An Electro-Acoustic Concert
Anderson shares his project's conceptual map.
Memorial Hall
Electro-Acoustic Concert
Wednesday, 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public
Project Lead
Stephen R. Anderson, UNC department of music
Composers
Stephen R. Anderson
Allen Anderson, UNC department of music
Rodney Waschka, North Carolina State University
Todd Coleman, Elon University
Frances White, freelance composer
Musicians
Stephen R. Anderson, piano, Max/MSP
Brooks de Wetter-Smith, UNC, flute
Richard Luby, UNC, violin
Brent Wissick, UNC, cello
Lynn Glassock, UNC, percussion
Project Description
New digital technology has had significant impact on both popular and classical music production. Evolving from German electronic music and French musique concrète traditions, electro-acoustic music is now a burgeoning field in the world of music composition. Anderson and his team will debut new electro-acoustic works by faculty composers Allen Anderson, Rodney Waschka, Todd Coleman and Frances White on the first evening of the CHAT festival.
This electro-acoustic concert incorporates digitally manipulated images of the Iraq War. A technologist developed a custom software using Max/MSP/Jitter to modify hundreds of hours of footage he has collected of the war. The software uses Max/MSP both as a direct musical tool for creating and filtering as well as altering sound generated into a microphone and as an engineering systems tool for feedback and control from the audience and performers to alter aspects of the visual projections, or audible filters.
Using this software, the composers will develop a custom interactive environment to generate, trigger and alter sounds as well as drive a visual display. The sounds and visuals will be part of a larger system including sensors such as visible and audible analysis of the audience. In this way, audience participation/behavior will be a factor in the score of the music itself. The goal is for the audience to understand that their behavior impacts the performance and also realize how different behaviors directly manifest in visual or audible feedback.
Anderson will compose a piece of music that will provide a flexible musical framework and incorporate UNC faculty performers who will interact in real-time with the images, each other and the interactive environment. The music score will incorporate improvisational notation—some traditional, some aleatory and some graphic notation—so that there will be a predetermined framework of pitches, rhythm and form, but it will allow the performers sufficient flexibility to interact with the images displayed during the performance. The images and the music, like the war itself, will juxtapose the seemingly incongruent by reflecting the trauma, anger and horrors of war while at the same time eliciting a hope for peace.
In addition to the opening concert, Anderson will also organize a second concert of electro-acoustic compositions by UNC student composers to take place Thursday, February 18 during the CHAT festival.
Electro-Acoustic Concert
Wednesday, 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public
Project Lead
Stephen R. Anderson, UNC department of music
Composers
Stephen R. Anderson
Allen Anderson, UNC department of music
Rodney Waschka, North Carolina State University
Todd Coleman, Elon University
Frances White, freelance composer
Musicians
Stephen R. Anderson, piano, Max/MSP
Brooks de Wetter-Smith, UNC, flute
Richard Luby, UNC, violin
Brent Wissick, UNC, cello
Lynn Glassock, UNC, percussion
Project Description
New digital technology has had significant impact on both popular and classical music production. Evolving from German electronic music and French musique concrète traditions, electro-acoustic music is now a burgeoning field in the world of music composition. Anderson and his team will debut new electro-acoustic works by faculty composers Allen Anderson, Rodney Waschka, Todd Coleman and Frances White on the first evening of the CHAT festival.
This electro-acoustic concert incorporates digitally manipulated images of the Iraq War. A technologist developed a custom software using Max/MSP/Jitter to modify hundreds of hours of footage he has collected of the war. The software uses Max/MSP both as a direct musical tool for creating and filtering as well as altering sound generated into a microphone and as an engineering systems tool for feedback and control from the audience and performers to alter aspects of the visual projections, or audible filters.
Using this software, the composers will develop a custom interactive environment to generate, trigger and alter sounds as well as drive a visual display. The sounds and visuals will be part of a larger system including sensors such as visible and audible analysis of the audience. In this way, audience participation/behavior will be a factor in the score of the music itself. The goal is for the audience to understand that their behavior impacts the performance and also realize how different behaviors directly manifest in visual or audible feedback.
Anderson will compose a piece of music that will provide a flexible musical framework and incorporate UNC faculty performers who will interact in real-time with the images, each other and the interactive environment. The music score will incorporate improvisational notation—some traditional, some aleatory and some graphic notation—so that there will be a predetermined framework of pitches, rhythm and form, but it will allow the performers sufficient flexibility to interact with the images displayed during the performance. The images and the music, like the war itself, will juxtapose the seemingly incongruent by reflecting the trauma, anger and horrors of war while at the same time eliciting a hope for peace.
In addition to the opening concert, Anderson will also organize a second concert of electro-acoustic compositions by UNC student composers to take place Thursday, February 18 during the CHAT festival.
