Computational Systems for Music Improvisation

Computational music systems that afford improvised creative interaction in real time are often designed for a specific improviser and performance style. As such the field is diverse, fragmented and lacks a coherent framework. Through analysis of examples in the field we identify key areas of concern in the design of new systems, which we use as categories in the construction of a taxonomy. From our broad overview of the field we select significant examples to analyse in greater depth. This analysis serves to derive principles that may aid designers scaffold their work on existing innovation. We explore successful evaluation techniques from other fields and describe how they may be applied to iterative design processes for improvisational systems. We hope that by developing a more coherent design and evaluation process, we can support the next generation of improvisational music systems

Ear to the Earth: It Started in the Dark

L’idée de Ear to the Earth est née lors d’une panne de courant, sur la côte du Maine, alors que j’y étais en vacances. De retour à New York, en utilisant l’écologie acoustique comme une base conceptuelle, j’ai proposé à des collègues de l’Electronic Music Foundation des événements à la fois sonores et environnementaux. Le premier grand festival a eu lieu en octobre 2006. Cynthia Rosenzweig, chercheure scientifique principale du Centre spatial Goddard de la NASA et leader du Climate Impacts Group, y a souligné que le changement climatique était un fait. Le premier festival, qui s’est tenu en divers lieux de New York, comprenait sept concerts, trois panels et sept installations. L’une d’entre elles, Suspended Sounds, utilise des sons d’espèces disparues, en voie de disparition et menacées, fournis par la Bibliothèque Macaulay du laboratoire d’ornithologie de l’Université de Cornell. Le festival, en tant que programme de l’Electronic Music Foundation, est devenu un événement annuel, organisé tous les mois d’octobre, à New York, jusqu’en 2013. En novembre 2012, il a été repensé avec une mission élargie et à titre d’organisme indépendant à but non lucratif, à New York.Ear to the Earth was an idea that grew out of a power failure on the coast of Maine while I was on vacation. Back in New York, and using acoustic ecology as a conceptual basis, I proposed environmental-sound events to colleagues at the Electronic Music Foundation. The first major festival took place in October 2006. Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Center and leader of the Climate Impacts Group, pointed out that climate change was a fact. The first festival, which took place at various venues in New York City, included seven concerts, three panels, and seven installations, among them Suspended Sounds, using sounds of extinct, endangered, and threatened species contributed by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. The festival, as a program of the Electronic Music Foundation, became an annual event every October in New York until 2013. In November 2012, we recreated it with an enlarged mission as an independent non-profit corporation in New York

MISAME

Recording of Joel Chadabe's Setting for spirituals