An overview workshop to explore the use of Interactive Technology from the perspective of the composer. Use and implications of interactive programs for creating intuitive compositional environments and for the creation of fully-composed works for performer and computer.
a) history of algorithmic composition
b) algorithms that are changeable in real-time - precomposed and recomposed (examples from computer music canon and of compositional environments)
c) tools for creating algorithms that change in real time - introduction to Max/MSP software, using sequencers with real-time changes and controller information.
An overview workshop to explore the possible extension of performer control to include non-traditional use of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) devices, effects processors and multimedia. Discussion of alternative MIDI controllers, Max/MSP programming environment and the use of sequencers and samplers in unusual and interactive ways.
In-depth workshop covers Max/MSP as a compositional and performance environment and for creating interactive art installations with sound and other media. Knowledge of MIDI helpful. The workshop can be tailored to all levels.
Practical discussion of the use of effects processors with real-time control. Musical explanations of basic effects algorithms and their musical implications for both improvised and pre-composed music. Discussion of sound processing, filtering and sound synthesis techniques.
As citizens of the 21st century, we are exposed to many genres of music even in the space of one day. How should contemporary composition reflect our experience? And if a composition does cross genre boundaries, what is the effect on the listener—in the concert hall, as a record-buyer, as a market constituent? A frank discussion of these questions and their many possible answers will lead to a renewed approach to listening and musicmaking by all involved.
Hours and hours go into the creation of computer-music compositions. With the use of real-time processes, some of this effort can become part of a concert performance. With non-real-time processes, the audience may find itself listening to two speakers with no one on stage. Is this still music? Can it be concertized more effectively? Sometimes a composer will create a piece which incorporates a live instrumentalist with a pre-recorded soundtrack. Does this work? Loops and samples in current pop styles are customarily drawn from non-live sources—what is the effect of this post-modernist practice in a live concert setting vs. a non-live CD, dj or radio playback? And finally how should electric amplification be used in concert contexts—should electric instruments (electric guitars to turntables to tape playback) only play with electric instruments and traditional acoustic instruments only with their like? Can they or should they be combined? As technology continues to penetrate our daily lives, answers to these and many similar questions will become more and more a part of our criteria for evaluation of the musical world around us.
Comparison of stylistic uses of percussion in different musical genres: punk rock, alterna-rock vs. the so-called "classical" genres—new music, 20th-century modernist music, 19th-century orchestral idiom. What are the differences from the player's point of view? From the listener's? What are the similarities? Where will percussion performance practice go in the 21st century?