The CNRS Gold Medal 1999

The CNRS Gold Medal
1999
Gold Medal awarded to Jean-Claude Risset
The CNRS awarded the 1999 Gold Medal to Jean-Claude Risset, member of
the Acoustical Society of America, member of the IDEAMA International
Advisory Board (International Digital Electro-acoustic Music Archive,
Stantford and Karlsruhe), member of the French section of the International
Society of Contemporary Music, and Research Director at the CNRS
Mechanics and Acoustics Laboratory (LMA) in Marseilles.
Jean-Claude Risset works at the interface
between Art and Science: an undisputed expert
in the theory and practice of computer
technology applied to music, he is also a
musician and composer of wide repute within
the international artistic community.
His early research work, which he began as a
researcher at the CNRS Fundamental Electronics
Institute, then with Max Mathews at the Bell
Telephone Laboratories, and continued at
IRCAM, the Luminy Faculty of Science and,
lately, with the CNRS Mechanics and Acoustics
Laboratory (Department of Engineering
Sciences), focuses on the characterization
and synthesis of musical sounds. He introduced
the idea of synthesized tonal analysis,
applying the concept to his own music.
His studies explore the area of convergence
between acoustics, computer technology,
psychophysics and music, and have produced
new findings on the way perception works:
his applications have included constructions
of sounds which generate musical effects that
are based on the characteristics of perception
rather than on an abstract, and predetermined,
model of physical parameters, and thus
demonstrate the existence of unforeseen
and sometimes paradoxical characteristics.
The determining factor is therefore how
sound is perceived, rather than the inevitable
limitations of mechanically produced sound.
By understanding and exploiting the specific
characteristics of auditory perception,
Jean-Claude Risset succeeded, for the first
time, in imitating the sounds made by brass
instruments and other natural sounds, highlighting the importance – for identification
purposes - of temporal changes during sound
events. In particular, he has succeeded in
producing new effects that demonstrate the
complexity of the perception of musical
sounds by creating acoustic illusions or
paradoxes: glissandi that rise and fall at the
same time, rhythms that accelerate indefinitely
and sounds the pitch of which seems to go
down when their frequency are doubled. His
“recipes” for the sounds thus produced have
been carefully documented in a «Catalogue of
computerized sound synthesis» which makes
them available to scientists or artists. Thanks
to this catalogue, and the Music V program
co-authored by Jean-Claude Risset, “synthesizing
software” is now available for general use.
between the pianist and the computer, using
software that records the pianist’s movements
and plays a counterpart on the same piano like
a sensitive accompanist. Jean-Claude Risset
has composed numerous instrumental pieces
and songs, performed alone or as dialogues
with digital sounds, and has received many
commissions as well as awards for his music.
His approaches to musical creation, sound
processing and interactive man-machine interpretation have been an outstanding contribution
to the international repertoire of music.
The work carried out by his research team in
Orsay and subsequently in Marseilles includes
studies on the distinction between tonal and
spectral pitch, which are perceived differently
by the two cerebral hemispheres, the synthesis
by non-linear distortion (DNL), the application
of signal processing methods to musical
sounds, hybrid syntheses, time stretching
without pitch transposition (using a method
that may be applied to make the voices of
divers under hyperbaric conditions intelligible),
the modeling of various musical sounds and
musical applications of numerous audio-digital
sound effects (reverberation, chorus, modulation,
etc.). Some of these results have been patented
(DNL, Arfib) and some are being commercially
developed in collaboration with Yamaha,
Digilog, Saphir and ERGI.
Jean-Claude Risset’s passion for research on
computer technology in music and composing
has always gone hand in hand with a driving
interest in pedagogy, whether directed towards
the scientific community, students or a much
wider audience. He has made considerable
efforts to explain and illustrate fields of
experimentation in computer applications in
music, through concerts, lectures, summer
courses and seminars abroad, as well as
through symposia and courses as a lecturer
at Aix-Marseilles University and through his
work as director of the national post-graduate
diploma course (DEA) in « acoustics, signal
processing and computer applications in
music » . A study commissioned by the Ministry
of Education, Research and Technology amply
illustrates his concern for pedagogy: his AST
report («Art-Science-Technology»), submitted
in 1998, lays firm foundations for prospective
debates among students, teachers, industrialists,
researchers and artists.
As a composer, Jean-Claude Risset has made
scientific investigations into the creation of
musical works by testing tone, as a multiform
parameter of auditory perception, against
musical expression: in developing tonal
synthesis, he not only composes with sounds,
but composes the sounds themselves, illustrating
his approach through numerous electro-acoustic
pieces. While exploring the field of interpretation, at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) Media Lab, he invented an
original approach to real-time interaction
Jean-Claude Risset’s research exemplifies the
cross-disciplinary approach. He has established
a school of thought and creativity in which
France plays a leading role. The originality of
his ideas and creativeness provides a striking
example of such « cross-disciplinary encounters » where new technology combines with
art and science.
31
1999 Silver Medals
DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS
Marc VIRCHAUX,
45, researcher at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
Sigrid AVRILLIER,
Didier CHATENAY,
51, professor and researcher in the Laser Physics Laboratory (Laboratoire
de physique des Lasers - CNRS-Université Paris XIII), in Villetaneuse.
44, CNRS Research Director and Head of the Laboratory of Complex Fluid
Dynamics (Laboratoire de dynamique des fluids complexes - CNRS-Université
Strasbourg I) in Strasbourg.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES
Patrick COUSOT,
Leanne PITCHFORD,
50, professor and member of the Laboratory of Computer Science at the École
normale supérieure (CNRS-ENS), in Paris.
49, CNRS Research Director at the Plasma Physics and Applications Center
(Centre de physique des plasmas et de leurs applications - CNRS-Université
Toulouse III) in Toulouse.
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL SCIENCES
Richard LAVERY,
Raymond ZIESSEL,
47, CNRS Research Director in the Laboratory of Theoretical Biochemistry
(CNRS-Institut de biologie physico-chimique) in Paris.
46, CNRS Research Director in the Laboratory for “Synthesis and Stereoactivity
in Fine Organic Chemistry” (CNRS – Ecole de chimie, polymères, matériaux,
Université Strasbourg I) in Strasbourg.
DEPARTMENT OF THE SCIENCES OF THE UNIVERSE
Pascale DELECLUSE,
Albert TARENTOLA,
43, CNRS Research Director at the LODYC (Laboratoire d’océanographie
dynamique et de climatologie - CNRS-Université Paris VI) in Paris.
50, physicist in the seismology department of the Institute of Global Physics
(Institut de physique du globe - CNRS-IPG-Université Paris VII).
DEPARTMENT OF LIFE SCIENCES
Marc-Pierre BONNEVILLE, 39, CNRS Research Director and Head of the INSERM’s «Receptor-ligand
Roland JOUVENT,
Daniel SCHERMAN,
Interactions in Immunology and Oncology» Unit (CNRS-INSERM) in Nantes.
50, CNRS Research Director and Head of the Personality and Adaptive Behavior
Laboratory (CNRS-Université Paris VI – Université Paris VII) at the Salpêtrière
Hospital in Paris.
46, CNRS Research Director and Head of the Molecular and Cellular Vectorology
Laboratory (CNRS-ENSCP-Rhône Poulenc-Rorer) in Vitry-sur-Seine.
DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Robert BOYER,
Geneviève DOLLFUS,
Pierre-Michel MENGER,
32
56, CNRS Research Director and Head of the Regulation, Human Resources
and Public Economy (CNRS – Centre d’études prospectives d’économie
mathématique appliquéee à la planification) in Paris.
60, CNRS Research Director, former Head of the Southern Iran Laboratory
and researcher in the Origins and Development of Sedentarization in
the Middle East Laboratory (CNRS-Maison de l’Orient) in Lyon.
46, CNRS Research Director and Head of the Sociology of the Arts Center
(CNRS-Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales) in Paris.