Luigi Nono’s Post-Praeludium-Per-Donau

audio signal processing implementation in SuperCollider

Sean Kennedy, a tubist at Penn State, contacted me to help him understand the signal processing component of a sonic art piece by Luigi Nono called "Post-Praeludium per Donau," which was written in 1987 for solo tuba and live electronics. As it turns out, the effects (which include delays, reverb, phasing, filtering, and quadraphonic panning) would have been challenging to implement without the use of an audio programming language like Supercollider. The original performance had two sound operators controlling a rack of custom hardware equipment. My program does all the audio manipulation in software and can be controlled by a single operator running lines from a coded score.

Below you will find links for downloading the SuperCollider "score" as well as stereo and surround recordings of Sean and my performance of the Post-Praeludium per Donau. A short essay about implementing Nono's signal processing directions in Supercollider that has been submitted to the 2013 Supercollider convention is also here.