DVD Program Notes

Part One: Thor Magnusson, Alex Click Nilson is a Swedish avant McLean, Nick Collins, Curators garde codisician and code-jockey. He has explored the of human performers since such Curators’ Note early self-modifiying algorithmic text pieces as An Instructional Game [Editor’s note: The curators attempted for One to Many Musicians (1975). to write their Note in a collaborative, He is now actively involved with improvisatory fashion reminiscent Testing the Oxymoronic Potency of of live coding, and have left the Language Articulation Programmes document open for further interaction (TOPLAP), after being in the right from readers. See the following URL: bar (in Hamburg) at the right time (2 https://docs.google.com/document/d/ AM, 15 February 2004). He previously 1ESzQyd9vdBuKgzdukFNhfAAnGEg curated for Leonardo Music Journal LPgLlCe Mw8zf1Uw/edit?hl=en GB and the Swedish Journal of Hot &authkey=CM7zg90L&pli=1.] Drink Outlets. Alex McLean is a researcher in the area of programming languages for Figure 1. Sam Aaron. the arts, writing his PhD within the 1. Overtone—Sam Aaron Intelligent Sound and Music Systems more effectively and efficiently. He group at Goldsmiths College, and also In this video Sam gives a fast-paced has successfully applied these ideas working within the OAK group, Uni- introduction to a number of key and techniques in both industry versity of Sheffield. He is one-third of live-programming techniques such and academia. Currently, Sam the live-coding ambient-gabba-skiffle as triggering instruments, scheduling leads Improcess, a collaborative band Slub, who have been making future events, and design. research project hosted by the people dance to their algorithms Finally, the viewer is shown how Crucible Network for Research across Europe since 2001. Alex is jan- a simple musical sequence may be in Interdisciplinary Design at the itor of many organizations including composed and then converted into University of Cambridge. The TOPLAP, POTAC, dorkbotsheffield, an intricate phase ala` Steve Reich. mission of the project is to explore and the placard headphone festival. The main body of the video was the combination of powerful sound Further details are found on his Web recorded in one take and features synthesis techniques with tactile site (yaxu.org). an buffer for editing text and and linguistic user interfaces to build communicating with Overtone, an new forms of musical device with a Thor Magnusson is a musician/ expressive Clojure front-end to Super- high capacity for improvisation. writer/programmer working in the Collider. Clojure is a state-of-the-art fields of music and generative art. His functional Lisp dialect emphasizing ∼ PhD from the University of Sussex immutability and concurrency. 2. blind date—Pd graz focused on interfaces from the perspective of philosophy Sam Aaron (see Figure 1) is a re- blind date is an audiovisual perfor- of technology, phenomenology, and searcher, software architect, and live mance that aims at an artistic exten- cognitive science. He is a senior lec- programmer with a deep fascination sion of common patterns in computer turer in the School of Art and Media surrounding the notion of com- programming. Instead of featuring at the University of Brighton. Thor municative programming. He sees isolated programmers, several artists is a co-founder and member of the programming as a communication work concurrently on a single pro- ixi audio collective. With ixi he has channel for descriptions of formal- gram (a , or PD, patch), written a variety of musical software ized processes of any kind, be it a with all participants operating their and given workshops and talks at business process, a compiler strategy, own physical keyboard, mouse, and key institutions across Europe on the or even a musical composition. His monitor. In earlier performances, design and creation of digital musical previous research focused on the de- these devices were all controlling the instruments and sound installations. sign of domain-specific languages in same logical interface. The players Further details are found on his Web order to allow domain concepts to be therefore had to coordinate their site (www.ixi-audio.net). communicated and transposed programming efforts at an immediate

DVD Program Notes 119

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ate/destroy (2003) and a twelve-hour audiovisual live improvisation at the Lange Nacht der Musik (2003), both at the ESC Gallery in Graz. In 2004, the collective organized and hosted the First International Pd∼Convention in Graz, with sup- port from the ESC Gallery, the Mur.at net art initiative, the Institute of and Acoustics, and the Medienkunstlabor at the Kun- sthaus Graz. In the aftermath of this event, Pd∼graz was formally founded together with its publishing body, the Pd∼ label. The first release was a DVD with artworks presented at the Convention (release 0.1, 2005). The book bang: Pure Data (ISBN 978-3-936000-37-5) was published in 2006 in collaboration with Wolke Verlag. It includes articles by de- velopers, artists, and theorists who had participated in the Convention. ∼ level, because only one person could blind date has so far been pre- Pd graz conducts workshops on control the patch at any given point sented at the following occasions: Pure Data on a regular basis, such in time. In later performances, such EarZoom Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia as at the Film and TV School of as the one documented in the present (2009); International Computer Mu- the Academy for Performing Arts in video, IOhannes m zmolnig’s¨ Peer sic Conference, Belfast, UK (2008, Prague (2006), the CC in Graz (2007), Data proxy provided each player with shown in the video); Second Inter- and the EarZoom Festival in Ljubl- an independent logical interface. Nev- national Pd∼Convention, Montreal, jana, Slovenia (2009). In recent years, ertheless, the individual performers Canada (2007); Roxy/NoD gallery, the collective has performed its au- still need to participate in a common Prague, Czech Republic (2006); diovisual group improvisations blind effort in order to produce a (tech- Netart Community Congress, Graz, date and rec.wie.m on multiple occa- nically and musically) functioning Austria (2005); and the Musikpro- sions in Austria, Slovenia, , patch. Rather than merely represent- tokoll Festival, Graz, Austria (2005). the Czech Republic, the UK, and ing a technical tool for generating Canada. music, the patch also becomes the The media art collective Pd∼graz People who have been associated ∼ primary means of communication (see Figure 2) was founded in Graz, with Pd graz include (in alphabet- between the players. Austria, in 2005 and serves as an ical order): Lukas Gruber, Ypatios The performers start with a blank initiative for the organization of per- Grigoriadis, Reni Hofmuller,¨ Florian canvas (i.e., an empty patch) and grad- formances, installations, workshops, Hollerweger, Georg Holzmann, Karin ually build up and modify a running and publications around the Pure Koschell, Manuela Meier, Thomas program in the tradition of “live cod- Data . Pd∼graz Musil, Markus Noisternig, Renate ing.” Besides the resulting audio (and grew out of the Pd Stammtisch, a Oblak, Michael Pinter, Peter Plessas, sometimes also video), the patches diverse group of independent artists Nicole Pruckermayr, Winfried Ritsch, themselves are also projected into and academic researchers in Graz, Romana Rust, Uwe Vollmann, Franz the performance environment. This who have shared their fascination Xaver, Ales Zemene, Frank¨ Zimmer, offers the audience an insight into for Pure Data in regular meetings and IOhannes m zmolnig.¨ However, the programming and communica- since 2003. This soon resulted in the line-up of actual participants tion processes that occur among the a number of group activities, such varies from occasion to occasion. players during the performance. as the audiovisual installation cre- IOhannes m zmolnig¨ and Florian

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 3. Andrew R. Brown. Figure 4. Samuel Freeman.

Hollerweger are the two players in the 2008 performance of blind date at the International Computer Music Conference in Belfast, which is shown in the video on the present DVD.

3. King’s Anatomy—Andrew R. Brown

This live coding performance was performed at the Live Coding @ The Anatomy Museum concert at Kings College London in January 2010. It demonstrates the emergent combina- be queried and set by text commands tion of simultaneous computational as well as being manipulable via processes that have distilled through graphic user interface (GUI) objects. research in computational musicol- This system is being developed as ogy, and been published by the author part of my doctoral research which in various peer-reviewed publica- work is written as part of the perfor- questions the ways in which sound tions over several years. In this work, mance. He has performed live coding is represented visually in computer Andrew battles with the processes around Australia and internationally, music software; how do the ways of succinct music representation as including in London, Copenhagen, in which elements of sound are he performs with the Impromptu and Boston. His digital artwork has represented affect the ways we choose live coding environment. He deploys been shown in galleries in Australia to manipulate and organize those probability, recursion, and graph and China. elements as music? As a composer structures in an integrated offensive the emphasis of my work is upon the with his allies in music theory and aesthetics of the software in use and acoustics in an improvised struggle the musics one may produce with it. with time and aesthetics. This and 4. sdfsys2min—Samuel other live coding performances are a Freeman Samuel Freeman (see Figure 4) makes vehicle for experimentation of algo- things to make noise with, and then rithmic and procedural processes and The video presented here demon- makes noises with them. These things an ongoing struggle for computational strates an alpha build of sdf.sys, are made both inside computers, expression of music. which is a programmable soundmak- where interactive systems are pro- ing software system being developed grammed mostly in /MSP/Jitter, Andrew R. Brown (see Figure 3) is an within Max/MSP/Jitter. There is and in the more physical realm, active computational artist working a basic text editor for script-based where electroacoustic contraptions in music and visual domains. He interaction; text is used both by are hacked together using recycled/ is Professor of Digital Arts at the the user to instruct the system and recontextualized components. With Queensland Conservatorium of Mu- by the system to inform the user. an experimental approach to perfor- sic, in Brisbane, Australia, where his The scripting syntax allows several mance practice, Freeman regularly work explores the aesthetics of pro- types of command. First, there are appears with Inclusive Improv, of cess and often involves programming geometry-based commands for spec- which he is co-founder, and also plays of software as part of the creative ifying, and drawing with, points on laptop in HELOpg ensemble. Freeman process. In addition to a history of the plane. There are also commands is currently working on a PhD at the computer-assisted composition and that manipulate digital signal pro- University of Huddersfield under the rendered animations Brown has, cessing (DSP) abstractions within supervision of Michael Clarke and in recent years, focused on real- the system. These abstractions ei- Monty Adkins, supported by the Arts time art works using generative ther write to or read from Jitter and Humanities Research Council. processes and musical live-coding matrices using MSP signals. Param- His work is being documented on his where the software to generate a eters of the DSP abstractions can Web site (sdfphd.net).

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 5. Graham Coleman. Figure 6. Evan Hanson. Figure 7. Mark Havryliv.

automatic and non-automatic sample composition at the ICMC and DAFx conferences. He is from Athens, 5. Short Variations on a Georgia, but is currently pursuing Quartet Theme from a PhD at the Music Technology Ravel—Graham Coleman Group of Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. on John Tranter’s poem “The Waiting Adapting repertoire offers one pos- Room.” This poem takes the form of a sibility for interaction between live 6. Life—Evan Hanson pantoum, an older Malaysian style of coding and traditional music genres. variable length consisting of a pattern of interwoven quatrains. It has a non- This is an attempt to riff on a classical This is a small demonstration of an rhyming but very strict scheme in music fragment that has long buried idea I’ve explored recently: The con- which the second and fourth lines of itself in my musical consciousness. trol of sound by unrelated systems. each stanza are replicated as the first Presented is a first glance at what By mapping a logical series of musical and third in the stanza following. hopefully will grow and evolve. tones onto a simple but unpredictable Performance involves one or more Two short phases defined the automaton (in this case one of the computers running our software, preparation for this piece. First, re- most well-known, Conway’s Game of P[a]ra[pra]xis, which is a front end for alizing the original score fragment Life), one can produce music that is SuperCollider and a set of algorithms in SuperCollider (SC). Second, reac- at once structured and chaotic. quainting with the pattern and syn- that substitute input text with other thesis systems in SC to allow for a Evan Hanson (see Figure 6) is a recent words. These algorithms play on basic improvisation. A minuscule graduate of the University of Wis- the notion of the parapraxis, or hack was introduced for tracking consin, Madison, where he currently Freudian slip, and employ a set of stream player references, as well as works as a computer programmer. user-defined grammatical rules to some synonyms for patterns. His musical pursuits are, like much govern phonemic, phonetic, and Thanks to Alex, Thor, and Nick of his code, driven by curiosity and a lexical substitutions. for providing an excuse to realize desire to create things that are both As we type, text inputs and ma- this. Much thanks to Stefan Kersten simple and compelling. nipulations are categorized and re- as well as members of SC-users for ported to a sound-server in Super- patient guidance in SC. Apologies to Collider, which is programmed to 7. The Waiting Room—Mark Ravel. route key/text/word/grammatical/ Havryliv and Josh Mei-Ling substitution events and their data Graham Coleman (see Figure 5) Dubrau to synthesis and algorithmic control occasionally live-codes cheesy coun- inputs. This results in a neat range terpoint in ChucK and SuperCollider. This video represents a distillation of of abstractions, flirting with classical In addition, he has presented tools for a networked live performance based live coding.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 8. Josh Mei-Ling Dubrau. Figure 9. Scott Hewitt. Figure 10. IOhannes m zmolnig.¨

more of this once he completes his doctoral project, the Haptic Carillon.

8. Chuck CMJ Quarks—Scott Hewitt The substitution engine is a weakly typed, late-binding, real- Chuck CMJ Quarks is the title of this screen capture of Scott’s daily per- time interpreter; any typed key calls visual output is a PD patch going formance practice. Using just a basic an overloaded function whose param- crazy. eters are determined by surrounding single function with a built-in control keys, words, grammatical rules, and loop, the single impulse is reverber- IOhannes m zmolnig¨ (see Figure 10) substitution rules, which gives the ated and then spread across the four is a long-time user of Pure Data. Since source code the ability to alter itself. wide channels of the typical 5.1 DVD 2003 he uses his chosen environment This makes it an extremely diffi- setup. The recording aims to illus- in live coding performances, mainly cult live-coding language for those trate how rich a texture can be built generating sine waves. wanting precise control over sonic by using and reusing just a simple “I always preferred building se- output; it does, however, save on section of code, the use of multichan- quencers to building sequences.” wear-and-tear of parenthesis keys. nel ChucK, and finally, the power of the command line for performance. Josh Mei-Ling Dubrau (b. 1975) (see 10. Quoth—Craig Latta Figure 8) is a poet and doctoral student Scott Hewitt (see Figure 9) is a PhD at the University of New South Wales, candidate at Huddersfield University Quoth is a dynamic interactive fiction Australia. Her thesis investigates the and the Director of the Hudders- system I wrote as an experiment in potential of psychoanalytic theory field Experimental executable natural language. I use it as a framework for the reading of (HELO). He also curates a Web site on for musical live coding, to make those modern and avant-garde poetry, and live coding (www.livecoding.co.uk). performances more accessible to au- her creative work explores the use diences. Instead of using a typical pro- of multiple systems of delivering gramming language and development 9. Do sinusoids dream of meaning within the poem. environment, each of which tend to electr(on)ic sweeps—IOhannes m appear cryptic to the uninitiated, I use Mark Havryliv (b. 1981) (see Figure 7) zmolnig¨ English in the simple conversational is a composer and doctoral student format of the "text adventure." at the University of Wollongong, Do sinusoids dream of electr(on)ic Writing code live for an audience Australia. He is especially interested sweeps is a live-coding performance presents serious challenges. The in the musical possibilities of done in Pure Data. It relies heav- most important is interactivity; I integrating real-time sonification ily on self-modifying PD patches need to get results quickly. In a with other disciplines, like game that interact in an agent-like fash- musical performance, continuity is design and creative writing. He ion. The acoustic output is some- also crucial. Because I work with looks forward to doing much what limited to sine waves. The long-lived musical structures and

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 11. Craig Latta. Figure 12. Julie Dassaud (photograph Figure 13. Eliad Wagner (photograph by Andreas Maria Jacobs). by Olivia Wagner).

that it definitely creates an interesting combination of crosshatched and intersecting auditory and visual palettes, which we will continue to explore. lemuriformes includes: Julie Das- saud, ink; Eliad Wagner, synthesizer; Roel van Doorn, circuits; Laurens van improvisational development style. A der Wee, coding. composer and research computer sci- entist, he is active in the improvised Julie Dassaud (see Figure 12) is a processes, I need to change the system music communities of San Francisco French visual artist, based in Ams- as it runs. The Squeak Smalltalk and Amsterdam. terdam, who is involved with vari- system underlying Quoth provides ous solo and collaborative projects, these features, and the language is 11. Lemuriformes wherein she explores in particular effectively a superset of English. the relevancy and possibilities of (excerpts)—lemuriformes (Julie This video gives a short demon- drawing in our contemporary digital stration of Quoth’s conversational Dassaud, Eliad Wagner, Roel van age. In this context, she exhibits, interface. Several tactics for in- Dooen, Laurens van der Wee) for instance, with Img-src, a col- creasing interaction speed appear, lective that confuses the viewer’s including anthropomorphization and lemuriformes is a collaborative im- senses by producing analog work phrase completion. The system also provisational performance project that looks digital and the other way attempts to create a more readable in which live coding, painting, and around. Her live ink-painting contri- transcript of past actions by rephras- electronic music blend together in bution to lemuriformes is her first ing what the performer types. The one experience. Many issues are ad- performing appearance. Besides this, musical objects conversing with the dressed in the process, such as the Julie is active as artistic director performer are simple MIDI note role of the graphical representation of the Kulter art space and of the events and their component parts. of code in live coding performances, Notations platform for alternative For more information about live coding as a means of sound trans- music notations (www.julisso.org/ Quoth, please visit the project Web formation (rather than synthesis), and www.notations.nl). site (netjam.org/quoth). human and machine involvement levels in electronic music, and live Eliad Wagner (see Figure 13) is a mu- Craig Latta (see Figure 11) studied coding in collaborative performances. sician, composer, and programmer. music and computer science at the The main reason to start this Born in Israel and currently based in University of California, Berkeley. He unusual cooperation was to share a Utrecht, The Netherlands, he holds discovered Smalltalk programming positive and playful experience in a Bachelors degree in physics and at the Center for New Music and which the personal qualities of the is completing his Master of Music Audio Technologies, and was inspired collaborators have their roles defined degree at the Music Technology De- by the musical implications of its on the fly. From it we have learned partment of the Utrecht School of the

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 14. Roel van Doorn Figure 15. Laurens van der Wee (pho- Figure 16. Benoıtˆ and the (photograph by Olivia Wagner). tograph by Evelien van Zonneveld). Mandelbrots.

Laurens van der Wee (see Figure 15) is a sonic designer, composer, and irrevocably mad. In its original length programmer from The Nether- (16 min), the piece starts with the lands, currently living in Vilnius, simple development of a ternary Lithuania. In June 2011 he will ob- rhythm using the Dorian scale with tain his Master of Music degree Pythagorean tuning. These decisions at the Music Technology Depart- were made just before the concert, ment of the Utrecht School of and were expanded through improvi- the Arts. Laurens focuses on au- Arts. He develops his own approach sation. Some cues were planned to re- tonomous works on the edge of to electronic sound, mainly based on flect the course of the historical event. composition and performance, as analog and modular and These cues and other spontaneous well as usual and less usual col- computer programming. His work has directions are communicated by text laborations, ranging from modern been published by Metropolis records messages, gestures, facial expressions, dance to live coding improvisation (USA), Digital Kranky (Germany), and the musical flow itself. The mu- (lemuriformes). His work has been -sides (Germany) and concrete sical process is bound to the coding presented in Hong Kong, Canada, plastic (UK). He is co-founder of process, which is performed live ± USA, Portugal, Spain, and several the electronica label g6pd records using SuperCollider. The complexity other countries, at occasions such (Israel) (eliadwagner.wordpress.com). of the music increases with the as ICMC, SMC, and the Hong Kong complexity of the code. The course International Dance Symposium Roel van Doorn (see Figure 14) is of this historical event is reflected (www.laurensvanderwee.nl). a multimedia artist living in Rot- in the transition from melodies and terdam. At first, his works were rhythms, inspired by early music, to focused on sound, but recently this 12. Bal des Ardents—Benoıtˆ noise and more abstract sounds. The has slowly shifted to audiovisual and the Mandelbrots 6-minute excerpt on this DVD starts projects in which he is involved in at 5’44” of the original recording. both the sonic and visual aspects Bal des Ardents was performed at the of performances. For Vanilla Riot Studiokonzert of the University of Benoıtˆ and the Mandelbrots (see he programs interactive visual soft- Music Karlsruhe at the ZKM Kubus Figure 16) was formed in late 2009 as ware, and improvises with his visual on 28 January 2011. The piece is a laptop band at the ComputerStudio software as a fourth member of the inspired by the 618th anniversary of the University of Music Karlsruhe. group. This way, sound and visuals of the Bal des Ardents [Ball of the Matthias Schneiderbanger and Holger are intertwined in a meaningful way. Burning Men]: In 1393 King Charles Ballweg joined Patrick Borgeat and For his graduation project he designed VI of France threw a grand party Juan A. Romero, who were members and produced several sound installa- to celebrate the wedding of one of of the recently disbanded laptop tions that created sound using solar the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. As a ensemble Grainface. All members and wind power that were exhibited fire broke out, four of his friends were students at the Institute for during the Duizel festival in Rot- were killed. After this incident the Musicology and Music Informatics terdam in 2009 (www.roelvandoorn King, who had been suffering from at that time. This new constellation .com). mental health issues all his life, went focuses on live programming and

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 17. Davy Smith and Louis Figure 18. No Copy Paste. McCallum.

real-time manual patching possible. Fourfold was premiered at the Make Davy Smith (see Figure 17) is a sculp- Art Festival 2009, Poitiers, France. improvisation instead of using con- tor by trade, using computer vision trollers and pre-composing the music techniques to explore interactivity in No Copy Paste (see Figure 18) is a for the performances. The band per- his work. live-coding duo consisting of Agoston forms frequently in the Karlsruhe Nagy and Gabor Papp. They mix Louis McCallum is a musician, re- area in a wide variety of venues, from the expressive possibilities of pro- searcher and rookie roboticist. Both galleries and concert halls to cinemas gramming languages with computer are PhD students from Queen Mary’s and bars. vision, mathematical models, game College, University of London, as The creative process of the band controllers, broken rhythms, and raw part of the Media and Arts Technol- is influenced by the respective events synthesized sounds. Agoston works ogy program. Their current research and venues. Due to MandelClock, a with sound in traditional and experi- interests are in mixed reality and elec- self-developed system based on OSC, mental ways, and Gabor is interested tromechanical sound, respectively. part of the open source BenoitLib, in the aesthetic implications of soft- the members are always beat-synced ware. They create dynamic systems and able to communicate with each 14. Fourfold—No Copy Paste for installations and build interfaces other. The main intention of the band for audiovisual live performances by is to show and establish the laptop The sound is generated using the using and developing free and open as a musical instrument by playing PD real-time graphical dataflow pro- source tools (ncp.kibu.hu). a wide variety of musical genres, gramming environment. The visuals including , noise, ambient, are created using Fluxus, which is 15. Less than a Minute for CMJ and experimental avant-garde a rapid-prototyping, 3-D graphics, (v4)—Miquel Parera Jaques (www.the-mandelbrots.de). and live-coding environment. The performance mixes live coding with My main motivation is to reduce the 13. Show us Your augmented reality (AR) technologies. perceptual space to get the sound and Screens—Davy Smith and Louis It starts up with blank slate live cod- its processes as relevant as possible. McCallum ing, then the programmed animation is mixed with the camera feed using Miquel Parera Jaques (see Figure 19) Show us Your Screens is a documen- AR markers. The location of the AR is based in Barcelona. tary that provides an introduction to markers control the sound param- live coding. Established practitioners eters, their relative spatial location 16. Untitled 12—Michele Pasin explain their motivations and meth- determining how the various audio ods alongside audience members who modules are created and connected. Untitled 12 is an investigation of have varying degrees of past exposure. This type of dynamic system makes how concise, recursive, and iterative

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musical styles, ranging from mini- malist electronica to progressive and psychedelic rock. More recently, he discovered the world of , which presented him with a chance to bring together two of his passions, artificial intelligence programming and music. Currently, while at King’s College, he organizes live-coding events and explores with curiosity the musical affordances of algorithmic abstractions.

17. Movement 1 – Part¨ —Alex Ruthmann

Movement 1 – Part¨ (2010) is an excerpt from a suite of live-coding pieces, Scratch Etudes, exploring the procedures can be used to create in- live, interactive coding capabilities of teresting musical results. Through the Scratch visual programming en- the use of algorithms that pick ran- vironment (scratch.mit.edu). Taking dom pitches within a deterministic Audio Units API, thus allowing inspiration from the musical organi- matrix of possibilities, the piece aims the employment of any third-party zation of Arvo Part’s¨ Stabat Mater and at creating a crescendo of musical virtual instrument in a composition. a live coding performance by Andrew structures that vary unexpectedly For example, in Untitled 12 Pasin Sorensen within his Impromptu soft- but fundamentally remain within is making use of U-He’s Zebra and ware, Movement 1 – Part¨ utilizes live a single, broad musical space. This Native Instruments’s Battery audio manipulation of visual code chunks, creates a double effect on the audi- units. blocks, lists, and variables through ence. In fact, the listener/viewer is mouse and keyboard control in a cre- almost subconsciously trying to bring Michele Pasin (see Figure 20) is an ative exploration of the Aeolian mode. “cognitive” order to the composition Italian musician and digital creative An additional minor pentatonic solo (e.g., by reading the code projected currently working as a research as- layer was performed live over the on the screens and trying to figure sociate at London’s King’s College. drone using an IchiBoard sensor in- out the model behind the repeating He graduated in Logic and Episte- terface (bit.ly/ichiboard) developed musical patterns), but is in the end mology at the University of Venice. by Mark Sherman in the Engaging always and irremediably surprised by In 2004 he moved to the UK and Computing Group at University of the emergence of random sounds. did a PhD in artificial intelligence, Massachusetts, Lowell. The IchiBoard This recording of Untitled 12 focusing on the application of knowl- enables melodic and rhythmic per- was made in January 2010 at King’s edge representation and semantic formance of the solo line through a College Anatomy Museum (Lon- technologies to humanistic domains. button and linear potentiometer with don). Untitled 12 was composed and Despite not being his primary aca- volume controlled by the z-axis of the performed using Andrew Sorensen’s demic subject, music has been a built-in accelerometer. Impromptu live-coding environment. constant research interest throughout Scratch Etudes was conceived This is a freely available software for the years. He has a degree in music as a set of live coding examples Mac OS X that allows real-time cre- theory from Trieste’s Conservatory to share with students enrolled in ation of musical procedures using the G. Tartini. He then extensively stud- an undergraduate general education Scheme programming language. One ied classical guitar for a number of course, “Sound Thinking,” offered of the key features of Impromptu years before starting experimenting at the University of Massachusetts, is that it interfaces with Apple with less traditional approaches and Lowell, and for use in workshops with

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 21. Alex Ruthmann. Figure 22. Ben Swift.

Extempore. Having initially stud- ied both music and mathe- matics, Ben is currently trying to convince the Long Beards at Australian National Univer- sity that his “touchy-feely” re- search constitutes real com- puter science. Videos of Ben’s live coding can be found at vimeo.com/videos/benswift/.

19. Live Writing with the Rumentarium—Andrea Valle

What does "to play a computer" mean? Actually, for me, playing has always been mapping real-time gesture to sound, that is, involving that specific aspect of cognitive processes known as muscle memory. Indeed, there is a peculiar tension between the and the USA. His research centers hypercognitivization of code writing middle- and high-school students around the design, creation, and study in live coding on one side, and the the in computational music. Originally of technologies and environments deep embodying of motor learning developed for use by children by the that promote creative music-making, involved in instrumental playing on Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the learning, and teaching. the other. But typing is also a specific MIT Media Lab, Scratch has proven form of gestural action. As shown by useful as a platform for engaging many studies in human–computer children in creating computational 18. Impish Grooves—Ben Swift interaction, it is possible to achieve music and live coding in specific. very fast typing, that can be compared Building something meaningful to percussion playing rates. So, the Alex Ruthmann (see Figure 21) is As- in three minutes of live coding idea at the basis of my approach sistant Professor of Music Education is a significant challenge. Impish is to sonify the typing process by at the University of Massachusetts, Grooves is an exploration in proce- defining different mapping strategies Lowell, where he teaches coursework dural rhythm generation. By reusing from keys to sound. In this way, at the intersection of music, comput- code fragments while tweaking pa- typing gestures trigger sounds: it is ing, and learning. After graduating rameters, it is possible to layer differ- like, literally, playing a keyboard. from the Performing Arts Technology ent percussive parts over one another The best strategy in order to explore program at the University of Michi- and quickly produce a polyrhythmic muscle memory is not to use arbitrary gan, he pursued masters and doctoral texture. Once the rhythmic pulse symbols, but to exploit the writing work in music education at Oakland is established, its components are process of ordinary languages (to University. Currently, he is an active available for manipulation, allowing which we have been exposed since collaborator on a National Science the coder to guide the dynamics of the childhood). In this way, much faster Foundation–funded Performamatics piece while interacting with the code. rates can be reached. This also means project linking computer science with that the input data will not be neutral, the fine, design, and performing arts Ben Swift (see Figure 22) is a Com- rather showing a specific structure, and serves as a development consul- puter Science PhD student based depending on the sentence/word tant on several music education tech- in Canberra, Australia. His cur- structure but also on graphemic nology projects with companies and rent creative practice revolves patterns that are typical of each research teams in Australia, Norway, around live coding in Impromptu/ language (one can think, for example,

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 23. Andrea Valle. Figure 24. Graham Wakefield.

master classes by Trevor Wishart and Marco Stroppa. His work as a composer is mainly focused on algo- rithmic methodologies, in both the electroacoustic and instrumental do- mains. When composing for acoustic instruments, he is interested in devel- oping compositional methodologies for automatic notation generation and he has participated in the Nota- tion 21 project (Theresa Sauer, ed., New York: Mark Batty Publisher, The sounds are produced by two live- 2009). His compositions have been coding performances (played side by performed at Logos Foundation and side, overlaid on the video). Dupin’s commissioned by OSN Rai of Torino. Spaceship was written and performed He has worked on multimedia instal- using LuaAV. lations, film music (La foretˆ rouge,by Michela Franzoso, a project hosted by Graham Wakefield (see Figure 24) Le Fresnoy, 2008; Rohbauten,byEva is a composer of time-based media, Sauer, 2009), and, recently, theater and co-author of the LuaAV real-time (Cotrone, by Marcel.lıAntu` nez˜ Roca, audiovisual scripting environment. 2010). His most recent major project is Graham is approaching the end of the Rumentarium, an electromechan- his PhD at the Media Arts and Tech- ical, computer-driven, percussion about the difference between Italian nology program at the University ensemble made of recycled materials. and English alphabets and writing of California, Santa Barbara, where Andrea is a member of the core systems). Poetry is particularly apt he also works as a researcher for unit of AMP2, a collective devoted to to be typed, as it typically shows the AlloSphere immersive instru- free improvisation, and he appears on complex patterns based on varia- ment. He is also a developer for the album Hopeful Monster, issued tion/repetition. But, indeed, the text Cycling ’74. by Die Schachtel in the Musica to be typed can be code itself: in Improvvisa box set (2010). He earned this way, the sonification of writing Wesley Smith (see Figure 25) is a a PhD in Semiotics at the University is intermingled with live coding, computational designer living and of Bologna and he is currently re- leading to a form of live code writ- working in San Francisco. He is a searcher at the University of Torino, ing, so to say. In the video, the live co-author of the LuaAV real-time where he is a founding member of writing approach is used to drive the audiovisual scripting environment. CIRMA (Inter-departmental Centre Rumentarium, my computationally- Wesley is currently pursuing his PhD for Multimedia and Audiovisual). controlled, electromechanical per- at University of California, Santa He participated in the VEP project, cussion ensemble. Electronic sound Barbara’s Media Arts and Technology which reconstructed the poeme` is added, mapping keys to pitches program, and works for Cycling ’74. electronique´ in virtual reality. He and including processed sound from is a member of the Italian Semiotic the Rumentarium and the typing Association and of the Italian Music 21. Improvisation—Matthew action. The whole software system is Informatics Association. implemented in SuperCollider. Yee-King (Live Coding), Finn Peters (Alto Flute) Andrea Valle (see Figure 23) 20. Dupin’s (www.cirma.unito.it/andrea), an Spaceship—Graham Wakefield This is an edited version of a 9- electric bass player interested in and Wesley Smith min improvisation recorded on 22 experimental rock and in free jazz, March 2011 at the Goldsmiths Digital studied music composition with The visual forms are generated from Studios, Goldsmiths College, London. Alessandro Ruo Rui, Azio Corghi, a shape called a Dupin Cyclide, made Finn Peters plays alto flute, and and Mauro Bonifacio while attending by inverting a torus through a sphere. Matthew Yee-King live-codes. The

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 25. Wesley Smith. Figure 26. Matthew Yee-King and Figure 27. Renick Bell. Finn Peters.

programming and interactive music systems. Recent musical activities include development of the tech- nique and practice of live coding in the UK with the TOPLAP collec- tive, and extensive involvement in a brain-wave music project “Music of the Mind” alongside composer Finn best jazz group category of the BBC Peters. He has performed live inter- Radio 3 Jazz Awards. In 2008 he ini- nationally and nationally and has tiated the Music of the Mind project, recorded many sessions for BBC Ra- working closely with Matthew programming language is Scaling dio. His solo music has been released Yee-King. version 3.3, and the live-coding is on electronic music imprints such as carried out in the Emacs text editor Records and Richard James’s under Ubuntu . Four impro- . Collaborators in- 22. Percussion visations were recorded during the clude , Tom Jenkinson Improvisation—Renick Bell session, and this piece was chosen (), Finn Peters, and Max as it had the most successful overall de Wardener (www.yeeking.net). This rhythmic three-stage impro- structure, allowing it to function as visation served as practice with a standalone piece. The other pieces Finn Peters is a flautist and saxophon- Conductive, a live-coding library were more in a free improvisation ist who studied music at Durham for Haskell written by Renick Bell style, featuring less constrained pitch University and took the postgraduate (see Figure 27). As a musical foun- and rhythm sequences. This was the jazz course at Guildhall School of dation, a 130-BPM electronic dance first time Matthew and Finn had Music. He is a member of the F-IRE music style was chosen to allow a played together with the constraints Collective and the contemporary clearer judgment of how much live of using an unaffected instrument classical music group Noszferatu. control could be achieved with this and from-scratch live-coding. The He has also worked with Two Banks environment. Seventy-eight percus- experience was inspiring, but it ap- of Four and and sion samples are played according to pears that a specialized environment recorded under the names Bansuri algorithmically composed patterns for live-coding interactive music sys- and Finntech. In September 2006, that were generated shortly before tems might need to be developed to he released his first album, Su- the video begins. The performance improve the standard of the results, ling, under his own name, having consists of executing functions that or that more practice is required. recorded this album with a band specify which patterns should be that included guitarist Dave Okumu, played by selected samples. The func- Matthew Yee-King (see Figure 26) is pianist Nick Ramm, bassist Tom tions are sent for evaluation from a lecturer in creative computing at Herbert, and drummer Tom Skin- the Vim text editor (at the top of Goldsmiths College as well as a com- ner. It was selected as a Jazzwise the screen) to the Glasgow Haskell puter music composer, performer, album of the year for 2006. In July Compiler interpreter (at the bottom and researcher. His research interests 2007, the Finn Peters Quintet (or of the screen). The cursor position include automated sound synthesizer Finntet) beat the competitors in the serves as a hint to which functions

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 28. Sonogram 1.

are being sent to the interpreter, tronic music with Steven Paxton. and Previous Chapter buttons on while the interpreter displays the He also holds a Master of Science any DVD player or remote control. functions themselves, status mes- degree in Music Technology from Alternatively, the examples will sages, and debugging information. Indiana University. He was a doc- automatically play in sequence with This practice revealed the need toral student in Information Systems a short pause between each. for even-higher-level functions and and Multimedia Design at Naotoshi regular practice with this new instru- Osaka’s Sound Media Representa- ment to achieve more-spontaneous, tion Laboratory at Tokyo Denki fast-moving improvisations. The University. 1. Sound Examples to need for less-verbose debugging in- Accompany the Article formation and more persistently displayed status information also “OMChroma: Compositional became clear. Part Two: Video and Sound Control of Sound Synthesis” Examples by Carlos Agon, Jean Bresson, Renick Bell is a researcher and com- and Marco Stroppa (Volume poser based in Tokyo. He focuses This section of the disc features video 35, Number 2) his research on computer systems and sound examples to accompany for live performance. Information articles appearing in Volume 35 of All examples come from Marco on the tools he has developed and the Journal. Where examples contain Stroppa’s composition Come Natura his music can be found at his Web more than one element in succession, di Foglia, where they are used in the site (renickbell.net). An American, each individual element has been electronic part starting at 6’54”. They he holds an interdisciplinary under- encoded as a separate chapter, so one were chosen because they constitute graduate degree from Texas Tech may navigate forward and backward an exhaustive overview of the main University, where he studied elec- through the examples using the Next concepts delved into in the article.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 Figure 29. Sonogram 2.

1. Original sound: nahhami, amplitude and last through Synthesis Results song from pearl fishermen of the whole time segment (see Bahrain (Arabian Peninsula). Figure 28); The main compositional issue being d. Construction of a chroma the exploration and development of Analytical Procedure model. Each spectrum a cognitive spectromorphology of the instantiates a chroma matrix original sound, an exact resynthesis was not sought for. By cognitive we a. Sonogram analysis of the containing the following mean the ability to recognize the sound (FFT Size: 4,096 points; information: as many com- salient features of the original sound black at –60 dB, white at 0 dB); ponents as frequencies, one (if known) or of its synthetic devel- b. Discrete temporal segmenta- amplitude and frequency per opment, whereas spectromorphology tion of the sonogram (shown component. Each matrix has is the control of the characteristics on the disc), according to a duration corresponding to and evolution of the sound over time. some compositional prin- the inter-onset interval (IOI) It is worth noting that at least two ciples, based on placing a between two adjacent markers levels of time are used: each matrix marker wherever a musically and a global onset time corre- has both a position in the sequence important change is located sponding to the value of the of the onsets of the chroma model, (although the main notes marker (see Figure 29); as well as its own internal duration. are marked, there are more e. Processing and synthesis This allows each matrix to end before markers than notes); of the chroma model. The or overlap with other matrices. c. Computation of a static spec- synthesis class is chosen; the missing parameters trum between each group of General Control Strategy two adjacent markers. The required by that class are spectrum contains the par- given according to a set of For examples 2–5 a subset of markers tials that are above a certain compositional rules. wasselected(1237101416192122

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 23 24 25). The duration of each matrix 4. Same spectromorphological sound projection). Computer was stretched across the IOI, so that profile as Example 2, with the music design: Serge Lemou- each event is partially superposed on following changes: pan goes ton. Electronic production: the next one (to simulate a “legato” from right to left, there are 10– Institut de Recherche et Coor- effect). The amount of superposition 20 sub-components for each dination Acoustique/Musique can vary across a model and is deter- partial (it sounds more “clus- (IRCAM). Commissioned by mined by a scalar factor computed tery”), the spectral amplitude Franc¸oise and Jean-Philippe by looking up a break-point function. and duration of each partial Billarant for IRCAM. This Further data for the matrix were start as in Example 2 and are live recording was produced computed algorithmically (using Lisp progressively reversed, which at IRCAM in 1997. It is used functions). produces a final chord with here with kind permission the higher frequencies being of Electric Phoenix. Note: 2. Relatively close additive syn- the longest and loudest. In the this version of the piece is thesis of the original sound sonogram (shown on the disc), currently withdrawn. A major (similar rhythm, no change the thickness of each partial revision is being planned. of the spectromorphological is clearly visible (compare, information coming from the for instance, the spectrum at The Real People don’t think the model), with approximately 4.4”). voice was designed for talking. 2–3 side-components per real 5. Spectral profile similar to Ex- You do that with your heart/head component. The stereo pan ample 2, but with a longer center. If the voice is used for goes from left to right from phrase and slower tempo. It speech, one tends to get into the beginning to the end of starts with the same pitch small, unnecessary, and less spir- the model. The sonogram and develops towards other itual conversation. The voice is (shown on the disc) is of the pitches (shown in the sono- made for singing, for celebration, mono reduction. The over- gram, on the disc). and for healing. (Marlo Morgan, lap between each matrix, the 6. Same spectral profile as Ex- Mutant Message Down Under) additive structure, as well as ample 2, with exponential the small entry delays of the accelerando and a bell-like partials of each matrix, are percussive attack and decay Come Natura di Foglia was born clearly visible. (shown in the sonogram, on from a challenge I made to myself: 3. Same as above, but using for- the disc). How to bring together my own mu- mant frequency modulation 7. Same profile as Example 6, sical experience and models coming (one modulating, tuned to but with very large clusters from several distant traditions, such the lowest frequency in the (20–100 sub-components per as Tibetan voices, the Bunun choir, a model, and several carrier partial), yielding the effect of song of a fisherman from Bahrein, or waves, tuned to the upper a cymbal-like sound (shown a toaca, a Romanian wooden drum. partials of the model, but in the sonogram, on the disc). The relationship should remain un- adjusted so as to produce a rel- 8. Come Natura di Foglia, Canti derstandable, but without any direct atively harmonic spectrum). lontani per voci ed elettronica quotation of the original sounds. I This means that the N1/N2 [Faraway Songs for Voices and was fascinated by the deep relation- ratio consists of small integer Electronics]—Marco Stroppa. ship between the people’s culture, numbers, plus a little amount Texts: an ancient prophecy the social function of the music, and of “detuning” added to the by the Cree Indians and sa- its insertion into a universal frame- computation of the N2. The cred appeals and reports from work governed by the laws of Nature sonogram (shown on the disc) shamans, translated into En- and the Cosmos. I have sought for a is of the mono reduction. The glish. Performers: Electric musical path that would link these typical formant structure and Phoenix (Judith Rees, soprano; different models and delve into the the opening of the formant Meriel Dickinson, mezzo- poetic and emotional dimension of due to the increase of the soprano; Daryl Runswick, computer-generated sounds, with the modulation index are very tenor; Terry Edwards, bass; hope to carve a sort of “magic” event apparent. John Whiting and Mike Skeet, out of every sound.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 The title comes from one of the short-term averaged envelope of 3. Sound Examples to Meditations written during the last the first harmonic. The proposed Accompany the Article “Two ten years of his life by Marcus Au- synthesis model also accounts for Pioneering Projects from the relius, the great Roman emperor, inharmonicity and beating appearing Early History of philosopher, and humanist, who en- in electric guitar tones. Computer-Aided Algorithmic lightened with his wisdom a decaying Recorded Sound: Composition” by Christopher empire (Marco Stroppa). 1. Recorded guitar pluck: String: 6; Fret: 0; Plucking point: 10 Ariza (Volume 35, Number 3) cm; Pickup: Bridge; Level: mf. 1. In 1955 David Caplin, work- 2. Sound Examples to ing at the Koninklijke/Shell- Accompany the Article Synthesized Examples: 2. Synthesized guitar pluck: Laboratorium in Amsterdam, “Parametric Electric Guitar made a recording of the Fer- String: 6; Fret: 0; Plucking ∗ Synthesis” by Niklas point: 10 cm; Pickup: Bridge; ranti Mark I performing a Lindroos, Henri Penttinen, Level: mf. program to generate and syn- and Vesa Valim¨ aki¨ (Volume Changing Pickups: thesize melodic lines from 35, Number 3) 3. Synthesized guitar chord: contredances, based on a Open E major; Pickup: Bridge. versionofW.A.Mozart’s A complete electric guitar synthesis 4. Synthesized guitar chord: Musikalisches Wurfelspiel¨ . algorithm based on the digital wave- Open E major; Pickup: The synthesis technique, as guide approach was developed incor- Middle. suggested by porating novel techniques and other 5. Synthesized guitar chord: in 1951, used the integrated appropriate improvements. The exci- Open E major; Pickup: Neck. computer loudspeaker and tation signal produced by plucking a Changing plucking point: the “hoot” programming steel string with a plectrum was mea- 6. Changing plucking point of instruction. This synthesis sured using a piezoelectric pickup. A a synthesized guitar tone: system was implemented by parametric excitation model consist- Plucking point moves from Dietrich Prinz. The record- ing of two parts was then proposed: 2.6 cm to 32.6 cm on the open ing was made by holding a The first part is a filtered noise burst sixth string. microphone near the com- and the second is composed of a Altering dynamics: puter’s loudspeaker and parametric simplified pulse that is 7. Altering the dynamics of recording to a reel-to-reel reproduced with an integrating filter. a synthesized guitar tone: analog recorder. The occa- The proposed magnetic pickup Plucking force from pp to ff sional high-frequency noises model is founded on a special feed- in five steps. The amplitude are a result of the random forward comb filter in which a is normalized, therefore, signal generation; the occa- frequency-dependent delay is im- the pitch drift is the most sional stutters in the sound plemented using an all-pass filter. prominent effect. are due to the time necessary The frequency-dependent delay filter Synthetic chords without dis- to transfer data from the is needed to simulate the dispersive tortion and with distortion: magnetic drum storage to wave propagation on the vibrating 8. A synthetic perfect fifth chord the fast access storage. This steel string, which causes the notches without distortion. recording was transferred to of the comb filter to be nonuniformly 9. A synthetic power chord, i.e., analog cassette in the late spaced in frequency. a perfect fifth chord with 1990s and digitized in 2009. In addition to these novelties, distortion. No noise reduction or other an improvement to the waveguide Synthetic Riff Without Dis- audio processes have been string model was introduced: A time- tortion and With Distortion: applied. varying loop gain helps to emulate 10. A synthetic riff without 2. In 1959 Caplin commissioned the two-stage decay of electric guitar distortion. Elizabeth Innes, a program- tones. The gain variation over time is 11. A synthetic riff with mer in the Shell Computer easily calibrated by smoothing a distortion. Development Division, to

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 rewrite the 1955 Mozart is unique, and perhaps more dently, at one-third impact Dice Game System and musically compelling, in that location. the synthesis routine for it uses four voices, rather a. Legato: sequence of legato the Mercury, a sig- than two. attacks, played at 63 nificantly faster computer These realizations were bpm, composed of six than the Ferranti Mark I∗. made by transcribing the two-handed beats, fin- The output of this com- printed score tables by ishing with a right-hand puter was recorded using a hand into a tab-delimited beat. method similar to that of data table. This table was b. Tenuto: sequence of tenuto Example 1. This recording then processed by a Python attacks, played at 63 contains frequent clicks script to provide a bpm, composed of six due to the starting and CSD file. For a clear pre- two-handed beats, fin- stopping of the recorder. sentation of the pitch and ishing with a right-hand This recording was simi- rhythm structures with a beat. larly transferred to analog harp-like tone, a simple c. Accent: sequence of ac- cassette in the late 1990s Csound instrument using cent attacks, played at and digitized in 2009, and the wgpluck opcode is used 63 bpm, composed of six no noise reduction or other with a quickly attacked en- two-handed beats, fin- audio processes have been velope. Small amounts of ishing with a right-hand applied. reverb (via the freeverb beat. 3. In 1964 Sister Harriet Pad- opcode) and stereo panning d. Vertical accent: sequence berg, then studying at Saint are employed to support voice of vertical accent at- Louis University, submitted separation. tacks, played at 63 bpm, her dissertation, Computer- 4. This example is the fifth composed of six two- Composed Canon and Free composition Padberg pro- handed beats, finish- Fugue, with complete score vides, and is the only ex- ing with a right-hand tables defining pitch and ample of a free fugue. The beat. duration for five computer- source input text is “uni- e. Staccato: sequence of generated, microtonal, poly- versity canon and twenti- staccato attacks, played phonic compositions. The eth century fugue.” This at 63 bpm, composed of works were the result of example was realized in six two-handed beats, an original system that, the same manner as in finishing with a right-hand based on a text string input, Example 3. beat. created canons and fugues 2. Impact Locations. with multiple pitch and Simulations showing each rhythmic transformations impact location indepen- 4. Video Examples to and a non-equal-tempered, dently, with legato attacks. 24-tone, microtonal scale. Accompany the Article a. One-third: sequence of Although she used the IBM “Virtual Gesture Control and impacts at the one-third lo- 1620 and IBM 7072 to gen- Synthesis of Music cation, played at 63 bpm, erate these works, she did Performances: Qualitative composed of six two-hand not have access to sonic Evaluation of Synthesized one-third impacts, fin- realizations. Timpani Exercises” by ishing with a right-hand This example is a canon, Alexandre Bouenard¨ et al. one-third impact. the fourth composition Pad- (Volume 35, Number 3) b. Center: sequence of im- berg provides. The first three pacts at the center loca- compositions all use the Validation Exercises tion, played at 63 bpm, same source text as input composed of six two-hand (“college canon”) and thus 1. Attack Modes. one-third impacts, fin- begin with the same pri- Simulations showing each ishing with a right-hand mary voice. This example attack mode indepen- one-third impact.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 c. Rim: sequence of impacts 5. Sound Examples to rope and Australia. He is interested in at the rim location, played Accompany the Article the application of complex dynamical at 63 bpm, composed of “Experiments in Modular systems to musical composition, six two-hand one-third Design for the Creative applications of evolutionary ideas impacts, finishing with Composition of Live to creative music software, and a right-hand one-third evolutionary approaches to human Algorithms” by Oliver Bown impact. musical behavior and culture. (Volume 35, Number 3)

These short excerpts provide docu- 1. CTRNN with Finn Peters Extrapolation Exercises mentation of experimental works us- (flute). ing two types of dynamical system— Recorded live at Cafe Oto, 3. Attack Modes. continuous-time recurrent neural London, August 2009. Part Simulations showing networks (CTRNNs) and dynamic of a concert of Live Algo- mixed sequences of attack decision trees (DTs)—as patterning rithms which followed a modes, at one-third impact modules in the context of live al- three-day workshop at Gold- locations. gorithms for music (LAMs). In each smiths, University of London. a. Exercise 1: sequence played excerpt, a single dynamical system Recorded by Sam Britton. at 63 bpm, composed al- responds to the input from one or The CTRNN controls FM- ternatively of staccato, more live performers, through sim- synthesis and drum-machine legato, tenuto, legato, ple feature analysis, and controls a modules. Finn Peters is a accent, legato, vertical metronome’s rate as well as multiple British flautist and saxophon- accent, and legato at- electronic sound modules that are ist who regularly improvises tacks. either triggered directly from the dy- with electronic musicians. b. Exercise 2: sequence namical system’s output or from the His 2010 album Music of the played at 63 bpm, com- metronome. This work was produced Mind explores the use of a posed alternatively of by Oliver Bown while working as brain–computer interface as a legato and accent at- a post-doctoral research assistant at compositional tool. tacks (3 times), ending the Centre for Electronic Media Art 2. CTRNN with Adrian Sherriff with a vertical accent at- at Monash University, Melbourne, (shakuhachi) and Brigid tack. Australia. It was created using a Burke (clarinet). 4. Tempo Variations. Java-based software library for real- Recorded live at the a. Accelerando-decelerando: time generative music, called Beads, Guildford Lane Gallery, accelerando-decelerando which was also developed during Melbourne, February 2010. of legato attacks at this period. Beads is freely available Part of a concert series called the one-third loca- under a GNU General Public License Hands Free, which explored tion, progressively (www.beadsproject.net). The specifics autonomous music software. from 63 bpm to 120 of analysis and synthesis modules Recorded by Oliver Bown. bpm and then back to are not provided in detail. They The CTRNN controls drum 63 bpm. are operationally relatively opaque, machine, FM synthesis, 5. Impact Locations. being the products of hacking and and granular sampler a. Impact locations: se- tweaking during the compositional modules. Adrian Sherriff is quence of legato attacks, process. an Australian trombonist, played at 63 bpm, com- Oliver Bown is a British electronic shakuhachi player, and tabla posed alternatively of musician and researcher working in player who performs with live location pairs: rim/one- Australia (www.olliebown.com). He electronics. Brigid Burke is third, rim/center, one- is one half of the electronic music an Australian clarinetist and third/center, and finally duo Icarus and a member of the Not bass clarinetist who works in locations played and se- Applicable label and artists’ group improvised and new music. quenced differently by the (www.not-applicable.org). He works She performs with live two hands. with improvising musicians in Eu- electronics and incorporates

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00098 by guest on 27 September 2021 live video mixing into her REDCAT Theater, Los Angeles, Part Three: Additional Content performances. Burke and California, USA, 27 January 2010. Bown released an album of The 2011 DVD includes a DVD- improvised music, Erase ROM section. To access the materials (2011), on the Not Applicable contained there, the reader will need label. 7. Video Example to to place the DVD into a suitable disc 3. DT with Lothar Ohlmeier Accompany the Article “The drive on a computer. (bass clarinet). Man and Machine Robot Recorded live at the North Orchestra at Logos” by Laura 1. Sound Files to Accompany Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam, Maes, Godfried-Willem Raes, the Article “The Perceived July 2010. Part of a special and Troy Rogers (Volume 35, event called OK Computer, Affective Expression of Number 4) which explored contempo- Computer-Manipulated rary approaches to electronic Sung Sounds” by Freya Bailes music performance. Live The video was created to illustrate the and Roger T. Dean technical assistance and various automatons that are discussed (Volume 35, Number 1) recording by Roy Carroll. The in detail in the article. Performer: DT directly triggers a sampler Godfried-Willem Raes. Robots: aeio, These 40 audio files are all described playing percussive bass fa, harmo, ob, pp2, psch, puff, qt, on pp. 92–95 of the article. In particu- clarinet and timpani samples, thunderwood, toypi, vibi. Filming lar, see Table 1 (which omits the file- and a granular sample and editing: Laura Maes. More infor- name prefixes Sn-, where n =1 to 40). player playing textural bass mation on the M&M orchestra can be clarinet samples. Lothar found at the Logos Foundation Web 2. Data Files to Accompany the Ohlmeier is a German bass site (www.logosfoundation.org). Article “An Evaluation of clarinetist and saxophonist Musical Score Characteristics and a regular member for Automatic Classification of the Not Applicable 8. Video Example to of Composers” by Ofer Dor Artists. Accompany the Article and Yoram Reich (Volume 35, 4. DT with Brigid Burke (bass Number 3) clarinet). “: An Interview” by Recorded in a studio session Sasha Leitman (Volume 35, 1. Base files: full data.arff; at Northern Melbourne In- Number 4) full data string.arff; stitute of TAFE, Melbourne, full data keyboard.arff; December 2010. Recorded This 5-min sequence from the DO NOT CLASSIFY full by Oliver Bown. The DT film Trimpin: The Sound of Inven- info data.arff. directly triggers subtractive tion (2011, 77 min) shows Trimpin’s 2. Binary Files: keyboard (280 synthesis, drum machine, design and construction of if VI ARFF files); string (150 ARFF and granular sample player was IX, which is on permanent files); both (360 ARFF files). modules. exhibit in ’s Experience Mu- 3. Composer files: composer sic Project. The piece makes use n.arff (ten files); of over 500 instruments, 32 of major n.arff (ten files). 6. Video Example to Accompany which play MIDI files continuously. 4. Genre files: baroque n.arff if VI was IX n the Article “The Machine was designed, com- (ten files); classical .arff posed, programmed, and constructed (ten files). Orchestra: An Ensemble by Trimpin over a seven-month pe- 5. Genre instrument files: of Human Laptop Performers riod in 1999. baroque keyboard n.arff and Robotic Musical Producer/director: Peter Es- (ten files); classical Instruments” by Ajay Kapur monde. Camera: Peter Esmonde keyboard n.arff (ten files). et al. (Volume 35, Number 4) and Elijah Lawson. Audio: Gabriel 6. Instrument files: keyboard Miller. Distributor: Microcinema and n.arff (ten files); string n.arff Karmetik Machine Orchestra, Participant Observer. (ten files).

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