Composition: E.C.Draw for Cornelius

This piece, a commission by the Transit Festival (B), is built around a MaxMSP computer program and should be performed in two separate concert venues that are connected to each other over the Internet. The first performance took place in a simultaneous concert in Leuven (B) and s' Hertogenbosch (NL), jointly organized by Transit and November Music in the context of the ISCM World Music Days 2012.

Both locations need to be connected by a full duplex separate video and audio connection (i.e. 2 x 2 lines) over the Internet, with the unavoidable latency artificially increased to a multiple of 1 second, thus creating an illusion of synchronicity to the audience in each of the locations. The audio of the distant location is fed into the local computer program where it creates images that are presented to the local musicians and audience as graphical scores.

Each location should consist of at least 2 performing musicians and a responsible controlling the electronics. Instrumentation is free. Both acoustic and electronic instruments are possible in any combination, as well as timbre transformation of individual instruments by appropriate live electronics. For the first performance in Leuven / 's Hertogenbosch, the instruments used were: viola, mezzo and bass-guitar in Leuven, recorder and harpsichord in s' Hertogenbosch. The exact timing of triggering the images (in order to present them to the local musicians and audience) is controlled by the responsible for the electronics. By using in-ear monitoring, this person can also permanently listen to the sound that is coming from the distant location, in order to ensure that the piece is evolving in a 'compatible' way in both locations, and to find out the interesting moments to eventually start mixing the distant sound and video in and out (cf. infra).

The piece consists of 8 sections, each defined by a character that suggests the type of sound that should be produced. The following pages indicate for each section an example image, the material to use and the way to control the computer program. Dynamics are free, as long as there is a clear gradual build up towards section 6 ("t"), a faster build up towards section 8 ("i") and a fast build down until the end.
Brussels, August 12, 2012