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Hypothesishypotesis for the Foundation of a Laptop Orchestra

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Hypothesishypotesis for the Foundation of a Laptop Orchestra Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2011, University of Huddersfield, UK, 31 July - 5 August 2011 HYPOTHESISHYPOTESIS FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A LAPTOP ORCHESTRA Marco Gasperini Meccanica Azione Sonora [email protected] ABSTRACT been, but as for the use of the word, up to our our days (at least the last two centuries), it is possible to trace In this article some theoretical issues about the some constant features (among many others) which are foundations of a laptop orchestra will be presented, worth considering in the present perspective: prompted by the actual involvement in the design of the • it is a relatively wide instrumental group (there S. Giorgio Laptop Ensemble in Venice. The main are no voices); interest is in the development of an eco-systemic [10] • it is divided in sections of instruments of similar kind of communication/interaction between performers. timbres or of similar playing techniques (strings, First some phenomenological features of orchestra and woods, brass, percussions, etc.); laptop will be reviewed, followed by a brief summary of • it is generally conducted. the history of laptop orchestras. A coherent system Starting from these considerations it can be said that according to the premises will then be developed an orchestra is characterized by a specific sound quality defining what will be an orchestral player and what will which depends on the mix of all the instrumental sounds be a conductor and how they will be musically produced by the musicians, that is to say by all the interacting. Technical issues regarding the set-up of the different timbres of the instruments, by their distribution orchestra and the means of communication between the in the performance place and, last but not least, by the elements of the orchestra will then be approached. The quality of the performers and of their instruments. most versatile solution for this last issue (audio An orchestral player is responsible: communication) has been found exploiting possibilities • of playing his/her part, as close as possible to the of Local Area Network communications on ethernet indications contained in the score; interfaces. Finally the partial results of the research will • of the musical quality of the produced sounds. be summarized. Each orchestral should have developed, through years of practice and studies, technical and musical skills in a 1. INTRODUCTION very high degree on an instrument which, besides a more or less wide range of variations of its timbric and Based on recent research in the development of laptop playing techniques, sounds always the same, it always orchestras [5] [13] [14] [15] [21] [23] [24], digital manifest its systemic identity, and for this reason is ensembles and diffused network performances [1] [3] recognized. [6] [7] [12] [16] [26], a laptop section has been Beside all this the musicians are subject to a developed according to the hereafter described performing stress caused by the care in following the architecture. A similar musical network has already score and the director, and a physical stress caused by been developed and tested in the frame of the S. Giorgio the playing position and by the gestural expressiveness Laptop Ensemble in the course of the 2009 in Venice typical of each instrument. It can be said that the good [8]. The author will try to show how could be developed quality of an execution depends on the way a similar from scratch a musical ensemble made up by laptops, stream of strains (by no way to be intended in a negative taking care of evolving from basic considerations on the sense: a string must be strained to be musically useful) nature of instruments and inserting the least possible is musically managed. number of heterogeneous elements. The director is responsible of this and of all the other global sounding factors of the whole ensemble: 2. SOME PHENOMENOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF • the acoustic mixture, which depends on the ORCHESTRA AND LAPTOP intonation, the use of the playing techniques of the various instruments, the dynamic balance Orchestra is a Greek word whose etymon may be traced between sections, etc.; back to the verb to dance. According to this, it was used • of the rhythmic precision and synchrony which to name the space between the stage and the audience in is a fundamental feature for the perception of the the ancient Greek theatre, a space where there used to orchestra as a unified sounding body, internally take place the performances of the chorus. articulated; It is not the aim of this paper to attempt an exhaustive • of the actual realization in sounds of what is description of all musical, historical and social features contained as signs in a musical score. of such a complex system as the orchestra is and has The figure of the director, as has been defined from the nineteenth century onward, does not play a sounding 602 Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2011, University of Huddersfield, UK, 31 July - 5 August 2011 part in the performance, that is to say that he does not communication between digital machines. The main has a musical part in the score but he has to control and interesting fact is the shift of the function of the manage all the parts. computer from a compositional instrument to a As for the first term it is a definitely primitive term: performance instrument: the members of these laptop is the abbreviation for laptop computer which is ensembles must design the network of relationships referred (as his predecessor desktop computer) to the which should exist between their devices, according to position in which a portable computer may be held. the performance strategies (and so instrumental) they As for its acoustical and playing qualities a laptop have adopted; moreover they should design their sound (cfr. [24]): production algorithms which they will be playing and • is a neutral instrument (or, said otherwise, not merely use to produce sounds to be recorded on passive), not directly linked to a specific intrinsic tape. sonority (apart from that of the CPU fan or that produced by pressing the keyboard); 3.2. …to the Third millennium • is potentially ever-changing: the algorithm used However not before the XXI sec. was it possible to for the local production of sounds may change conceive a laptop orchestra for the wide diffusion of the during the same performance, making it technological facilities (network communication, wide impossible to univocally link the source and its bandwidths, stable and quite standardized protocols, acoustical appearance, even for the fact that its powerful processors, compatibility issues, etc.). actual sound source (the loudspeaker/s) may be Now some laptop orchestra experiences will be placed far from the sound-computing engine; reviewed. • does not need the development of specific The most active make-up, both for the documentation playing techniques, at least not comparable to the produced on their activity and for the public instrumental technical skills requested to an performances, is the Princeton Laptop Orchestra1 orchestral player; (PLORK), founded in 2005 by Dan Trueman and Perry • it does not induce any physical nor performing stress. About this fact, Dan Trueman reports the Cook [21] [24]. The main features of this ensemble, critics made by a spectator of a performance of compounded by approximately fifteen people, are: the Princeton Laptop Orchestra: “As far as I • the orchestra is placed on the stage; could tell, they were all just checking their e- • each member has its own laptop, controllers and mail”[24]; sound diffusion system (a six channels hemispherical speaker, permitting different • in any case there is no direct nor necessary link between the gestural expressiveness and the patterns of sound radiation) placed nearby; sounding result. • the overall sound of the orchestra is localized; • control signals may be transmitted through a Local Area Network by means of the Open 3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF LAPTOP Sound Control (OSC) protocol [27]; ORCHESTRAS • on some occasions acoustical instruments have been included in the performance. 3.1. From the eighties… The composer who wants to write for them should at first imagine and design a possible interaction between With the term laptop orchestra is intended a reasonable the performers and then design the environment itself group of musicians (orchestra) each of them exerting which will become the instrument of an orchestral. The his/her musical skills by means of a portable digital compositions written for PLORK use the figure of the computer (laptop). This kind of musical group may be conductor in heterogeneous ways. seen as one of the possible outcomes of the musical Others laptop orchestras whose activity may be research developed through technological instruments in connected with that of PLORK are the Oslo Laptop the last seventy years. Orchestra (OLO), founded in 20072, and the Standford This perspective was foreshadowed (how much Laptop Orchestra3 (SLORK), founded in 2008 [25]. unconsciously?) in the title of the first historical article A different attitude is that of the Milwaukee Laptop on computer music made widely available: “The Digital Orchestra (MiLO), which defines itself as “a collective Computer as a Musical Instrument” by Max Mathews of musicians and artists dedicated to live audio/visual [18]. performance”4. It is a non-hierarchical ensemble, The first experiments in this field were carried on as inclined toward the free improvisation, in which each soon as personal computers were
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