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Abstract

tap for percussion trio, tape, DMX lighting instruments, and video was commissioned by Line Upon Line Percussion Ensemble (Austin, TX) and is scored for three percussionists. Percussion 1 performs on tom, snare, splash cymbal, and G#6 crotale. Percussion 2 performs on tom, snare, splash cymbal, and a G6 crotale. Percussion 3 performs on a small cardboard box, wooden frog, guiro, two woodblocks, crotales F#6 and A6, and a bird whistle. The technology components of the composition include a stereo audio file, four or more DMX lighting instruments (at least two Chauvet 64 RGBA and two Spotlight IGB-B18 or similar), and a video projection, all of which is synchronized with the performers via a click track. A SuperCollider script and two bespoke openFrameworks software programs coordinate all the multimedia during performance. The tape part of the composition is created with audio recordings of electronics improvisations made by the composer with acoustic instrumental collaborators. The lighting cues are synchronized to extend the rhythmic and timbral musical content into the audience’s visual experience. The video design, created in C++ using openFrameworks, displays a two dimensional particle system of dots moving through a flow field directed by Perlin Noise. In order to fluidly switch between composing the various multimedia components and ensure their synchronicity and perceptual relationships, the composer created a bespoke workflow that integrates Reaper, SuperCollider, openFrameworks, and DMX lighting instruments. Reaper markers, also placed in the timeline, contain messages that are sent via Open Sound Control (OSC) to both SuperCollider and openFrameworks. These temporally organized messages use a custom Application Programming Interface (API) that relays how the lights should look at the given moment in the piece. After this workflow is used for composing, all of the API messages are exported from Reaper to a text file and read directly into SuperCollider while executing the performance. A video documentation of a performance is included.

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