Music

Georg Hajdu has just released a new version of his Quintet.net performance system. “Quintet.net is an interactive network performance environment invented and developed by composer and computer musician Georg Hajdu. It enables up to five performers to play music over the Internet under the control of a “conductor.” The environment, which was programmed with the graphical programming language Max/MSP consists of four components: the Server, the Client, the Conductor and the Listener; the latter component enables the Internet/network audience to follow the performance […]....

I think Kurt Ralske puts it very well in “The Pianist: A Note on Digital Technique” “For the classical pianist, the tedium of endless hours of practicing scales takes on an aura of nobility; it’s a virtuous, character-building activity. Instead of practicing scales, the digital artist learns software and hardware, learns programming languages, learns the techniques of creating digital models of sound, image, information, and intelligence.” I wonder when music technologists will be employed in orchestras as musicians....

I finally got around to download and try ChucK : Concurrent, On-the-fly Audio Programming Language by Ge Wang. Feels a bit strange, but I guess I need to work a little bit more with it. It says something about graphical tools in the readme, and I’m looking forward to that.

Working with choreographer Mia Habib, I created the piece Laser Dance, which was shown on 30 November 1 December 2001 at the Norwegian Academy of Ballet and Dance in Oslo. The theme of the piece was “Light”, and the choreographer wanted to use direct light sources as the point of departure for the interaction. Mia had decided to work with laser beams, one along the backside of the stage and one on the diagonal, facing towards the audience....