A Field of Possibilities
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A FIELD OF POSSIBILITIES Designing and Playing Digital Musical Instruments Per Anders Nilsson Beam Stone, from left: guest musician Evan Parker, Per Anders Nilsson, Sten Sandell, and Raymond Strid. Photo: Mattias Petersson. Abstract This thesis focuses on a set of digital musical instruments I have designed and developed with ensemble improvisation in mind. The intention is not to create a universal improvisational instrument, but rather to create a set of instruments which each realize one musical idea. My research addresses the meaning and relations between activities in two stages, what I call “design time” and “play time”. In short, design time is conception, representation, and articulation of ideas and knowledge outside of chronological time, whereas play time takes place in real-time and concerns bodily activity, interaction, and embodied knowledge. In this work aesthetics play a crucial role, and here signify what is important for me. At design time my aesthetic preferences guide the design process, whereas in play time, a subjective aesthetic tenet is that musical improvisation has strong similarities to gaming and play. One hypothesis states that choices made during the design process at the development stages of a digital musical instrument significantly influence ensemble improvisation and musical results at play time. A digital instrument in this work constitutes a field of possibilities, which in play actualizes the aesthetic decisions of its designer, and in cases where the designer and player are one, during play there will be a double influence: directly through the player’s actions, and indirectly through the nature of the instrument. Title: A Field of Possibilities: Designing and Playing Digital Musical Instruments. Language: English Key Words: Digital musical instruments, improvisation, experimental mu- sic, jazz, free improvisation, music of sounds, computer music, interaction design, design time – play time, practicing, play, game and sports, self-orga- nization, rules, affordances, predeterminations, artistic research. iv There is something great about doing things twice because it’s never quite the same the second time. Cornelius Cardew Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musical Performance and Interpretation at the Academy of Music and Drama, Faculty of Fine and Applied Art. ArtMonitor dissertation No. 30 ArtMonitor University of Gothenburg, Faculty Office of Fine, and Performing Arts Storgatan 43 PO Box 141 SE-405 30 Gothenburg Sweden www.konst.gu.se Main Supervisors: Professor Björn Hellström, University College of Art, Crafts, andDesign , Stockholm. Professor Magnus Eldénius, Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg. Co-supervisors: Professor Göran Folkestad, Lund University. Associate Professor Palle Dahlstedt, Department of Applied IT at Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg. Professor Johannes Landgren, Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg. Professor Joao-Pedro De Oliveira, University of Aveiro, Portugal. Graphic production: Daniel Flodin Cover: Arvid Nilsson and Per Anders Nilsson DVD production: Per Anders Nilsson Video recordings and editing: Anders Bryngel (ISCM and duo pantoMorf), else Erik Jeppsson Sound engineer: Erik Jeppsson Sound mix and mastering: Per Anders Nilsson Printed by: Ineko AB, Kållered 2011 © Per Anders Nilsson 2011 ISBN: 978-91-978477-8-0 Contents Abstract iv Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Preamble 1 Point of Departure – Mapping the Thesis 1 Research Questions 3 Field of Research 3 Context of Improvisation 5 A Field of Possibilities 5 Improvisation Ensembles in this Work 6 Beam Stone 6 duo pantoMorf 7 Limitations 8 Personal Matters 9 Relations to my Instrument: the Saxophone 11 The Instrument as an Object 12 The Instrument as a Subject 14 The Structure of the Thesis 15 Methodology 16 Design Time Aesthetics 16 Play Time Aesthetics 17 Perception in Play 17 Instrument 18 Setting 18 Analyses and Discussion 19 DVD 19 Methodology 21 Introduction 21 Research Method 25 Design Time – Play Time 27 Design Time – Composition 29 Play Time – Improvisation 30 Aesthetic Dimensions in Analysis 32 Playing the Instrument 33 Interaction and Musical Roles 35 Real and Perceived Degree of Freedom 36 Visual Appearance 37 Design Process 38 Inspirational Ideas 39 Criterion 41 Conception 41 Implementation 42 Design Process in This Work: an Example 42 An Iterative Process 44 Interaction 46 Design Time Aesthetics 49 Introduction 49 Music of Sounds 51 The Legacy of Anton Webern 53 Offsprings of Jazz 56 Experimental and Avant-Garde Music 60 Sounds and Statistics 61 Music as Process 65 Sound Playing in This Work 66 Computer Music 69 The Music Machine 69 Computer-Based Composition Programs 70 Interactive Digital Music Systems 73 Compose, Control, and Play 75 Play Time Aesthetics 77 Introduction 77 Meaning of Play and Game 78 Game Design 84 Game Mechanics 84 Spaces 85 Goals 86 Rules 86 Chance, Skills, and Probability 90 Game Aesthetics 93 Narration in Games 93 Player Types 96 Interaction Patterns 97 Game Design Applied to Music 100 General Musical Concepts 101 Narration and Rules 101 Game Aesthetics and Game Play Properties 104 Secrets in Music 105 Skills in Music 107 The Open Work 107 Jazz Music 109 Giant Steps 110 Click Piece 112 The Great Learning 113 Prozession and Intuitive Music 115 Prozession 115 Aus den sieben Tagen 116 Game Pieces 118 Cobra 119 Perception in Play 121 Introduction 121 Ecological Listening 122 Ecological Listening Applied on Music 124 Affordances 125 Affordances in Music 127 Time and Music 130 Notions of Now 130 Timescales in Music 132 Time Scales in this Work 135 Intentional Objects 137 Sonic Objects 139 Intentional Objects in this Work 142 Modes of Listening 145 Listening in this Work 149 Instrument 153 Introduction 153 Classifications and Notions of the Musical Instrument 155 Permanence – Variation 157 Digital Musical Instruments 160 Notions of the Digital 160 Action-Sound Links 161 Gestural Surrogacy 163 Action-Sound Links in This Work 164 A Taxonomy for Interactive Music Systems 165 Mapping 167 Mapping Terminology 168 Aspects of Mapping 172 Loudspeaker Systems 172 Loudspeaker Systems in This Work 176 The Hyper-Instrument 178 General Design of the Hyper-Instrument 179 Controllers 180 The 2003 System 183 The 2009 System 184 Instrument Classification in This Work 187 Main Instruments 189 The Granular Machine 189 The Design of the Granular Machine 191 Playing Modes of the Granular Machine 196 The SyncLooper 198 The Walking Machine 203 Musical Influences 204 The Design of the Walking Machine 209 The exPressure Pad 215 The Design of the exPressure Pad 215 Control Instruments 222 The Groover2 222 The FourToThree 224 The Munger 226 Effects 228 GRM tools 228 TimeFactor 230 Internal Effects 231 Setting 233 Introduction 233 Beam Stone 234 The Music of Beam Stone 236 duo pantoMorf 242 Controlling Improvisation 246 Freedom and Constraints 246 Musical Form 253 Accidents and Emergencies 255 Contextualization 256 Controlled Accidents 258 Synchronized Accidents 260 Examples of Applied Controlling Concepts 262 Amalgamation 263 Do your own thing 265 Sounds and Silence 267 Analysis and Discussion 269 Introduction 269 Playing Musical instruments 270 In Dialogue 272 Practicing 274 In Context 278 Analysis 280 Practicing, Preparing, and Playing 281 Playing Sample Based Instruments 286 The Granular Machine 288 Playing the Instrument 289 Interaction and Musical Roles 291 Real and Perceived Degree of Freedom 294 Visual Appearance 295 The SyncLooper 295 Playing the Instrument 295 Interaction and Musical Roles 298 Real and Perceived Degree of Freedom 301 Visual Appearance 303 The Walking Machine 303 Playing the Instrument 304 Interaction and Musical Roles 306 Real and Perceived Degree of Freedom 307 Visual Appearance 308 The ExpressurePad 308 Playing the Instrument 309 Interaction and Musical Roles 310 Real and Perceived Degree of Freedom 311 Visual Appearance 312 Control Instruments 312 Experiments 314 Background to the Experiments 314 Davis Deconstructed 314 Practicing, Preparing, and Playing 317 Conclusion of the Experiment 318 My Funny Valentine 318 Practicing, Preparing, and Playing 319 Conclusion of the Experiment 322 Concluding Discussion 324 Contribution and Further Research 329 My Contribution 329 Further Research 332 References 335 Literature 335 Music 342 Index 345 Appendix 349 Analysis of DVD Content 349 Instrument GUI 353 General GUI Images 353 Instrument GUI 354 Preface As long as I can remember, I have created and inhabited imaginary worlds. When I was a kid I made up structures and rules for my toy cars creating parking places and one way streets, but I also distinguished between work time and leisure time, in the former playing with various kinds of trucks, and in the latter with sports cars. My miniature railway also kept me quite occupied, especially in wintertime, and of course, sports like ice hockey and soccer offered ready-made imaginary worlds as well. As an improvising musician, I have carried on this interest, and the creation of rule systems has always been important in my music. When I did my master thesis ten years ago, I initially aimed to investigate musicians’ behaviors and experiences in relation to applied rules. For various reasons I instead came to write about a sound installation of mine, which by the way catalyzed my transition from being a saxophone player into an electro-acoustic improviser. In this thesis, however, I return to imaginary worlds and music rules systems. As I see it, all music contains explicit and implicit rules. In this work, the instruments under discussion act as the rules, and by themselves form an imaginary musical world. One question I often have posed myself is: what is it in soccer and other popular sports that attract people? I mean, twenty- two players running and kicking a ball seems meaningless, nevertheless it attracts millions of spectators and TV watchers each week around the globe. Philosophers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Johan Huizinga, as well as the writings of several game designers, have convinced me that play in all forms are models of the world, and are irreducible and auto nomous phenomena.