Richard Hoadley

The Fluxus Tree is an automatic composition centred around interactions with a collection of experimental interactive sculptures. Dancers (or anyone else) interacts with the sculptures and so creates data from sensors which generates electronic sounds and music notation live. This live notation is then played by the composer and occasional (and excellent) 'cellist Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

'Calder's Violin' is a composition for violin and automatic piano. The music is algorithmically generated, including the violin part which is notated live as the piece progresses. The general textures and references of the music are intended to be predictable, but detail is new each time: an attempt to emulate in the medium of electronically generated music the 'mystifyingly exquisite variation' of performance on traditional, acoustic instruments. Some of the material for Calder's Violin has been previously developed for the on-going dance and music project 'Triggered'.

Calder’s Violin is a compositional experiment in joining the two fields of algorithmic composition and live notation. The audio programming environment SuperCollider is used to define a series of musical functions and these functions are then distributed in time. Each musical function includes a variety of parameters allowing significant variation between evaluations and these variations represent a significant part of the compositional detail. The distribution in time is generally quite linear in this case, although there are a number of occasions in the scheduling where degrees of randomness are allowed to influence the timing and ordering of events. In addition, the functions mentioned above include code for the conversion of algorithmic data into a format suitable for its display in conventional musical notation in real-time. This means that the violinist’s part is not determined in detail until, usually, just before the moment of performance. The general style and mood of the m...

Earle Brown's December 1952 is a score characterised by the use of 31 abstract graphical elements. Brown later re-imagined it as a Calderesque orrery in which "elements would actually physically be moving in front of the pi-anist" [1]. Although there are many more recent exam-ples of graphic, open and animated scores, for the pur-poses of this practice-led research the simplicity and grace of Brown's score makes it a pragmatic choice as it is sig-nificantly easier to follow the "translations" being applied. This composition involves research into the construction of a software system allowing multiple automatic 'variations' of the piece, live and in real-time, using common practice notations. Each variation is created by mapping a uniquely gener-ated version of Brown's original score according to a se-ries of settings -the size and shape of the elements, the 'route' taken through the score: right to left, top to bottom or vice versa, e...

Quantum² Canticorum is an Interdisciplinary performance in which dance and music interact using body tracking technologies and bespoke sensing environments to expand our understandings of the interrelationship between the body, its environment and expression, between science and art, culture and nature. Dance is converted into data which are then used to trigger and modulate expressive algorithms which generate in real-time both audio and music notation - also performed live.

In Treatise Handbook, Cornelius Cardew noted that "[mu-sical] notation is a way of making people move" [1]. This paper describes and demonstrates new methods for the dy-namic generation and display of augmented musical nota-tion. The Fluxus Tree and Quantum Canticorum are the most recent in a sequence of musical compositions by the author in which dance and music interact using body-tracking technologies and bespoke sensing devices. Movement is converted into data which trigger and modulate expressive algorithms. Uniquely, these generate in real-time audio material as well as detailed common practice music no-tation to be performed live. Other techniques allow for the conversion from (and potentially to) graphic images and text. This paper demonstrates the techniques behind these inventions and explains how such techniques may be used to enhance the musical experience of performers and audi-ences. Quantum Canticorum is based on a sequence originally commissioned for Quantu...

Quantum² Canticorum is an Interdisciplinary performance in which dance and music interact using body tracking technologies and bespoke sensing environments to expand our understandings of the interrelationship between the body, its environment and expression, between science and art, culture and nature. Dance is converted into data which are then used to trigger and modulate expressive algorithms which generate in real-time both audio and music notation - also performed live.

In this paper, vulnerability is considered in terms of our ability to synchronise in time with others, and how the consequences of being unable to do so leads to isolation and a range of social, emotional, and psychological issues. We describe a project to develop a shared musical instrument to facilitate the process of joint interaction and the emergence of moments of synchronising in time with others. The design involves a multidisciplinary and multi-practice team that includes music therapists, artists, performance artists, musicians, music psychologists, music technologists, software and hardware sound engineers.

'Calder's Violin' is a composition for violin and automatic piano. The music is algorithmically generated, including the violin part which is notated live as the piece progresses. The general textures and references of the music are intended to be predictable, but detail is new each time: an attempt to emulate in the medium of electronically generated music the 'mystifyingly exquisite variation' of performance on traditional, acoustic instruments. Some of the material for Calder's Violin has been previously developed for the on-going dance and music project 'Triggered'.

This is a presentation of the dynamic score "Homenaje a Cervantes" (Homage to Cervantes) created for violin, computer and projections, originally commissioned for and first performed at the University of A Coruna, Spain in May 2017. The piece has been composed using the software packages SuperCollider and INSCORE; the violin part should be played live from a laptop screen or a projection. The texts used are the original Cervantes text, an English translation and a series of original poems created specially for this project by the poet Phil Terry.

The real-time generation and presentation of algorithmically generated notation has for some time presented challenges to composers and technologists. A variety of software environments have been developed that allow for the presentation of certain kinds of notation, and under certain circumstances, but compromises have been necessary: the use of pre-generated notation segments and other graphical materials, and a general avoidance of precise synchrony amongst multiple instruments, for instance.

This paper describes research, investigations, creative experiments and performances undertaken by the author in collaboration with practitioners in different creative and performance domains. The research focuses on the translation of expression between these domains and its implementation using technology. This paper focuses primarily on the role of notation in this process. The domains involved include music (audio and notation), movement (dance) and text (poetry). The data arising from performers’ movements are collected and investigated; consideration is given to the use of image and graphics enabling elementary algorithmically generated dance notation. These implementations are taken to be a part of the creative process. This research is about creating and investigating stimulating experiences where connections between one domain and the other are perceivable and where this connection itself provides an aesthetic experience. They are not intended to be fixed and permanent (alt...

Quantum 2 Canticorum is the latest in a sequence of musical compositions in which dance and music interact using body-tracking technologies and bespoke sensing devices. Expressive movement is converted into data which trigger and modulate expres- sive algorithms. These generate in real-time both audio material and music notation which is performed live.

Electronic music, even when designed to be interactive, can lack performance interest and is frequently musically unsophisticated. This is unfortunate because there are many aspects of electronic music that can be interesting, elegant, demonstrative and musically informative. The use of dancers to interact with prototypical interfaces comprising clusters of sensors generating music algorithmically provides a method of investigating human actions in this environment. This is achieved through collaborative work involving software and hardware designers, composers, sculptors and choreographers who examine aesthetically and practically the interstices of these disciplines. The proposed paper investigates these interstices.

Recent technological developments have enabled experiments in cross-domain mapping and transcription procedures we often undertake intuitively where data from varied sources: video, biomechanical processes or physical movements, for instance, can be used to generate musical notations in real-time. These representations or ‘ways of making people move’, (Cardew, Treatise Notebook, 1971) might consist of common practice notation, graphics, text or any combination of these. Such live automatic transcription creates a particular relationship between composer, score, performer and performance: details are unknown, generalities are controllable. Performances can also be augmented by electronically generated sound or other composed, notated material, while the musicians’ live performance retains its quality and spontaneity.

The Fluxus Tree is an automatic composition centred around interactions with a collection of experimental interactive sculptures. Dancers (or anyone else) interacts with the sculptures and so creates data from sensors which generates electronic sounds and music notation live. This live notation is then played by a musician.

Notation is a central issue in modern western music. Composers have often sought ways of expanding and refining the functionality of notation and, in doing so, have re-shaped the music that they were originally aiming to describe. Other musical traditions have very different uses for notation; some have no use for it at all; each approach creates contrasting musical experiences. The role that electronics and computers have played in music has also influenced the nature and function of notation. More traditional 'live' notation of note/pitch- based music generated algorithmically has proved particularly problematic: musical notation is itself a very complex subject. Composers and technologists have instead used libraries of images, algorithms for the pre- generation of material or simplified notations that can be used as the basis of more improvisatory performances. This paper presents work involving the live presentation of 'traditionally precise' music notation crea...

This paper describes the conception, design and implementation of a number of hardware/software musical interfaces and their use in performance with a group of dancers and as units for public interaction. It investigates the design and development of such interfaces in the light of these experiences. The work examines the nature of digital interfaces for musical expression through the use of sculptural forms and ideas, using multiple and diverse sensors, the data from which is used to generate and control multifarious musical parameters in software. It notes any relationships between the sculptural forms and the musical material produced. The combination of control of musically expressive algorithms through hardware design, combined with the expressive potential of dance and embodied movement is of particular interest. Reflecting links between embodied movement and expression in live performance, the feedback between form and function is also considered, as are collaborations with s...

This paper concerns the design, implementation and demonstration of interactive sculptural interfaces which need to be used by the public as well as by specialist performers such as musicians or dancers. Options for automatic control are also available. The set of interfaces under consideration is referred to as the ʻmetapianoʼ, itself a ʻmeta-sculptureʼ comprising a collection of diverse and independent sculptural items, each of which are being developed to control a sometimes self- referential array of musically expressive algorithms. In the case of the metapiano the primary sound source, perhaps unsurprisingly, is that of a (synthesised) piano. The paper describes the manner in which a viewer/performer interacts with hardware and software systems, examines the nature of the music created, and details how the two are related. Of particular interest is the way in which the resulting music relates to both new and more traditional forms of composition and performance.

ABSTRACT The Fluxus Tree is an automatic composition centred around interactions with a collection of experimental interactive sculptures. Dancers (or anyone else) interacts with the sculptures and so creates data from sensors which generates electronic sounds and music notation live. This live notation is then played by the composer and occasional (and excellent) 'cellist Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

... Implementation and Development of Interfaces for Music Performance through Analysis ofImprovised Dance Movements ... the unit Figure 8 In a line, gesturing Figure 6 Performing away from the ... played their part some delegates were very much afraid of `breaking' the device ...

Three Streams is an automatic composition centred around interactions with novel interfaces including the Digiphone and the Kinect for XBox. These interactions generate electronic sounds and music notation live. This live notation is then played by the composer and occasional (and excellent) 'cellist Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Related to the automatic, algorithmic and live notation compositions The Fluxus Tree, Fluxus and Calder's Violin. The piece is primarily composed in the music programming environment, SuperCollider. This piece uses the software INScore and Guido significantly, both currently being developed by the Grame Computer Music Research Lab.

Earle Brown’s December 1952 is a score characterised by the use of 31 abstract graphical elements. Brown later reimagined it as a Calderesque orrery in which “elements would actually physically be moving in front of the pianist” . Although there are many more recent examples of graphic, open and animated scores, for the purposes of this practice-led research the simplicity and grace of Brown’s score makes it a pragmatic choice as it is significantly easier to follow the “translations” being applied. This composition involves research into the construction of a software system allowing multiple automatic ‘variations’ of the piece, live and in real-time, using common practice notations.
Each variation is created by mapping a uniquely generated version of Brown’s original score according to a series of settings - the size and shape of the elements, the ‘route’ taken through the score: right to left, top to bottom or vice versa, etc. In its current form there is no interaction between performer and score.
The notation provided, although detailed, is intended to be used as a foundation for performance rather than as precise instructions. In this way the project also helps explore the nature or intuition and improvisation through technology and notation.

In Treatise Handbook, Cornelius Cardew noted that “[musical] notation is a way of making people move”. This paper describes and demonstrates new methods for the dynamic generation and display of augmented musical notation. The Fluxus Tree and Quantum Canticorum are the most recent in a sequence of musical compositions by the author in which dance and music interact using body-tracking technologies and bespoke sensing devices. Movement is converted into data which trigger and modulate expressive algorithms. Uniquely, these generate in real-time audio material as well as detailed common practice music no- tation to be performed live. Other techniques allow for the conversion from (and potentially to) graphic images and text. This paper demonstrates the techniques behind these inventions and explains how such techniques may be used to enhance the musical experience of performers and audiences.
Quantum Canticorum is based on a sequence originally commissioned for 'Quantum2', an Arts Council UK funded project led by Jane Turner of the Turning Worlds dance company.