PUBLIcations

Tomáš Dvořák, Slavomír Hořínka, Michal Rataj, Jan Trojan: Zvukoprostor, prostorozvuk. NAMU 2018.

Michal Rataj: Everyone can be composer today – full stop or question mark? Musicologica Brunensia, ppp 43-52. Brno 2017.

Michal Rataj: Počítač jako živý instrumentální part, in: Opus Musicum 2013/4, s 6 -16.

Michal Rataj, ed.: Zvukem do hlavy. Sondy do současné audiokultury. NAMU 2012.

Michal Rataj, Martin Flašar, Daniel Matej, ed.: Electronic music today: Where are we going and what are we doing? Masarykova univerzita 2015.

Michal Rataj, Gilberto Agostinho, Daniel Bartoš, Matouš Hejl, Jakub Rataj, Jan Trojan: Dotknout se zvuku, in: Opus Musicum 2015/4, s. 58 - 80.

Michal Rataj: Zvuk a význam v perspektivách současného vysokého hudebního školství a mediálních reálií radioartu, in: Július Fujak, ed.: Otáz(ni)ky hudobnej semiotiky a estetiky. Nitra 2010, s. 145 - 156

Psychological aspects of compositional work

Collective monograph

Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music and Dance, Academy of Performing Arts,

published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

ISBN 978-80-906057-0-1, first edition, Prague 2014.

Zdeněk Bartošík: Color hearing and musical composition

Martin Klusák: The concept of consonance and dissonance with regard to his own work

Eliška Cílková: The radioactive environment as a source of inspiration in musical composition

The three works included in this collective monograph are united by their attempt to connect music theory and psychology in their view of the work of a composer. Each of the authors approached the topic from a slightly different perspective. In his work Color Hearing and Musical Composition, Zdeněk Bartošík primarily examines the influence of selected synesthetic abilities on the creation and perception of musical composition. His work is based, among other things, on an extensive study of specialist psychological and medical texts, music-historical research on the relationship between music and synesthesia, and his own survey of a selected sample of respondents from the lay and professional public. In his essay The Concept of Consonance and Dissonance, Martin Klusák, with reference to his own work, deals with a topic on which, unlike Bartošík's work, there is a wealth of historical and contemporary literature. Klusák's contribution, however, lies in his new perspective on the issue of harmony in music, the way it is incorporated into the compositional whole, and, above all, the categorization of harmonies in terms of the scale of dissonance and consonance. In addition to the compositional process, he also examines the perception of the harmonic qualities of harmony in the context of contemporary music. Similar to her own music, Eliška Cílková's theoretical thinking has the ability to find valid connections between seemingly incompatible phenomena, remote areas, and sources of inspiration for musical creation. Her work Radioactive Environment as a Source of Inspiration in Musical Composition reflects her experience from her own successful musical project Pripyat Piano and other related compositions of her own and by other authors. In it, the author explores various approaches to this unusual source of inspiration, finding connections both in relation to the final form of the compositions and, in particular, to contemporary ways of presenting musical works as part of multimedia forms.

The Influence of New Instrumental Possibilities on Compositional Thinking
Author: Jan Krejčík

Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music and Dance, Academy of Performing Arts,
published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

The publication presents three concepts based on the combination of musical instruments with new technologies, discusses compositions for these instruments, and analyzes the influence of the concept on musical thinking and perception. Includes a number of musical examples in the text.
The work describes the concept of the "disklavier" (mechanical piano) with electronics, the concept of a sampler with a sampled human voice piloted by Jan Krejčík's "ondéa" (Martenot waves) interface, and Jean-Claude Risset's concept of an interactive piano. Through compositions based on these concepts, the author demonstrates the influence of new instruments on musical thinking. He points to the relationship between musical instruments and machines, and the relationship between the human body and sound. The conclusion of the work includes the original French version of the author's interview with J.-C. Risset.

New tonal possibilities of the accordion in the context of modern instrumentation
Author: Lukeš Jiří

Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music and Dance, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2012.
ISBN 978-80-904506-8-4, first edition, 72 pp.

A theoretical treatise on the use of the accordion in orchestral scores from the second half of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, primarily from the perspective of its timbral possibilities. Supplemented by numerous musical examples in the text.
The theme of the work was the growing interest of contemporary composers in the so-called concert accordion. The author notes the instrumentation aspect of this instrument, describes the basic characteristics of its sound and the resulting technical and interpretative possibilities. Selected compositions by contemporary authors are used to map out various creative approaches to the sound of the accordion and its technical and interpretative specifics. The author confronts the findings with his own compositional approach in a composition for accordion and chamber orchestra.

Music in Czech Feature Films – Compositional Techniques of Czech Film Music Composers
Author: Dušek Jan
Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music and Dance, Academy of Performing Arts
Published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN 978-80-904506-3-9, first edition, Prague 2011.

The work Music in Czech Feature Films – Compositional Techniques of Czech Film Music Composers is neither a historical nor an aesthetic work. It includes a number of compositional analyses, some of which are deliberately focused on the same films in different chapters in order to demonstrate the diverse possible uses of music within a single film work. This text is not a guide to composing film music, nor should it be understood as a historiographical text. The individual analyses can serve composers, and perhaps even film directors, to reflect on the principles used by important Czech film music composers and find inspiration for their own work. It could also be said that the analyses provide a certain mapping of the development of Czech film music, its changes, and, conversely, certain constants that have persisted from the very beginning to the present day. Against this backdrop, a partial historical overview emerges.
The selection of films is quite extensive and diverse. Nevertheless, it is only a tiny fraction of Czech film production, which includes thousands of films, and a comprehensive mapping of it would probably not even be possible. By analyzing such diverse films, it is possible to arrive at interesting conclusions demonstrating both the compositional work of individual composers across film genres and the parallels between the compositional approaches of different composers. An interesting partial result of the analyses is the finding that composers often use the archetypal effects of elementary musical principles: for example, consonances are associated with positive emotions, dissonances with negative ones, and similarly with major and minor keys, etc.

Open Composition – Unlimited Possibilities for Inspiration with the Help of a Computer
Author: Jiří Kadeřábek

Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts
Published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN 978-80-904506-5-3, first edition, Prague 2011.

The author shares his experiences in the field of composition, which incorporates stylistically and genre-diverse material, as well as material that is non-musical in nature. The theme of so-called open composition is also defined by the use of computers in the compositional process or in the performance of the compositions themselves. The author's creative starting points and acquired knowledge are supplemented by an outline of the cultural and historical context, a brief description of computer technologies, and specific examples from his own and other composers' works. The author's idea could be expressed as follows: the work, which is referred to in this thesis as open and especially in connection with postmodernism, combines a different kind of compositional craft, and this craft largely consists of transcending the field of music itself. The authors of these compositions are not only composers, but also inventors (Christian Marclay, John Cage), programmers, and engineers (Karlheinz Stockhausen). Relationship to the field of traditional composition and EA music, emphasis on the possibility of output in a purely instrumental form and use in non-artificial music + examples.
Division into two main branches - algorithmic composition (from basic forms in Renaissance and medieval polyphony to advanced use in the works of J. Cage, I. Xenakis, etc. and live improvisations in non-artificial music + examples).
Spectral music (repetition of acoustic phenomena and basic operations + examples from key works by T. Murail and G. Grisey, reference to the specific aesthetics of spectral music and its influence on contemporary composition).

Representatives of New Music in Prague at the Turn of the 1950s and 1960s
Author: Jan Rybář
Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts
Published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN 978-80-904506-6-0, first edition, Prague 2011.

The publication does not aim to present only a historical picture of the period, but also attempts to penetrate the compositional approaches of selected representatives of Czech music at that time. Three key works by Czech composers from the 1960s, Marek Kopelent, Jan Klusák, and Zbyněk Vostřák, are analyzed. These are authors who played a significant role in the local music scene at the time. The analysis is approached from the perspective of a composer looking at the musical production of the time through the specific lens of a creator of contemporary classical music. The period of the 1950s and 1960s has been very little documented. There are few books devoted to the 1960s in Czechoslovakia.
(The first significant work devoted to this issue was Markéta Lajnerová's graduate thesis The Beginnings of New Music in Bohemia, Musica viva Pragensis and its Core Authors, which the author wrote as her diploma thesis at the Institute of Musicology of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague in 2000. Another important work is Miroslav Pudlák's monograph Zbyněk Vostřák: Idea a tvar v hudbě (Zbyněk Vostřák: Idea and Form in Music), which deals not only with the person of Zbyněk Vostřák, but also with the cultural and political context of the time. A monograph by Michal Matzner on Marek Kopelent is also in preparation, which is being completed by his father Antonín after Matzner's tragic death.
However, this publication does not aim to present only a historical picture of the period, but also attempts to penetrate the compositional approaches of selected representatives of Czech music at that time. It analyzes three key works by Czech composers from the 1960s, written by Marek Kopelent, Jan Klusák, and Zbyněk Vostřák. These are authors who played a significant role in the local music scene at the time. The period in which the Czech musical avant-garde was formed did not last long, but it was crucial for Czech music.

Acoustic Ecology and Soundscape in the Context of Multimedia
Author: Jan Trojan
Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN 978-80-904506-4-6, first edition, Prague 2011.

In this work, the author focuses on the artistic form of soundscape as we can actually characterize, listen to, and perceive it in the context of the forty-year tradition of acoustic ecology and, at the same time, in close relation to the creation of musical/sound compositions. In the context of acoustic ecology, community and institutional projects that have emerged in recent years, not only in a global context but also in our domestic environment, are mapped. The main question remains the attempt to explain the key concepts of acoustic ecology and soundscape. Two perspectives are applied in the study of soundscape:
1. soundwalk / listening walk – specific exploration of the acoustic landscape around us in the form of a sound / listening walk
2. sound composition analysis – analysis focusing on traditional compositional approaches in sound compositions.
In the first case, the author deals with the radical requirement of active listening, a psychological type of listening that R. M. Schafer requires in auditory interaction with our surroundings. In the second case, in his analyses of the sound compositions Winter Diary (R. M. Schafer) and Un altro ferragosto (A. Curran), he seeks to determine how the tradition of soundscape influences the traditional compositional principles applied in classical music composition. The aim of the analysis is to answer the question of how the tradition of acoustic ecology and R. M. Schafer's way of thinking have influenced the thinking of composers in the field of sound composition.

Music and Multimedia
Collection of Studies
Prepared by the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music, Academy of Performing Arts,
published by Triga Publishing House for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
ISBN 978-80-904506-2-2, first edition, Prague 2010.

Jiří Hájek: The Function of the Musical Component in Multimedia Works
Jan Dušek: The Beginnings of the Conventionalization of Associative Film Music in Czech Film Production
Jan Trojan: Means of Expression in Electroacoustic Music in the Context of Multimedia Production
Jiří Kadeřábek: Examples of the inventive use of computers in contemporary composition
Compositional thinking has changed significantly over the last 50 years or so. This is mainly due to the influence of new technologies, media, and the possibilities of laboratory sound processing. A number of new musical instruments have been created, and the boundaries of what we call music have expanded. Any sound can be used and processed in composition. Increasing demands are being placed on the profession of composer, and it is absolutely essential that the above-mentioned trends be reflected upon theoretically in order to pass on knowledge.

Orchestration as an open process
Collection of studies
Volumes I–III, approx. 1,100 printed pages
ISBN 978-80 904266-8-9, printed by ERMAT Prague, first edition, Prague 2009–2010.

Authors: Slavomír Hořínka, Luboš Mrkvička, Tomáš Pálka, Marko Ivanovič, Miloš ORSON Štědroň, Martin Hybler, Anna Veverková, Markéta Mazourová, Jan Dušek, Lukáš Sommer, Robert Hejnar, Dan Dlouhý
Editor-in-chief: Ivan Kurz
CONTENTS of the anthology:
Preface to the anthology

Part I:
Slavomír Hořínka – The Color of Sound and Hierarchy in Tectonics
Luboš Mrkvička – Color and Harmony – Compositional Techniques of Spectral Music
Tomáš Pálka – Sound, Space, and Tectonics in Musical Composition
Marko Ivanović – Color as a Compositional Principle in Musical-Theatrical Works
Miloš ORSON Štědroň – Instrumentation, the Ideal Sound, and the Expression of the Age

Part II:
Martin Hybler – Wind Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra (with Regard to Their New Sound Possibilities)
Anna Veverková – String Instruments of the Symphonic Orchestra (Ten Chapters on Strings from the Perspective of a Performer of Contemporary Music Literature)
Markéta Mazourová – The Most Commonly Used Percussion Instruments in Symphonic Scores
Jan Dušek – Modern Techniques for Playing Keyboard Instruments (Piano, Organ, Harpsichord)
Lukáš Sommer - Instrumentation issues for the harp and guitar

Part III:
Robert Hejnar - Solo instrument and orchestra (with special emphasis on keyboard instruments)
Dan Dlouhý - Overview, systematization, and evaluation of timbral innovations
A treatise on instrumentation can be approached in several ways. Put somewhat simply, the following perspectives can be considered:
Approaching the subject as an in-depth study of musical instruments, viewed primarily from the perspective of valid musical-acoustic principles, in an effort to arrive at conclusions that are as general as possible.
Focus on the phenomenon of color with all the consequences that follow from this perspective. Color then manifests itself not only as an acoustic factor, but above all as a tectonic, aesthetic, and semantic factor.
The focus is primarily on the practical side of things and the development of a kind of "cookbook" (in the best sense of the word) for the needs of practitioners, with the aim of providing the most comprehensive service possible for the most frequently used information and principles.
If we look around (both at home and abroad) at publications on this subject, we find that works of type "a" predominate (in the Czech context, for example, Jan Rychlík et al.: Modern Instrumentation /1968/). The other two types, especially type "b," are in the minority (in our country, Jaroslav Zich sought to present views of type "c" in his publications: "Instrumentační práce se skupinami" [Instrumentation Work with Groups] /1957/ and "Orchestrace a sborová sazba – kapitoly a studie" [Orchestration and Choral Arrangement – Chapters and Studies] /1986/. We could probably also include in this category the older Czech work (1954) by Václav Vačkář and Dalibor C. Vačkář, Instrumentation of the Symphonic Orchestra and Wind Music. The range of publications that comprehensively deal with the issue of instrumentation is not very wide in the Czech environment – foreign sources and literature can be found in the professional sources of individual studies presented in the anthology – see).
It would be a misunderstanding on my part if the above division into types a, b, and c gave the impression of a classification order. This is not the case. All three perspectives can have and do have their merits and justifications. Opinions on writing theoretical treatises on this subject are very diverse. My opinion, which has been formed over a relatively long period of time, not only on the basis of my work as a composer, but also on the basis of my work as a teacher in this field, is increasingly leaning towards a comprehensive approach, i.e., one that prefers to combine all three perspectives. This publication also seeks to put this position into practice.
The material is divided into three parts. The first part focuses mainly on the function of color as a tectonic, aesthetic, semantic, historical, dramaturgical, and acoustic factor. The second part traces the contours of orchestration issues from the "perspective" of individual musical instruments and individual sections of the symphony orchestra. Finally, the third part deals with the relationship between the solo instrument and the orchestra and the issue of timbral innovations.
As can be seen from the above information on the situation in the Czech environment, the last publication in our country dealing comprehensively with the subject of symphonic instrumentation is Zich's work, which was published in 1986. (In fact, however, its content is significantly older, as it is compiled from individual passages, most of which were published in the "Živá hudba" anthologies much earlier.) The "latest" comprehensive publication in our country therefore remains Modern Instrumentation by Jan Rychlík and a team of authors (1968). In this context, I would also like to mention other inspiring Czech works, such as Poznámky k instrumentaci I a II (Notes on Instrumentation I and II) by František Emmert (second revised edition 2001) (however, these lecture notes tend to focus on the theory of musical instruments and do not go beyond that); in the field of applied acoustics – J. Burghauser-J. Špelda: Akustické základy orchestrace (Acoustic Foundations of Orchestration) (1967), Hudební akustika (Musical Acoustics) by Václav Syrový (2003); in the field of popular and jazz music – Karel Krautgartner: O instrumentaci tanečního a jazzového orchestru (On the Instrumentation of Dance and Jazz Orchestras) (1961); Vlastimil Hála: Základy aranžování moderní populární hudby (Fundamentals of Arranging Modern Popular Music) (1986); Jindřich Praveček: Wind Orchestra – Conducting, Instrumentation /1987/. So, whichever way we look at it, the fact remains that there is a vacuum of at least one generation in terms of a comprehensive treatment of the subject of orchestration. It is clear that a new treatment of this subject matter brings a significantly more up-to-date perspective on the whole issue.

Wind instruments of the modern symphony orchestra
Author: Hybler Martin
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2009.
ISBN 978-80-904266-6-5. 143 pages.

This work deals with wind instruments in the symphony orchestra from a contemporary perspective – that is, as instruments that offer new sound possibilities when played in a non-standard way. I briefly outline general knowledge about wind instruments. The focus is on researching the special possibilities of wind instruments, such as multiphonics, bisbigliando, double trills, harmonics, slap tones, echo tones, and more.

Space and Tectonics in Musical Composition
Author: Tomáš Pálka
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2009.

ISBN 978-80-904266-5-8. 87 pages.
In his research, the author focused on finding relationships between music and space, between musical parameters and the acoustic properties of halls and objects for music production. Throughout music history, compositions have been and continue to be created that reflect the properties of space in their structure or are spatially designed – instrumented. Space is thus directly reflected in their tectonic structure. The 20th century brought a significant shift in the perception of the influence of space on listeners. In this context, there was also a tendency towards close collaboration between composers and architects. One example is the Philips Pavilion in Brussels, a collaboration between composer Edgard Varèse and architect Le Corbusier. Iannis Xenakis, a composer and architect in one, later designed the Polyptope building in Montreal. The growing influence of electroacoustic music since the 1950s has played a major role in this shift in perception. This work is also based on acoustic phenomena from the fields of architecture and electroacoustics. In the internal structure of selected works, we observe the principles of echo, reverberation, clarity, but also, for example, fluttering echoes or "reversals" of reverberation. Analyses of these primary and derived acoustic phenomena in musical composition are the subject of the final output.

Color and Harmony
Author: Luboš Mrkvička
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2008.
ISBN 978-80-904266-1-0. 131 pages.

This work deals with the musical genre known as spectral music (focusing almost exclusively on the French form), which, of all the musical genres from the 1970s to the present day, has perhaps contributed most significantly to a deeper reflection on the interrelationship between the phenomena of instrumental color and the organization of pitch. The first chapters, which are of a more general nature (placing spectral music in its historical context, describing its initial gesture and its structural foundations), are followed by the main part of the work, which is devoted to individual compositional techniques: analyses of specific musical examples selected from compositions by leading representatives of this musical movement (Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, etc.). The conclusion then attempts a brief comparison of spectral compositional techniques with serial techniques.

The Musical Language of Contemporary Opera. The Dramatic Effectiveness of Contemporary Compositional Techniques
Author: Ivanović Marko
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2008.
ISBN 978-80-904266-3-4. 60 pages.

This work presents a relatively uncommon interdisciplinary view of opera. Although it primarily deals with the technical aspects of musical composition techniques, it also attempts to analyze their functionality in a theatrical context, taking into account audience perception. The concept of opera is defined here as an artificial genre standing between melodrama and oratorio, and includes works that belong to this genre, even though their classification in this category may seem problematic. The subject of the study is opera works composed after 1950, selected with the aim of covering significant works across the widest possible range of styles. These include works by L. Nono, K. Stockhausen, B. Maderna, G. Ligeti, A. Schnittke, P. Glass, S. Reich, and others. The first two sections are devoted to the choice of the basic research method. The semantic method of J. Jiránek and O. Zich is used as a starting point for the question of the communicativeness of music as such. Its effectiveness for listeners is evaluated from the perspective of Stefani's theory of musical competence. Special attention is paid to the specific situation of the contemporary music listener and certain specifics of the relationship between music and drama from the recipient's perspective. The main part of the work is divided into two sections. The first deals with selected compositional techniques or styles and attempts to capture the specifics and differences in their relationship to drama. The selection is limited to serialism, aleatoric music, timbral music, polystylism, and minimalism. The second part takes the form of partial probes into current thematic areas arising in relation to contemporary opera, often involving a synthetic treatment of the outputs from the previous chapters.
The conclusion contains a summary of the findings of the previous chapters and an attempt to formulate generalizing theses.

Instrumentation as an ideal sound and expression of the times
Author: Miloš Orson Štědroň
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2008.
ISBN 978-80-904266-4-1. 80 pages.

In his work, the author captures those aspects of instrumentation that are not primarily related to sound concepts, but are also influenced by other, non-musical aspects. Given the breadth of the topic, the publication focuses only on analyses of 20th-century music, with an emphasis on the instrumentation techniques of Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů. Analyses of two specific works by Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt are typical examples of the complexity of musical thinking in the second half of the 20th century. Composers of the 20th and 21st centuries no longer think about instrumentation solely in purely musical and sonic terms, but rather use certain instruments to play out a whole range of meanings and hidden messages. This way of thinking is also seen as the mission and meaning of contemporary classical music. This means not only fulfilling ideal sound concepts, but also reflecting impulses not only from other areas of art, but also from the sociological and historical contexts of social history.

Solo Instrument and Orchestra with Special Emphasis on Keyboard Instruments
Author: Robert Hejnar
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2008.
ISBN 978-80-904266-0-3. 236 pages.

Robert Hejnar's work Solo Instrument and Orchestra (with Special Reference to Keyboard Instruments) deals with the relationship and instrumentation of solo instruments and orchestras. The introductory chapters of the work identify the decisive criteria for the instrumentation of solo instruments and orchestras from the perspective of acoustic parameters (using categories of basic tone characteristics), as well as types of instrumental concertos and the definition of aspects of the relationship and function of solo and accompanying orchestral components. Based on a general analysis (with an emphasis on form, the treatment of the solo instrument, orchestral arrangement, and the sound imagination of the work) and a subsequent comparison (in terms of form, cadence, tectonic ambivalence, and the relationship and function of the solo instrument and orchestra) of representative concertante works of the 20th century (K. Penderecki: Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra, A. Parsch: Symphony-Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra, S. Gubaidulina: "Offertorium" – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, S. Prokofiev: Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10, for Piano and Orchestra, L. Fišer: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, B. Martinů: Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orchestra, V. Riedlbauch: Concerto-Battle for organ and orchestra) are outlined at the end of the work, along with unconventional instrumental techniques for individual instruments of the main orchestral sections and keyboard instruments that can be used in the instrumentation of compositions for solo instrument and orchestra, taking into account their dynamic, timbral, and technical specifics, including further perspectives on the development of the instrumental concerto as a formal whole.

The Color of Sound and Its Role in the Construction of Musical Compositions
Author: Hořínka Slavomír
Published by TRIGA for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2008.
ISBN 978-80-904266-2-7. 88 pages.

In his work The Color of Sound and Its Role in the Structure of Musical Compositions, the author attempts to find a new perspective on tectonic situations in which color becomes an active factor in the structure of musical compositions. The basic factor for the selection of specific compositions is the aspect of hierarchy in tectonics, both its presence and its possible absence. As a methodological tool, I use the trio of concepts Dynamic Peak, Tectonic Center, and Tectonic-Dynamic Peak, which are defined in more detail in Chapter 2. The dynamic peak refers to the dynamic course of the composition, the tectonic center refers to the hierarchy in the structure, and the tectonic-dynamic peak is the case of the joint action of both at the same time. The key concept is "center." This is understood in general terms as a part of the musical structure that is more important than other parts in terms of perception and thus hierarchically structures the musical flow in time. In his analyses, the author deals with the role of color in less common ways of composing from the perspective of dynamic progression and hierarchy in tectonics. These are cases where: the composition has a tectonic center that is not identical to the dynamic peak; the composition is constructed as an arc, but without a tectonic center; the composition has dynamic peaks, but no tectonic center; the composition has no dynamic peak, but has a different tectonic center; the composition, or part of it, is constructed as an inverted arch, i.e., instead of gradation to the peak, it descends to the lower peak and back; the composition has neither a dynamic peak nor a tectonic center. In conclusion, the findings are placed in a more general framework, which leads the author to questions of hierarchical structuring in the listener's perception of music and other broader aspects of the above-mentioned tectonic concepts.

Electroacoustic Music and Selected Concepts of Radio Art
Author: Rataj Michal
Disk Small Series, Volume 3. Prepared by the Department of Composition at HAMU for the AMU&MU Center for Basic Research.
Published by KANT Publishing House – Karel Kerlický for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; 1st edition, Prague 2007
ISBN 978-80-86970-31-8. 164 pages.

The author of the publication, a composer, publicist, and producer, expertly guides readers through the world of electroacoustic music – a rapidly developing field of musical art over the last fifty years. He devotes considerable attention to the emerging domestic radio art scene and its efforts to seek new artistic forms and means. (This mainly concerns the issue of defining creative positions in the field of acoustic arts from the perspective of the domestic radio art scene.)
"Every medium in the broadest sense of the word has been building its means of expression, its codes, its creative modes of communication, and its genre, aesthetic, and sociocultural orientation in the context of contemporary European art for centuries. Over several decades of continuous artistic creation for radio, a whole range of more or less established, standardized, and tradition-forming forms have developed, whether it be radio plays, radio documentaries, artistic reportage, etc. What is most often referred to today as "radio art" attempts—in different ways in different countries—to explore the space above all that is standardized, established, obvious, and legible. Radio art seeks to discover new means of expression, new forms of ‘interactive acoustic communication’, and to verify their validity and suitability for reuse in standardized media production. In the long term, as in every field of human activity, it emerges from the imaginary ghetto of the closed laboratory and exists as an irreplaceable breeding ground from which new ideas for the work of future generations of artists grow.

Indian Rhythmic System: A Source of Inspiration for Western Composers
Author: Tomáš Reindl
Published by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2017. 1st edition.
ISBN 978-80-7331-458-3. 122 pages.

The ingenuity and conceptual systematicity that abound in the rhythms of North Indian and South Indian classical music are certainly not found in European musical history. Readers have the opportunity to learn about the traditional principles and concepts of North Indian and South Indian rhythms, rhythmic cycles and how they are counted, Indian polyrhythmic forms, the system of rhythmic syllables used for teaching and interpretation, and, last but not least, Indian tabla drums, with which some rhythmic structures are closely associated. In the second part of the book, the author deals with specific cases and ways in which contact with Indian rhythms influenced the work of some Western composers.

Digital Technology in Music Composition for Acoustic Instruments
Authors: Gilberto Agostinho, Jakub Rataj
Published by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2016, 1st edition.
ISBN 978-80-7331-419-4. 140 pages.

The first part of the book consists of Jakub Rataj's work Translation of Human Body Movement into Sound Using Sensors. It deals with the intersection of two different compositional approaches ("real-time" technology and instrumental composition) in the author's own work – the music and dance performance The Art of Manipulation. The first chapter describes the historical development of sensory technology in the field of music and dance and deals with the role of the dancer as a musical performer and the associated technological aspects. In the second chapter, Jakub Rataj focuses on the specific starting points and procedures used in the production of The Art of Manipulation.
In the second part of the book, Gilberto dos Santos Agostinho Filho analyzes three main types of computer algorithms that are commonly used to create musical compositions: algorithms based on a set of given rules, stochastic procedures, and the use of artificial intelligence. He focuses primarily on the creation of acoustic musical works using algorithmic procedures, in particular the automatic generation of musical scores and the aesthetic consequences associated with this type of approach.

Sound in Your Head; Probes into Contemporary Audio Culture
Collective of authors
Published by the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in cooperation with Czech Radio, Prague 2012, 1st edition.
ISBN 978-80-7331-229-9. 176 pages, V4 binding.

The twenty-one texts in this publication attempt to penetrate the heart of today's fragmented audio culture. They are not primarily concerned with exploring the building blocks of contemporary audio culture. The publication attempts to find the resulting image that these individual building blocks form together. It also seeks points of contact where new communication and creative resonance can begin to take place, points that are often impossible to identify, even though they are obvious. The publication covers a wide range of phenomena in its scope and style, without reflection on which it is impossible to imagine contemporary audio culture. From musicological reflections on the contemporary music scene (Flašar, Dobrovská, Fujak, Pantůček, Ferenc, Klimeš), we move on to the realities of contemporary art rooted in various concepts of working with language (Adámek, Januš), from where it is not far to various types of reflection on art on the radio (Jurman, Cseres, Novotný). Chart, blog, and poetically oriented contributions (Klusák, Kokolia, Typlt) shift the emphasis to places where the creative positions of authors are reflected upon (Palacký, Guštar, Suchánek, Švamberk). An integral part of audio culture criticism is the field of acoustic ecology and the specific concepts of hearing and sound semiotics that arise from it (Trojan, Vojtěchovský). And finally, no reflection can do without a clear vision for the future – Givan Belá concludes the entire publication with his vision of "generative nanoradio."