Music 128 | CS 170 ­ Stanford Laptop Orchestra: Composition, Coding, and Performance

Time: Wednesdays 7­10pm Location: CCRMA Stage Instructor: Jieun Oh (jieun5@ccrma) TAs: Spencer Salazar (spencer@ccrma), Kurt Werner (kwerner@ccrma) Office Hours: Instructor office hours by appointment; TA office hours TBA Website: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/128/ Course Wiki: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/wiki/128­spring­2013 (for assignment instructions)

Course Description

Classroom instantiation of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) which includes public performances. An ensemble of humans, laptops, controllers, and special speaker arrays designed to provide each computer­mediated instrument with its sonic identity and presence. Topics and activities include issues of composing for laptop orchestras, instrument design, sound synthesis, programming, and live performance.

Concerts and Additional Rehearsals

Students enrolled in the class must be able to commit to all classes, concerts and dress­rehearsals. As attendance is crucial for a successful SLOrk experience, missing or being late to class may negatively impact your grades (except in extreme cases, such as a medical or family emergency). If you have any schedule conflicts, please inform the teaching staff as soon as possible to figure out a work­around. We’ll try to accommodate students’ class schedules for dress rehearsals occurring during the daytime.

● SLOrktastic Chamber Music dress­rehearsal throughout the afternoon on Thursday, May 2 @ CCCRMA Stage ● SLOrktastic Chamber Music Concert 8pm on Thursday, May 2 @ CCRMA Stage ● Spring Concert dress­rehearsal 1 4pm ­ midnight on Tuesday, June 4 @ Bing Concert Hall ● Spring Concert dress­rehearsal 2 10am ­ 8pm on Wednesday, June 5 @ Bing Concert Hall ● Spring Concert 8pm on Wednesday, June 5 @ Bing Concert Hall

Evaluation

Course expectation will be the same regardless of the number of units students enroll in (1­5), or the grading basis (letter or CR/NC). The final grade will be determined as follows:

● Class attendance and participation (50%) attending all class meetings; class participation, incl. assignment presentations and discussions ● SLOrktastic Chamber Music (20%) short writeup; check­up meeting with teaching staff; quality of composition, coding, and performance (during rehearsals and at the concert) for the SLOrktastic Chamber Music ● Spring Concert (30%) short writeup; check­up meeting with teaching staff; quality of composition, coding, and performance (during rehearsals and at the concert) for the Spring Concert ● Extra Opportunities (++) optional participation in additional performance opportunities (TBA) WEEK 1 (4/3): introduction (syllabus, email list, wiki), setup + teardown, learn a piece, ChucK tutorial 1 ● Required readings 1. Smallwood et al. Composing for Laptop Orchestra (Computer Music Journal 2008) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/mcd/publish/files/2008­cmj­composing.pdf 2. Ruviaro. From Schaeffer to *LOrks (2012) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~ruviaro/texts/SLEO_2012_Proceedings.pdf (pp 23­26) ● Supplemental readings 1. Taube. Notes From The Metalevel (2004) ­ Introduction http://www.moz.ac.at/sem/lehre/lib/bib/software/cm/Notes_from_the_Metalevel/intro.html 2. Eno, Brian. Composers as Gardeners (2011) http://edge.org/conversation/composers­as­gardeners 3. Bruno Ruviaro’s blog (based on his experience with SLOrk, 2010­2011) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/blogs/ruviaro/ ● Assignment 1: analysis of *LOrk pieces (In addition, milestone check for Assignment 2 is due next week) Note: see wiki for detailed instructions on all assignments: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/wiki/128­spring­2013

WEEK 2 (4/10): assn 1 discussions, presentation by Bruno, learn a piece, form groups, ChucK tutorial 2 ● Required readings 1. Wang et al. Stanford Laptop Orchestra (ICMC 2009) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/mcd/publish/files/2009­icmc­slork.pdf 2. Salazar et al. miniAudicle and ChucK Shell (ICMC 2006) http://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/miniAudicle_icmc2006.pdf ● Supplemental reading 1. Dahl. Wicked Problems and Design Considerations in Composing for Laptop Orchestra (2012) http://www.eecs.umich.edu/nime2012/Proceedings/papers/259_Final_Manuscript.pdf 2. Salazar et al. Chugens, Chubgraphs, ChuGins: 3 Tiers for Extending ChucK (2012) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~spencer/publications/CCC2012.pdf ● Assignment 2: single­hemi instrument

WEEK 3 (4/17): assn 2 presentations, presentation by Luke, group workshop time ● Assignment 3: initial prototype for SLOrktastic Chamber Music

WEEK 4 (4/24): assn 3 presentation performances + feedback ● Assignment 4: polish piece for SLOrktastic Chamber Music; submit program notes

WEEK 5 (5/1): SLOrktastic Chamber Music dress­rehearsal and concert ● Assignment 5: write­up: reflections/ review of SLOrktastic Chamber Music

WEEK 6 (5/8): share assn 5, form groups for Spring Concert, Many­Person Instruments, networking tutorial ● Required readings: 1. Rotondo et al. Many­Person Instruments for Computer Music Performance (NIME 2012) http://www.eecs.umich.edu/nime2012/Proceedings/papers/171_Final_Manuscript.pdf 2. Oh et al. Audience Participation Techniques Based on Social Mobile Computing (ICMC 2011) https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/mcd/publish/files/2011­icmc­audience.pdf ● Assignment 6: plans and initial prototype for Spring Concert

WEEK 7 (5/15): assn 6 presentations + feedback, audience participation, group workshop time ● Assignment 7: revise prototype for group­led rehearsal

WEEK 8 (5/22): group­led rehearsals (20­min per group, “assn 7”), possibly “laugh variations” ● Assignment 8: polish piece for group­led rehearsal

WEEK 9 (5/29): group­led rehearsal (20­min per group, “assn 8”) ● Assignment 9: finalize piece; submit program notes; pre­concert write­up (due 6/3)

WEEK 10 (6/5): Spring Concert dress­rehearsal and concert General Resources

SLOrk :http://slork.stanford.edu/ ChucK: http://chuck.stanford.edu/ SMELT: http://smelt.cs.princeton.edu/ .

Students with Documented Disabilities

Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723­1066, URL: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae).