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[paper] From Schaeffer to *LOrks: an expanded definition of musical instrument in the context of laptop orchestras
Paper presented at SEAMUS 2011, January 20-22, 2011, Miami, FL, and at SLEO 2012, April 15-17, 2012, Baton Rouge, LA.
Paper is included in the SLEO 2012 Proceedings. [click to download]
The slides that accompanied the presentation can be found here.*LOrk digression #9 — In case you were wondering
In case you were wondering, all these *LOrk digressions did not come out of nowhere. Many of them are reflections directly connected to my own great experience with SLOrk in the Spring of 2010, when my piece Intellectual Improperty 0.6 was composed and performed.
*LOrk digression #8 — The enigma remains...
The recoup of sound proximity by the performer doesn't come without new problems. A more sophisticated vocabulary of “instrumental” gestures would certainly help to infuse the regained sound localization with new meaning; but a rich gestural vocabulary (if possible at all) has not yet developed, having been limited up to now to relatively simple connections between gesture and sound.*LOrk digression #7 — Localized multi-speaker salad bowls
One of the biggest differences of some modern laptop orchestras in relation to other laptop ensembles is the utilization of dedicated speakers next to each performer.
*LOrk digression #6 — “I pledge to believe they are not checking e-mail”
When ten or twenty musicians sit on the floor on colorful cushions with their laptops sitting on nice little breakfast tables in front of them, a theatrical situation is created: the audience is led to accept those everyday objects as musical instruments in some way (more, perhaps, than when a solo laptop performer sits on stage). It is a kind of implicit pact that the public seems generally willing to accept.*LOrk Digression #5 — "Dance" music?
By using external controllers of various sorts (usually of a more “gestural” nature, beyond the keyboard-and-trackpad paradigm), a laptop performer engages on gestural activity that reconnects her, at least on one level, with the dimension of movement as discussed in my previous tentative definition of musical instrument.*LOrk Digression #4 — Staring at the screen
One might argue that staring at a computer monitor on stage is not much different than looking at a musical score, but sometimes it does feel odd to watch a laptop musician constantly staring at the screen. Why is this? Reading from a musical score in a traditional musical performance is not generally seen as a problem; sometimes it is even the norm. A solo pianist is usually expected to play by heart, but a string quartet player usually reads from scores.*LOrk digression #3 — The enigmatic performer
The laptop musician often—not always, but often—appears to the audience as an almost motionless performer, completely absorbed by the computer screen. A significant change in terms of stage presence occurs when the need for constantly monitoring the computer screen diminishes and the musician is invited—or required—to look more at the other performers or conductor. In most cases, however, the engima persists: what is actually going on on stage?*LOrk Digression #2 — Futurism, futuristic
A great deal of the theatricality of a laptop orchestra lies in the very fact that we are confronted with, well, a lot of laptops on stage. With one player behind each laptop, and often mimicking or resembling the configuration of a traditional orchestra on stage, the laptop orchestra of today plays directly with our historical notion of an orchestral concert. To some extent, the theater of a laptop orchestra performance is the fact that acoustic instruments (tradition) are replaced by machines with a quasi-futuristic appeal.*LOrk digression #1 — What is a musical instrument?
In his Traité des Objets Musicaux, first published in 1966, Pierre Schaeffer defined a musical instrument in the following way:
“Tout dispositif qui permet d'obtenir une collection variée d'objets sonores—ou des objets sonores variés—toute en maintenant à l'esprit la permanence d'une cause, est un instrument de musique, au sens traditionnel d'une éxperience commune à toutes les civilisations.” (p. 51)
