I’m giving the final touches to a piece for viola, guitar, motion sensors and live electronics that I have been working on as part of my PhD research project. It will be premiered during the Gala Concert of the 11th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research (CMMR) on Tuesday, 16th June 2015. It will be performed by Esther Coorevits and me.
Here’s an excerpt from the programme notes:
Kineslimina is a piece for viola, electric guitar and live electronics that explores the use of the musicians’ instrumental gestures and movements as an expressive medium. Such gestures merge with the other musical features and become an integral part of the score. While playing their instruments, the musicians wear an armband fitted with motion sensors, which tracks their movements and sends the motion data to a computer. The computer then processes the movement data and sound, responding with a wide range of dynamics: from subtle timbral alterations that follow the movements of the bow during string changes to deeper resonances when more overt gestures are performed by the musicians.
Inspired by the studies of musical gestures and embodied music cognition, the piece requires the performers to exceed the usual boundaries of their instrumental gestures, thus creating new challenges as well as new possibilities of expression and interplay.