View source for MaxMamonFinalProject

== You did WHAT?!?! ==

For my final project I composed a piece for laptop and live solo piano.  I didn't fully notate the piano part.  Instead it's more of a structured improvisation.


=== What were you THINKING?!?! ===

* In the outer sections I used the modal bar STK to make a kind of interpretation of technical piano warm-ups and exercises, executed with machine-like accuracy.  I intended for the exactness of the scales, trills and arpeggios to contrast with th inevitable unevenness of the piano part.  The keys and registers of the scales, arpeggios, and trills are randomized, but assembled in repeating combinations so that the music is at once predictable and surprising.  The musical units begin to overlap until crazy notes are flying in every direction.  Then they spread out again to form a single continuous line.  In these sections, I was primarily inspired by the combination of serialized and aleatoric elements of the music.

* The contrasting middle section is a TAPESTREA-esque assemblage of singing bowls and bells.  Here the playback rates, playback gains, and time intervals between each "toll" of the bells are all randomized.  In the piano part I use sustained dissonant harmonies to complement the laptop's texture.  I also experiment briefly with plucking the undampened strings with my fingers, as well as dampening the strings with my finger before striking the key in order to complement the ringing timbre of the bells.


=== Where's your CODE?!?! ===

[http://www.princeton.edu/~mmamon/max.zip max.zip]

How to run my code (pretty simple):
* add wav files to the directory
* run the chuck file
* the rest will take care of itself

=== Can I HEAR it?!?! ===
Here's an example recording I made of my piece:

[http://www.princeton.edu/~mmamon/Max_Final.mp3 Max_Final.mp3]

It's not perfect, because balance is strongly in favor of the piano, and because my improv in the outer sections isn't the most elegant thing in the world, but it should convey the idea and flavor of my piece.