NEW MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR LIVE PEFORMANCE AND INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF CREATIVE ARTS from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by THOMAS A. FITZGERALD BMus(Hons), MMus(Melb) FACULTY of CREATIVE ARTS 2004 Thesis Certification CERTIFICATION I, Thomas A. Fitzgerald, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Creative Arts, in the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Thomas A. Fitzgerald 23rd October 2004 Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the invaluable support of my Supervisors, Professor Stephen Ingham and Dr. Houston Dunleavy, whose insight and wisdom illuminated my journey in this creative research project. In addition, their patience and resourcefulness remained constant throughout these demanding four years. I also received considerable technical and administrative assistance from the staff at the Creative Arts Department, especially Des Fitzsimons, Alaister Davies, and Olena Cullen. The U.O.W. Library and Research Student Centre staff at U.O.W., led by Julie King, were consistently resourceful. This research was made possible through a University of Wollongong Post Graduate Award, and I remain deeply appreciative of this financial assistance. My associate research collaborative artists, especially Lycia Danielle Trouton, and as well, Elizabeth Cameron-Dalman, Hilary Rhodes, and John Bennett, provided invaluable insight and creative inspiration. Finally, I am appreciative of the emotional and personal support of my own family-Lindy, Jessica, Alice, as well as my parents and siblings. 1 Abstract The focus of this DCA thesis is the development of original creative audio and audio-visual work. Central to this is a study of the nature of interactivity and sonic relationships between electroacoustic and acoustic music, extended further by the application of sonic and visual interactivity. This written documentation accompanies the major part of the DCA submission, a folio of five original works. Its purpose is to clarify, document and contextualise the creation of these works and to illuminate the aesthetic underpinnings and compositional techniques that I have developed during the period 2000 – 2004. The structure of this documentation is in three parts which support the research methodology of reflective investigation. This process begins with an introductory overview (Chapter 1). This is extended in the second part, (Chapters 2–5), an observation of the effect of the culture, contemporary musical environments and related creative practice in my work. The third part, (Chapters 6–10), details the nature, and techniques utilized in the development of the new works. These developments have also embraced the combination of live projected interactive visual imagery with acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Finally, I have investigated the role of sonic spatialisation and texture as expressive and structural devices in music composition. 2 Contents PART ONE Chapter One: Introduction …………………………………………… ……..4 PART TWO Chapter Two: Interdependent Cultural and Creative Environments .……….12 Chapter Three : The Impact of Technology and Popular Culture in My Recent Work ………………………….…...35 Chapter Four:The Role of Improvisation in Electroacoustic Environments….….…….43 Chapter Five: Interactivity, Multimedia, and Spatial Music ……………….54 PART THREE Chapter Six: Work 1 – Seeming Insanity of Forgiveness for Surround Sound and Playback Sounds ….……70 Chapter Seven: Work 2 - Fast Travel for Amplified String Quartet…....…………….85 Chapter Eight: Work 3 – Low Traffic for Aboriginal Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Pre-recorded Sounds and Interactive Multimedia Projections ………………98 3 Chapter Nine: Work 4 - Instrumental Music Suite…………………….…109 Sonic Code for Solo Electric Violin/Viola and Tape Double Rainbow for Solo Flute and Two Delay Signal Treatment Machines. Blues for the Avant Garde for Solo Amplified Piano. Chitter Chatter for Clarinet and Cello, Tape and Multimedia. Chika’s Transformation for Amplified Shamisen, Amplified Solo Soprano Voice, Amplified Solo Shakuhatchi and Reverberation and Delay Signal Treatments Chapter Ten: Work 5 - Multimedia Suite…………..……………………..128 I Can Hear You Now for multimedia ensemble. The City of Yes and the City of No for multimedia ensemble. Lament for multimedia ensemble. Ensemble Riffs for multimedia ensemble. Chika’s Release for multimedia ensemble. Chapter Eleven: Conclusion………………………………………………..160 Appendix One: Musical Scores Folio of Five Original Works……………….164 Appendix Two: CD and DVD recordings…………………………………..166 Appendix Three: Dates of Composition of Original Works………..………167 Appendix Four: Performers and Performance Dates of Original Works ……………………..168 Works Cited / Bibliography…………………………………….………….175 Chapter One Introduction ‘My fight for the liberation of sound and for my right to make music with any sound and all sounds, has sometimes been construed as a desire to disparage and even to discard the great music of the past. But that is where my roots are. No matter how original, how different a composer may seem he has only grafted a little bit of himself on the old plant. But this he should be allowed to do without being accused of wanting to kill the old plant. He only wants to produce a new flower…’ - Edgard Varèse. (Cope 112) Approaches to Invention, Discovery and Development The interplay of virtual entities, instruments, performers, and composers has opened up a new world of sonic phenomena, detail, sonic treatments and combinations. (Winkler 3). These form extended and expanded languages when fused with electroacoustic environments to produce new sounds, instruments and musical behaviour. The exploration and development of my creative approach to this new paradigm and the creation of original works that articulate this new world of sound is an important area in this DCA thesis. The new compositions embrace electroacoustic resources and various aspects of sonic and visual interactivity. This takes place in both multimedia and integrated intermedia contexts. 4 Each of the five works I have created explores different aspects, applications and intensities of electroacoustic interactivity in various musical contexts. These range from solo instruments and small ensemble, to chamber orchestra and full symphony orchestra resources. In this way the creative folio proceeds to articulate innovative ways to form expanded artistic and musical depth. In addition to the creation of the works, this thesis also endeavors to examine the development of my creative process and integrate reflective research into aspects of inventiveness. This include integrating the expanded role of intuition, imagination, individual and collective cultural memory, improvisation and artificial intelligence processes, as well as examining spatiality, sonic density and resonance. The expansion of these processes has led to new uses for pitch materials (horizontal and vertical), as well as temporal and pulsitile rhythmic concepts, particularly when applied to interactive music activities. The American composer Todd Winkler clarifies this activity succinctly: Interactive technologies may suggest a new musical genre, one where the computer’s capabilities are used to create new musical relationships that may only exist between humans and computers in a digital world. ( Winkler 8) The articulation of this new genre is extensively applied in my own original approach to the electroacoustic sound world, forging new work in this emerging frontier area. In this thesis interactivity is defined in an expansive sense, and applied in different ways according to the nature of the compositional process for each individual work. I use the term 5 interactivity to include pre-digital as well as post-digital sonic environments. This also recogises the types of interactivity that developed with the invention of audio recording. In exclusively live acoustic performance environments the levels of interactivity are extensive, performers interacting with the instrument, the other musicians and the audience. The recording and broadcast mediums radically changed the listening experience and communication environments. Music could now be presented as an object, captured and instantly available without the single performance limitations. Subsequently, many performers developed a recording career in addition to a live performance career. Some performers, like the Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould, abandoned live performance completely, preferring to create his performances as recorded versions only, working exclusively in the recording studio. In this situation he could edit several recorded versions and combine parts of them in order to create a more exact version of the composition. The effect of this kind of activity led to new doctrines of exactitude and authenticity and the conceptual value of the perfect performance. (Lipman 166). Performance art was haunted by this credo, often to the detriment of creative and imaginative interpretation. Performances became increasingly referenced by superhuman recorded versions of musical works, created away from the concert hall and often enhanced and assembled from many complete and part-recorded segments. The crucial distinction between these activities is that the live concert performance