University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO

Music Faculty Publications Department of Music

2004 Interactive Computer Music for Double Bass Jeremy C. Baguyos University of Nebraska at Omaha, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/musicfacpub Part of the Composition Commons

Recommended Citation Baguyos, Jeremy C., "Interactive Computer Music for Double Bass" (2004). Music Faculty Publications. 9. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/musicfacpub/9

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Music at DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jeremy Baguyos playing Museau de Singe (photo by Craig Sapp) Interactive Computer Music for Double Bass By Jeremy Baguyos the emerging technologies and aesthetics. Christos Hatzis, Three Pieces for Double For the double bass, this new repertoire Bass and Tape (1990) by Orlando Jacinto The rise of the academy as patron of art included compositions like Jacob Garcia, Radio Sonata (1982) by James music, the philosophical underpinnings of Druckman's Synapse/Valentine (1969), Sellars, and Mist (1997) by Robert Gibson. "futurists" like Russolo and Busoni, the Charles Whittenberg's Electronic Study II Additionally, a number of double bass increasing power and cost-effectiveness of (1962), and Donald Erb's Basspiece (1969). soloists have championed the cause by com­ computer-based systems and the new com­ In recent decades, composers have added to missioning, promoting and regularly per­ positional directions of the Post World War II the repertoire. Many composers should be forming electroacoustic music. Two of the avant-garde have all contributed to establish­ recognized for their contributions to elec­ most prominent double bassists in this reper­ ing the genre of electroacoustic music in the troacoustic double bass repertoire, but some toire are Bertram Turetzky and Robert Black. United States. Composers have increasingly merit more than a passing reference. Of par­ The compositions mentioned in the pre­ turned to electronics for new source material ticular interest are Death of Desdemona ceding paragraph are tape pieces or fixed and as a result, there is an entirely new reper­ (1987) by Frank Proto, Moby Bass (1975) by medium pieces, where the electronic part is toire that was generated to take advantage of David Neubert, Birth of Venus (1990) by realized electronically and stored for future

Volume 28, Number I 13 Window Help C) is a high-level programming language, but the programmer/musician does not need to

FOt OOUIUMi,, IIIM0, 1110 COMlllftt know the inner workings of machine lan­ tY~KAML' :fflfll guage, assembly languages, or even intu­ itive text-based languages like C. The pro­ grammer/musician does not need to worry about a compiler or interpreter, nor does he need to know the inner workings of the source code. Instead, the programmer/ musician needs only to know about MAX/MSP objects and what they can do for the musician: namely what the machine accepts as input, what it outputs, and what is supposed to do. A diagram of the rela­ tionship between MIDI data or audio signal flow and the other "objects" with which it connects/interacts is provided. A MAX/MSP program can be as esoteric as the most complicated C++ code (a com­ puter programming language), yet it can be used by the most technophobic of tradition­ al musicians if the MAX/MSP programmer Museau de Singe (photo by Rob Hamilton) designs a user-friendly interface. In addi­ tion, the purchase of the full version of use on a fixed medium like analog electro­ electronics (almost always with the comput­ MAX/MSP is not required to run a magnetic tape ( cassette or reel-to-reel), er as intermediary, hence the name comput­ MAX/MSP program. The run-time envi­ Digital Audio Tape (DAT), or Compact er music) are able to react and adjust to the ronment for any MAX/MSP program can Disk (CD). The electronics are fixed and performer, in addition to the performer be downloaded for free from the web site of not in real-time while the double bass part reacting and adjusting to the electronics. As Cyclying74, the manufacturers of is expected to be played "live." In a sense, cliche as it sounds, this creates a whole new MAX/MSP. If a musician wants to program the tape and the live bassist play a duet. frontier of possibilities. In the same way that as well as run MAX/MSP applications, a Though the tape as chamber music partner new musical systems liberated sound, now full version of MAX/MSP can be "audi­ never argues with the bassist in rehearsal, new interactive computer music systems are tioned" for 30 days by downloading it from there is the obvious drawback of the inflex­ able to liberate the performer. the Cycling74 site. After 30 days, the soft­ ibility of the tape in musical collaborations, It must be mentioned that the first comput­ ware requires a password challenge that something that could be perceived as sterile er music systems (not analog synthesizers) only a full-paying license owner will have. and/or confining. But there are many inge­ date as far back as 1968. The invention of the The MAX/MSP programming environment nious conventions that composers use to MIDI protocol in 1983 for communication currently only runs on the MAC OS 9 and allow the performer to have more freedom between electronic musical instruments and MAC OS X operating systems, but a com­ when collaborating with the tape. One is to devices allowed for a level of interactivity in mercial version for Windows is being write vaguely defined ambient sections of terms of control of MIDI instruments, but developed and its release is anticipated. music. But no matter the ingenuity of the MIDI did not represent important musical Over the last few years, I have been inti­ composer, there is always the danger that information like the nuances of timbre that mately involved with the creation and per­ the tape plus bassist performance combina­ are so important to the Western art music tra­ formance of MAX/MSP patches for interac­ tion sounds like it was written for a CD to dition. As recently as 1993, Robert Black and tive computer music for double bass. Some be played in a home stereo system or the Richard Zvonar collaborated on the perfor­ current and past projects include the imple­ performance comes across as a music­ mance of Two In Hand, which had a high mentation and realization of Andrew May's minus-one performance. level of interactivity even by today's stan­ Ripped-up Maps (1997/2003) for Solo This problem is obviously not unique to dards. Composer and double bassist Curtis Instrument and Computer, Robert double bassists, since other instrumentalists Bahn has also been one of the pioneers of Hamilton's Museau de Singe (2003) for dou­ have wrestled with the problem and the pur­ interactive computer music and continues to ble bass, piano, and interactive computer suit for a solution has resulted in a new sub­ perform and record his own interactive com­ electronics, and Conversations on the Nature genre of electroacoustic music. The new puter music compositions with his electronic of Life (2003) which was composed by an approach has been called "real-time com­ chamber ensemble, Interface. intermedia collective consisting of Robert puter music performance" or "interactive The implementation of interactivity in Hamilton (composer), Jeremy Baguyos computer music performance" or "interac­ contemporary electroacoustic music is (bassist), Leo Duborobsky (biophysicist), tive electronic music performance," or some facilitated through software in a music-pro­ and Levon Lewis (spoken-word artist). other permutation. The biggest difference gramming environment called MAX/MSP. May's Ripped-up Maps for Solo between the newer flexible approach and the MAX/MSP in the simplest sense is an Instrument and Computer was originally older fixed medium approach is that the new object-oriented programming language. It written in 1997 as an improvisation envi-

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Page from score of Museau de Singe (photo by Rob Hamilton)

ronment for solo violin. It was modified in interface that requires almost no knowledge musical control of video images, 2003 for use by any instrument, but the of MAXJMSP Hamilton's work captures Conversations on the Nature of Life is a author requested its modification specifical­ the bassist's acoustic performance of the performance-piece for spoken-word, real­ ly for double bass, For this piece, there is no musical score in real-time and processes that time computer processing, contrabass, and traditional musical score. Instead the score sound as the performer continues to play, video which seeks to address issues regard­ reads something like an application soft­ Like Ripped-up Maps, the Hamilton work ing the biological and sociological building ware manual. It provides details for the uses the live sound of the double bass as blocks that make us human, Onstage are a hardware and system software require­ source material for the computer's response spoken-word artist and a double bass play­ ments to run the improvisation environ­ to the musician's performance. The piece er. A computer audio application prompts ment, instructions for the engineer and also uses "spatialization" effects, sounds the spoken-word artist with questions, instructions for the musician. And the piece which are produced through four speakers. culled from a U.S. Government survey. The itself is a vehicle for improvisation. Ripped­ There are two versions of this piece. One questions are presented in a random order up Maps captures the player's improvisa­ version is fully automated; after the bassist with a variable interval of time in between tions and stores them in memory buffers, As presses a button and begins to play the piece each successive question, during which the player continues to improvise, the com­ from the traditional score, the computer time the performer will answer. Through puter begins an algorithmic playback of takes care of itself The other version MAXJMSP the audio of the questions will complex, digitally processed samples of the involves a laptop player on stage with the be presented as an audio signal convolved, player's improvisations. The computer bassist While the bassist is performing, the or mixed together, with sounds from a dou­ responds to what the player is currently human laptop player can control the digital ble bass. The musical gestures provided by improvising by tracking the player's pitch­ signal processing in real-time. the double bassist are driven by text from es, amplitudes, and amount of rhythmic The human laptop player can control the spoken-word artist and by text from the activity. After the computer quickly tracks every aspect of the real-time processing letter codes for the amino acid bases. The and analyses (with the fiddle> object) what including panning, amplitude, sample play­ music for the double bass is semi-improvised the player is doing, it then responds by back, types of processing, timbre, and pitch. and processed through MAX/MSP On a screen putting out sound according to The complete version of Hamilton's behind the performers is a video screen composer/programmer-defined algorithms. Museau de Singe was premiered at the showing image of a 3-dimensional protein In this case, composer/computer musician Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins structure: a rotating Bacteriorhodopsin pro­ Andrew May has defined the algorithms. University on May 6, 2003. tein. The image starts with a single amino This is where the interactive computer Conversations on the Nature of Life is an acid and slowly develops into its full shape. music parts company with the fixed medi­ intermedia work created through a collabora­ But the speed and display of the entire um pieces of the past, because the piece is tion between Rob Hamilton (composer/pro­ video production depends on the speaker's different for each performance and the grammer), Jeremy Baguyos (bassist/program­ voice. At the start of the piece, the screen is computer and performer interact freely with mer), Leo Dubrovsky (biophysicist/program­ blank As the speech progresses, a 3-dimen­ each other in real-time. mer), and Levon Lewis (spoken-word sional image of the protein is built on the Robert Hamilton's Museau de Singe is a artist/visual artist/poet), In this work, otherwise screen behind the performer. When the pro­ MAX/MSP patch published with sheet disparate forms of human creativity intersect tein has been completely built, the piece is music, and it was written specifically for the and unify through the MAX/MSP/Jitter pro­ finished. The integration of the video is double bass as the solo instrument There is gramming environment Jitter is an extension facilitated through Jitter. Conversations on a traditional score and a very user-friendly to MAX/MSP that allows for the real-time the Nature ofLife was realized at the Digital

Volume 28, Number I 15 Media Center of the Mattin Center of Johns Hopkins University and was Organically Bass premiered on May 9, 2003 at the Swirnow Theatre in Baltimore, MD. "Sinfully Sensuous! " Oraanicaffy :Bass The long-term implication of MAX/MSP might be considered to be "artificial intelligence" in musical performance. When a musician/pro­ grammer composes/programs a MAX/MSP patch, that musician/pro­ grammer is creating a crude but artificially intelligent musical partner that Brown Soft Shoe can react to a human musician. As software and hardware continue to j[ """'"~ - . develop at breakneck speeds, MAX/MSP patches are evolving into cham­ ber music partners. It might seem like a far-fetched notion that techno­ "' geeks would talk about at science fiction conventions, but the electroa­ §ary ·Mrr},'D111'6t(i;ass '1(arnw11 1.rwis - Oryan coustic music tradition is moving towards ushering in an artificially intel­ ligent computer musician that will play along side its human counterparts in the not-too-distant future. .--

After holding full-time posts as Principal Bassist with the Orquesta Filarmonica de GC (Spain) and as second-chair bassist with the Shreveport Symphony, Jeremy Baguyos maintains a full schedule as a freelance double bassist in the Washington, DC area, and also subs with New recordings by the Milwaukee Symphony. He has performed with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the National Symphony in addition to his GARY KARR, electroacoustic pursuits with the 21" Century Ensemble and the Modulus including a jazz tribute to his friend, Ray Brown. Ensemble. He was on the regular faculty of Grambling State University and lndiana-Purdue University at Ft. Wayne. Baguyos received his Order these plus more Gary Karr CDs, Bachelor of Music from the lndiana University School of Music where he videos and books today! studied double bass with Bruce Bransby and attended the Peabody institute of Johns Hopkins University where he studied computer music. Amati Productions His hobbies include dachshunds, running, and readings in the humanities. 565 N. Daubenberger Rd. • Turlock, CA 95380 Toll Free (888) 421 -0905 • www.garykarr.com

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Volume 28, Number 1 17