Five Rehearsal Videos

Currently, I'm working on a suite of 8 pieces for various iPad controllers used to perform live computer music.  Seven of these use the Lemur app, in which I'm making different kinds of control surfaces.  Some of these directly control sounds, just like a traditional keyboard or mixer, while others are used to steer an algorithmic process into areas of sonic interest.

These videos were shot in the late morning and early afternoon of April 25, 2014.  I was performing and Catherine Schieve was operating the camera.  After this, we repaired to Anshuman da Dhaba, our local Indian restaurant, for a superb lunch.

These are rehearsal videos, which show the performing techniques involved in five of the eight pieces in the suite.  Eventually, the pieces will probably be longer than these, exploring the musical material in each of the pieces in greater detail.  Here are the pieces, with the notes to them included in the YouTube site.

1. Lucas C Right Drone

 This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad controlling the LinPlug Spectral, a computer synthesizer.  It's the first of eight pieces in a suite.  This one uses a specially designed 

microtonal keyboard, made with the Lemur program, which divides the microtonal scale into groups of 5 and 7 notes each.  The keys on the right sustain notes, the ones on the left act 

like normal musical keys.  The scale is based on Erv Wilson's "The Scales of Mt Meru" papers.

This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad controlling the LinPlug Spectral, a computer synthesizer.  It's the first of eight pieces in a suite.  This one uses a specially designed microtonal keyboard, made with the Lemur program, which divides the microtonal scale into groups of 5 and 7 notes each.  The keys on the right sustain notes, the ones on the left act like normal musical keys.  

4. Sprott Canon

This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad controlling an algorithmic process, which is composing a 3 part canon.  The canon derives its musical material from one of Julien Sprott's Chaotic Equations.  This piece is the fourth of eight pieces in a suite.  This one uses a specially designed interface, made with the Lemur program, which allows me to control many aspect of the musical-chaotic process, such as range of the melodies, register of the melodies, tempo, scales, (subsets of a 12 note scale based on Erv Wilson's "The Scales of Mt Meru" papers), dynamics, pedaling on the Pianoteq4 Pro virtual piano, etc.  A lot of the performing of this piece involves me just standing and listening to the music in progress, deciding where next to steer the process.  In this piece, listening is as important as moving.

5. Four Parisian Mods

This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad controlling an acousmatic piece, in which a loop of hand-drawn electronic music is modified by 4 GRM Tools Plugins, which I control by performing gestures on the screen.  The original sound was made with Henry Lowengard's Tondo app.  This piece is the fifth of eight pieces in a suite.  This one uses a specially designed interface, made with the Lemur program, which allows me to control whether or not the original sound is heard, and the balance and settings of the GRM Shuffling, Reson, FreqWarp, and Delays plugins. A lot of the performing of this piece involves me just standing and listening to the music in progress, deciding where next to steer it.  In this piece, listening is as important as moving.

7. Tenebrae Chorale

This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad controlling the Sunrizer soft synth.  The keyboard is a hexagonal keyboard made with Lemur, which is playing an 11 note microtonal scale based on Ervin Wilson's Moment of Symmetry scales.  This piece is the seventh of eight pieces in a suite.    In this piece I perform by either selecting individual keys, or by sliding along the 3 axes of the hexagonal keyboard, performing arpeggios based on the different setups of two different microtonal keyboards.  This piece is an exploration of the harmonies and melodies implicit in specially laid-out keyboards.

8. A Degenerate Practice

This is a rehearsal video for a piece for iPad using the Samplr App.  Samplr allows you to perform directly on the representation of the waveforms of up to 6 different samples simultaneously.  Samples of electronic sounds, acoustic instruments, and voice (the voice of composer Harry Partch) are used.  This is the last of eight pieces in a suite.  In this piece I'm improvising, rapidly combining different sounds and treatments of those sounds.  This piece provides a lively finish to the entire suite of live computer music pieces, closing with a quote from Harry Partch, which hopefully ends the piece with a smile.

Sometime before the end of the year, I hope to present the complete suite of all 8 pieces somewhere.  When I do, I hope to be able to have the performance recorded both with video and with sound.  Stay tuned, and I'll try to present those on this site.  For now, enjoy these as hints of the larger piece to come.