computermusicblog.com » guitar

Fieldwork by Christopher Burns

evan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:59:01 +0000

Fieldwork is a software environment for improvised performance with electronic sound and animation. Two musicians’ sounding performances are fed into the system, and analyzed for pitch, rhythm, and timbral change. When the software recognizes a sharp contrast in one performer’s textures or gestures, it reflects this change by transforming the sound of the other musician’s performance. As a result of this process, the musicians are not only responding to one another as in conventional improvisation, but they are also able to directly modify their duo partner’s sound by interacting with the software. Fieldwork emphasizes rapid, glitchy, and polyrhythmic distortions of the musician’s performances, and establishes unpredictable feedback processes that encourage unexpected improvisational relationships between the performers and computer.

Performed by Amanda Schoofs (voice) and Christopher Burns (guitar) on October 27, 2011, as part of the Unruly Music festival, a co-production of UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts and the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. [1]

Flags of a Dead Ship by Matt Collings

evan — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:18:28 +0000

Flags of a Dead Ship explores the nature of the electric guitar and it’s use alongside digital technology. It also attempts to wrestle the electric guitar away from the aesthetics of rock music and as a sound source for various sonic processes.

The piece separates the acoustic sound of the instrument from the amplified sound of the guitar. It uses it creatively to explore the nature of the performance space through the use of room microphones, by sampling and re-playing strums of the guitars out from the P.A and into a feedback system which allow the resonant frequencies of the room to become evident. It also makes use of the whole signal chain of the electric guitar – from strings to the ear, by using the amplifier as an active part of the composition. One guitar amplifier is stripped apart and ‘prepared’ with various objects and performed by directly manipulating the speaker cone itself to produce textural and rhythmic material. 3 Guitarists play a series of chords, as conducted by the laptop operator which are processed in real-time through custom-made software in Max/MSP. They play continuously throughout the piece to create a constantly, hypnotic rhythm.

Axon by Michael Andrews and Ricky Graham

evan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:32:05 +0000

Axon written for Electric Guitar and 8 Channel Tape. Written by Michael Andrews and Ricky Graham. Performed by Ricky Graham @ the Pure Data Convention 2011 – Werkstattstudio, Weimar, DE. [1]

Constellations by Robert Lunn

evan — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:27:12 +0000

Constellations was composed during January and February of 2011. The New Music Collective of The Ohio State University, who commissioned the work, asked me to compose a piece for computer processed voice, electric guitar and percussion. I decided to make as a focal point of this piece the vocalizing talents of David Tomasacci, who can create a vast array of sounds and rhythms that I thought would sound good processed live by the computer.

The central processing tool I use throughout Constellations is granular synthesis. This, in effect, takes a small snapshot of sound and plays it back over and over. With the help of a midi foot pedal, I am able to adjust the position of this snapshot. The resulting sound, to me, sounds other worldly, hence the title.

The first movement, Phoenix, showcases the vocalist. The movement opens with whistling
before moving on to free vocalizations. These vocalizations are processed by the computer which in turn creates a melodic and rhythmic counterpoint to what the vocalist is doing. The second movement, Orion, is a short, spacious duet between the guitar and vocalist. The second movement runs into the third movement, Andromeda, without a pause. The final movement is flanked by a groove between the guitar and percussion that harks back to my days as a rock guitarist.

More work by Robert Lunn.

Sun Kiss for Electric Guitar and Max/MSP by Rob Lunn

evan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:15:06 +0000

No description on this one, but it comes from composer Robert Lunn.