2025: WORKSHOP AT HAMU PRAGUE
Workshop in Prague and concert at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU), at the invitation of Professor Michal Rataj.

FEBRUARY 28, 2025: LIVE@CIRMMT
Modular ensemble led by Pierre-Luc Lecours presents the first works written for the ensemble, including Nicolas Bernier's Synth Quartet No. 1.

JUNE 14, 2024: PHOS, MATANE
Nicolas Bernier presents the first iteration of the solo modular synthesizer project Vision couleur at the PHOS Festival in Matane.

APRIL 4, 2024: TENOR, ZURICH
Pierre-Luc Lecours presents at the TENOR conference the article co-authored with Nicolas Bernier, "Sound Synthesis Notation Applied to Performance: Two Case Studies."

LITERATURE AND PRACTICE REVIEW

🝊✩‧NEW‧✩🝊 Review of the scientific literature including over 250 documents on new forms of musical notation. This review led to the writing of the article Contemporary Notations Framework: Approaches, Encoding and Medium (Lecours, P.-L., & Bernier, Nicolas, Organized Sound. Currently under review), which presents a typology of the main terminologies used to describe different approaches to notation.

https://www.zotero.org/groups/5526868/contemporary-notation-framework/library

CREATION PROJECT & SCORES

SYNTH SOLO NO.2 (2025)

SOLO FOR MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

This piece continues to explore modular synthesizer composition mainly based on human gesture —as opposed to voltage control automations. Each gesture is made with intention, moving away from improvisation. Notation is crucial to the approach, here taking the form of a list of musical or parameter actions.
SCORE OF SYNTH SOLO NO..2 (PDF)

SYNTH QUARTET NO.1

MODULAR SYNTHESIZER QUARTET

This first piece written by Nicolas Bernier for the Ensemble élastique (founded and directed by Pierre-Luc Lecours) will initially be based on conventional Western notation augmented by indications for timbres and manipulations.
SCORE FOR SYNTH QUARTET NO.1 (PDF)

VISIONS COULEURS

SOLO PERFORMANCE FOR MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

Nicolas Bernier's solo performance will allow for the testing of a first writing for an idiosyncratic modular system. Since the piece was created at the beginning of the Performative Notation project, it should be possible to test, with hindsight, in year 3 of the project, the potential for (re)interpretation of the piece.
SCORE FOR VISIONS COULEURS (PDF)

ÉTUDE NO.1

SOLO PERFORMANCE FOR FEEDBACK ON EFFECTS PEDALS

Doctoral student David Caulet explores notation for effects pedals applied in an unconventional (non-guitaristic) context. Accompanied by an article, this exercise allows us to find avenues for playing and notation in this still relatively unformalized field. SCORE FOR ÉTUDE NO.1 (PDF)

OTHER SCORES

[…]
FOR 4 SYNTHESIZERS
Score co-written as part of the writing workshops for electro ensemble. By Nicolas Bourgeois, Florence Lafontaine, Mikael Meunier-Bisson, Guillaume Myre.

DÉBOULER
FOR 4 SYNTHESIZERS
Score co-written as part of the writing workshops for electro ensemble. By Zachary Hardy, Mathieu Lacroix, Antoine Morin, Chloé Rivest

TRANSFERT
FOR 10 MONOPHONIC SYNTHESIZERS
This score is the one that led to the idea of the research-creation project Performative Notation by adding timbre indications to the writing model previously developed for sinusoidal waves.

SCHOLARSHIPS

The project awarded research grants to several students:

• Rémy Jannelle ($2,000 in Winter 2025) to initiate graphic research on performative notation applied to an audiovisual composition device.

• Saadi Daftari ($600 in Fall 2024) for a presentation at the Speculative Sound Synthesis Symposium 2024 at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. The project was also supported by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT).

• Jean-Philippe Jullin ($2,000 in summer 2024) for the development of a sound visualization application based on FluCoMa tools in collaboration with Ableton Live and Touch Designer.

• David Caulet ($4,000 in summer 2024) for the composition, production, and development of a notation method for effects pedals.

Principal Investigator
Nicolas Bernier

Team
David Caulet (doctorat)
Pierre-Luc Lecours (doctorat)
Thomas Augustin (master)
Rémy Jannelle (master)
Alexandre Sasset-Blouin (master)

Logo SIGN/e
Rutger Zuydervelt

Financial Support
FRQ-SC
Université de Montréal

Technical Support UdeM
Jean-Michel Dumas

DOI
https://doi.org/10.69777/355372