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Digital Music Interactions
A software-based interactive music and performance system
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Overview
Interactions #1 attempts to create a subtle soundscape of delicate piano gestures and related computer-processed recorded phrases
while allowing the pianist to control the nuances of phrasing and timing with a footpedal soundfile triggering system. The piece
should be played with a light and somewhat dreamy air, with the pianist feeling free to extend each phrase as long as he or she wishes.
When played with the subsequent pieces Interactions #2 and Interactions #3 the performer should treat the three pieces as related movements
of a larger work, starting each subsequent piece while the last soundfile of the previous piece is fading out.
Interactions #1 makes use of a relatively simple pedal-triggering system that allows the pianist to control the entrance and exit points for
the associated pre-recorded "tape" part. Each depression of the pedal causes one pre-recorded section to fade out while at the same time fading
in the next pre-recorded section. The recorded material was composed using Max/MSP, Digital Performer, and Peak editing software on an
Apple Powerbook computer. The pedal-triggering system was written in Max/MSP and can be triggered either by a standard MIDI footpedal or
by a user-defined keystroke on a computer keyboard. In this manner the piece can be performed by a lone pianist with pedal or by a
pianist with an assistant cueing each successive computer section.
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Performance Notes
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The performance of Piano Interactions #1 requires the pianist to play from the score while sound files are played from the computer through
the speaker system. There is a marking in the score at each place where the pianist is to press the MIDI footpedal to trigger both the start of a new sound file
and the end of the previously-playing sound file. However the files do not start and stop immediately; rather they fade in and out to create a seamless
sound playback. The first footpedal trigger starts a sound file playing. After approximately the amount of time denoted
in the Time Marking box (also marked in the score), the pianist is to begin playing the first phrase of the piece. Each phrase written in the score is
related to the sound material being played by the computer in the appropriate sound file. The computer staff in the score attempts to show a fairly clear
depiction of the sound material that comes from the computer.
Listed below are descriptions of some of the non-standard notational markings used in the score for Interactions #1:
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Pedal Marking
This marking denotes a cue for the performer or assistant to trigger the next sample, either using a MIDI footpedal or an assigned key on the
computer keyboard. There are twenty cues in Interactions #1, the first of which will start the piece and the last of which will end the piece.
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Time Marking
At the beginning of Interactions #1, the initial foot-pedal trigger starts the first soundfile playing before the piano enters. This durational marker of 18 seconds tells the pianist to enter after approximately 18 seconds have elapsed since the triggering of the first soundfile.
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Computer Box Notation
The use of a box surrounding a brief notated figure in the third computer staff of Interactions #1 implies that a figure similar to the notated figure (a randomized version of the general pitches defined within the box) will be voiced by the computer. The arrow extending to the right away from the box implies that the randomized figure will continue for the approximate duration as the length of the arrow in the score.
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Box Waveform Notation
The audio waveform enclosed in a box corresponds to the introduction in the piece of a low-indeterminate frequency waveform, generated through the combination of discrete samples from piano wave forms slowed down and processed to create a thick sonorous cloud. The arrow extending to the right away from the box has the same function as described above in Computer Box Notation.
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© 2003 R. Hamilton / Johns Hopkins University . All rights reserved.
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