Music 435/735: Interactive Computer Music

MUSIC 435/735
Applications of Computers in Music:
Interactive Computer Music

University of Virginia, Department of Music/ VCCM, Fall 2001

Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00-12:15 Rm. B012 Old Cabell Hall
Lab (no credit), Rm. BO11 OCH - The VCCM Main Studio
Instructor, Matthew Burtner
email: mburtner@virginia.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 1-3pm, Old Cabell Hall #201

TA: Damon Osgood
email: deo6f@virginia.edu
Office hours: Sunday, 7-9pm, VCCM Main Studio, BO11 OCH

OVERVIEW

Music 435/735 will explore theoretical and practical aspects of composing and performing real-time interactive music with computers. In this course we engage with the computer as a musical collaborator. Emphasis will be placed on gaining a deeper understanding of the philosophical, technical, aesthetic and historical role of computers in music, and on evolving a personal vision of music technology. To this end, the incorporation of the student's area of expertise (instrument, major field, previous musical or computer experience) is encouraged. The class will primarily use the Max/MSP graphic real-time programming environment. Familiarity with programming is helpful but not required and Max/MSP will be taught as part of the course. This class fulfills a music major composition course requirement and is therefore oriented towards composing, and the creation and implementation of new musical tools/instruments/compositional strategies.

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Students must register for the course and the lab section.

There will be two skill-building assignments each of which will be broken into smaller weekly parts.

There will be two quizes on material covered in class.

There will be a final creative project presented in-class during the final week of the semester.

Grading:

- Attendance and Participation %20 (including attendance of the Technosonics II concert on November 8 and the presentations by our guest composers, James Mobberly on November 9 and Barry Truax on November 30)
- Assignments %20
- Quizes %20 (note: there will be no final exam so we can focus on the final projects)
- Final Project %40 (to include an in-class presentation and submitted documentation)

SYLLABUS

Part 1 September/October	Part 2 October/November	Part 3 November/December
Subject: Interactive MIDI Systems	Subject: Interactive Digital Audio Systems	Subject: Performance-based systems: instrument, composition, performance
Overview: Lectures, labs and assignments will explore the possibilities of using MIDI controller data from a performer as input into an algorithmic system or comuter sequencer.	Overview: Lectures, labs and assignments will explore the challenges of using audio data from a performer as input into a signal processing or synthesis network.	Overview: Example-based study of interactive works and approaches. Issues of performance interface design are studied. This section of the class will be based around the projects. There will be no quizes, assignments or final exam in this section; instead we will work towards creating interesting and useful final projects.
Assignment: design a real-time algorithmic instrument/composition	Assignment: design a digital signal processor or synthesizer.	Final Project: create
Quiz: there will be a programming quiz at the end of this section	Quiz: there will be a programming quiz at the end of this section	Presentation: In-class Final Project presentation/demonstration held in the VCCM