Ressources.ircam

Création | Enregistrement © Radio finlandaise |
Commande de l’Ircam-Centre Pompidou et du Festival Time of Music

The composition IDEA (2018) was commissioned by Time of Music festival and IRCAM. The joint commission was partly funded by the ULYSSES project of the European Commission (Creative Europe). The work is scored for an en- semble of 11 musicians and an 8-channel electronics (Max/MSP). The surround sound encircling the audience consists of both sound les and live-electronics manipulating the instruments in real ti- me. The nine-week studio work was made in collaboration with computer music designer (RIM) Serge Lemouton in the studios of IRCAM-Centre Pompidou.

IDEA (2018) is my third composition including electronics. It was preceded by the Helsinki Chamber Choir commission Maailmamaa (2010, 40 min) for mixed choir and 2-channel tape, and Logo (2013, 6 min) for violin and 9-channel electronics. These works share a similar mindset to electronics: for instance, about half of the Max/ MSP modules of IDEA are based on those familiar from Logo.

In spring 2017 I visited the Haus der Musik music museum in Vienna, where a conducting simulation Virtual Conductor was on display. The sim- ulation included a baton, with which the museum visitor could conduct, in his/her preferred tempo, the virtual Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra shown on screen. The repertoire included loved classics such as the wiener waltz The Blue Danube. This museum experience gave support for my idea of trying to use motion detection of conductor also with changing time signatures – and also in a live concert situation.

Detection and analysis of the conductor’s movements during the performance is central in the temporal realization of the electronics in IDEA. The conductor Christian Karlsen visited Ircam to conduct the piece through for a few times, in a studio environment. A sensor attached to his right arm sent information to a computer where it was stored for use in the premiere: it will be compared to Karlsen's live conducting in order to make it possible for the computer to know where the musicians are in the piece at any given time. The duration of beats vary greatly in IDEA, as the piece uses a rather large selection of various micro and additive time signatures, as well as temporal accelerations and decelerations.

At Ircam, musical gesture capturing has been developed for over 15 years under the leadership of Frederic Bevilacqua. He created the program called Gesture follower, which was later implemented into Max/MSP- MuBu by Riccardo Borghesi, Diemo Schwarz and Norberg Schnell. The physical R-IoT motion sensor, connected to the arm of the conductor, was developed by Emmanuel Flety. Serge Lemouton has worked with motion capture technology on multiple projects prior to this one, and was also responsible for it here, as well as for the total architecture of the Max/ MSP concert patch. Together with the undersigned, he was also respon- sible for building of the live electronic Max/MSP patches within. The sound les were my responsibility.

For motion capturing, Lemouton used Max/MSP and Antescofo programs. In the performance, the instruments are processed by the following Max/MSP modules: frequency shifting delay, cluster har- monizer delay, frequency modulation delay, spectral delay, playback speed control, reverb and spatialization. The realization of the sound files was made by me using the following computer programs: Sound Studio, AudioSculpt, Pro Tools, GRM Tools, Max/MSP, Spat, Spear, OpenMusic, CSound, SuperVP Trax and cataRT. The source material for the sound les are e.g. Ircam sound libraries and self-recorded everyday sounds. Altogether, there are over 1,000 sound les, and they are triggered during the course of the work in different places with utmost precision.

Collaboration on the work was a unique experience, a peak op- portunity that may never repeat itself. It was very inspiring to get to compose IDEA for the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Christian Karlsen.

Sampo Haapamäki