Jimmy Raps in Morelia

Jimmy Raps in Morelia

Jimmy Raps (presented at the International Conference on Live Coding in Morelia [Mexico] in December, 2017) is a text ‘rap’ and audio-visual composition; by rap, I mean the live writer composes verses and launches musical rhythms, revealing an unspoken word rap of English slang that listeners may find humorous and nonsensical – a metaphor for the central figure whose sampled

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A bear whispers

A bear whispers

In times of difficulty and danger, our true friends are revealed to us. In June, 2017, ensemble IN EXTENSIO performed my “A bear whispers” (for clarinet and camping paraphernalia) in a concert, entitled BacKpacK MusiC, at le Petit Outremont in Montreal. A bear whispers is a musical recounting of Aesop’s (7th century BC) fable, Two Travellers and a Bear. The

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Working song and the last dead leftover

Working song and the last dead leftover

“Working song and the last dead leftover” (for amplified string quartet and karlax digital musical instrument) combines the classical string quartet ensemble with electroacoustic sound, which is played (produced and modulated) by a new type of 21st-century electronic musical instrument, known as the karlax. This new composition was composed for the Penderecki String Quartet, who premiered the new work on

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Méta-instrument

Méta-instrument

Immortal-machine is my first solo work for the méta-instrument digital musical instrument. The instrument features forty-six discrete pressure-sensing ‘keys’ or touch points, thumb sliders, pivoting hand grips (measuring hand rotation) and elbow ‘ball and socket’ joints (measuring the horizontal and vertical movements of the forearms over an angle of ninety degrees) – fifty-four channels of continuous control data, in total.

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Karlax

Karlax

The karlax resembles a clarinet or soprano saxophone in size and geometry, although its control structures do no involve blowing air through the instrument. Instead, the karlax wirelessly transmits data to a sound engine (e.g., computer software instrument) by manipulating 10 keys (with continuous range output), 8 velocity-sensitive pistons, 17 buttons and a combination mini-joystick and LCD character display, operated

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T-Stick

T-Stick

The sensor-based t-stick digital musical instrument, which was invented in 2006, offers great potential for virtuosic control over a diverse range of sounds and musical materials, as well as promising new forms of musical and gestural expression. The t-stick has been designed and constructed to permit a unique variety interaction techniques such as: touching, gripping, brushing, tapping, shaking, squeezing, jabbing,

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SonicJumper

SonicJumper

The SonicJumper, which is a gestural controller of my own design, can be classified as a symbolic immersive controller. It was first developed in 2003. A performer is immersed – so to speak – in his or her own bodily movement. Moreover, he or she does not make contact with any physical device while performing. The impression is that the

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