Algorithmic Composition with Max/MSP and Open Music 2021
9am -11am Pacific Standard Time (= 6pm-8pm Central European Time)
MONDAY - Introduction to the course, overview of examples, and approaches to form, drunken walk,…
TUESDAY - OpenMusic basics, functions, MIDI, …
WEDNESDAY - Historical overview, use of pre-existing samples within Max, granular synthesi
THURSDAY - OpenMusic:Tree structures, abstractions iterative functions, loops, …
FRIDAY (of the same week) - Group discussion on Mini projects
FRIDAY (one week later) - Mini project submission - students will each receive a written feedback.
See detailed syllabus here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10dSoD6Oagr8QgnFuWaMS85FI0NnHbfHQ77zlawGfrXY/edit?usp=sharing
SUMMER 2021: All workshops offered will be done remotely, due to attempts to limit transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Looking to overcome blank page? Struggling with writer's block?
For centuries composers, artists, and engineers have used algorithms to enhance their work and workflow. Nowadays implementing such concepts are made more readily available with softwares like Max/MSP, OpenMusic and many others. In this workshop we will be investigating how simple algorithmic models (fractal geometry, machine learning, concatenative synthesis, statistics, graphical interpolation, etc.) can provide intriguing sonic result (across all genres: video game music, EDM, noise music, installations, and more).
Daily tutorials will focus on various musical parameters. The ultimate goal is that participants develop their best work over the week into a short project/song that uses one or several of the models that we discuss during the workshop. Our hope is to show that working with algorithms in not only useful for schematic problem solving, but can also be a good tool for expanding musical and creative thinking.
About the instructors: Andrew Watts; Davor Branimir Vincze
Andrew A. Watts is a composer of chamber, symphonic, multimedia, and electro-acoustic works regularly performed throughout North America and Europe. His compositions have been premiered at world-renowned venues such as Ravinia, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Boston's famed Jordan Hall and the Museum of Fine Arts; NYC’s The Kitchen; the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt; and the Holywell Music Room, the oldest custom-built concert hall in Europe. He has written works for several top musicians and ensembles including Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, Proton Bern, Distractfold Ensemble, RAGE Thormbones, Splinter Reeds, Quince Vocal Ensemble, Line Upon Line Percussion, soprano Tony Arnold, and cellist Séverine Ballon. Watts completed his doctorate at Stanford, his master's with distinction from Oxford, and his bachelor's with academic honors from the New England Conservatory. He is currently a Lecturer in Music Composition at the University of California Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. He also teaches a summer workshop on Algorithmic Composition with Max/MSP at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Furthermore, Watts has given guest lectures on his compositional practice at Harvard, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, CalArts, Ithaca College, and other leading music programs.
More information available at: www.andrewawatts.com
Davor Branimir Vincze is an internationally active, versatile composer, with a vision of music as a multitude of points on a multidimensional space. To explore this imaginary space, Vincze conceptualizes various algorithms, of late more frequently integrating machine learning and AI models. After completing his composition studies in Graz and Stuttgart, Vincze specialized in electronic and algorithmic music at the IRCAM in Paris and finally completed his doctorate at Stanford University in the class of Brian Ferneyhough. His compositions have been performed by renowned international musicians like Ensembles Modern, Recherche, and Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Talea and Slagwerk den Haag, JACK, Mivos and Del Sol Quartet, Secession and No Borders Orchestra. Slovene and Zagreb Philharmonic etc, at festivals such as Présences, Impuls, MATA, Manifeste, Darmstadt, Zagreb Biennale and others. In 2014, he launched an international contemporary music festival - Novalis. His works are published by the French publishing house Maison ONA.
More information available at: www.db-vincze.com
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