Browse Items (868 total)

• Canto notturno (di un pastore errante dell'Asia) (Night chant (of a wandering shepherd of Asia))

  after Giacomo Leopardi

• Contrappunto (Invention for data stream #1)

  In Contrappunto (the first of my Inventions for data stream) the data stream (from the AFLOWLIB.org entry for Silicon) is manipulated during the live performance creating a musical material that will be influenced by the performer in any instance of execution. This is where the CADDC environment is most versatile, allowing for a large degree of improvisation and for a broad palette of esthetic choices. The duration of the piece is open and the recording on SoundCloud is just an example of the infinite possibilities that this piece opens.

• Ricercare (Inventions for data streams #2)

  The structure of Ricercare is a reinterpretation of the original “ricercare” style of the late renaissance and early baroque period. Here the word “ricercare“ (Italian for “to research”) takes a double meaning: on one hand is the research the performer does to find the optimal connection between the flute and the sonification of the data stream in the basso continuo accompaniment; on the other, it refers to the scientific research work that has led to the data on which this composition is based. All the parts are directly based on the remix and sonification of the materials property data for Silicon, Germanium and Tin (Si1_ICSD_60389, Ge1_ICSD_181071 and Sn1_ICSD_53789 in AFLOWLIB.org), some of the group IVa elements of the periodic table. The flute part is built on the materials data mapped to pitch class sets (one of the output of the data manipulation algorithm). These pitch class sets are used in the original form found by the mapping procedure – no operation (translation, inversion or multiplication) is done on the sets. The rhythmic patterns oscillate between quasi-random sequences and continuous virtuosity runs as in a baroque solo section. The basso continuo is split in one harmonic and one percussive part. The harmonic part comes from the direct mapping of the materials data into MIDI note-on/note-off events streamed live through the DataPlayer app; the percussive section doubles the flute part in a rhythmic unison triggered by the flute through an audio-to-MIDI pitch recognition Max for Live patch.

• EleKtrIoN (music of diamond)

  EleKtrIoN I (music of diamond) is a composition based on the sonification, remix and artistic reinterpretation of diamond property data obtained by very sophisticated scientific computer simulations translated into music using a computer-aided data-driven composition environment developed by the composer in the materialssoundmusic project.

• Dystopia

  Dystopia is a work for laptop ensemble that uses Max/MSP. There are 5 parts and a score. The piece is performed with a conductor that cues different gestures the performers should do with the patches. While the composition follows a score, time is not indicated and the conductor can choose to extended sections when they choose.

• Small Groups of People Bring Collapse (Laptop Anarchy)

  There are six parts written in Max/MSP. No conductor is needed and the time is automatically set in the patches.

• Traversing Eternity (Exploration of Stars)

  This work is a collection of 12 movements that are comprised of all the zodiac symbols for any given month notated. The computer part is subtle and is used to alter the timbre of the instruments in real time to make a “hyper” instrument. The composition does not have to be played with all 12 movements. The ensemble can pick their birthday months or randomly choose.

• Inter Diabolus et Virgo (Between the Devil and a Virgin)

  This work uses Supercollider and a midi controller. The score does not have time indicated and can be performed at any length. There is also room for improvisation and expansion of sounds and ideas durning the performance using the midi controller.

• Vorticose

  Vorticose was performed at the Sound Horizons music festival in Boston, in a live-control sound diffusion setting using Harvard University’s 40-speaker “Hydra” sound system. -May 2015
  
  A quadraphonic (4-channel) version of Vorticose was featured at the New Ideas in Music and Sound concert series in Boston. -October 2015

• Foreign Masonry

  The narrator in Jorge Luis Borges’ 1945 story “The Aleph” describes a remarkable singularity under an acquaintance’s cellar stairs: a point where the universe in its entirety can be experienced at once. At the end of the story, he describes other Alephs that might exist in the world:

  “The Faithful who gather at the mosque of Amr, in Cairo, are acquainted with the fact that the entire universe lies inside one of the stone pillars that ring its central court…No one, of course, can actually see it, but those who lay an ear against the surface tell that after some short while they perceive its busy hum…The mosque dates from the seventh century; the pillars come from other temples of pre-Islamic religions, since, as ibn-Khaldun has written: ‘In nations founded by nomads, the aid of foreigners is essential in all concerning masonry.’”

  “Foreign Masonry” uses a single multiphonic built from the baritone saxophone’s lowest note as the mysterious column, its multitudinous harmonic series representative of the entire universe.