Skip to main content

A Percussion-Focussed Approach to Preserving Touch-Screen Improvisation

  • Chapter
Curating the Digital

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

Abstract

Musical performances with touch-screen devices can be recorded by capturing a log of touch interactions. This object can serve as an archive or as a basis for other representations of the musical work. This chapter presents a protocol for recording ensemble touch-screen performances and details the processes for generating visualisations, gestural classifications, and graphical scores from these logs. Our experience of using these new representations to study a series of improvised ensemble performances with iPad-based digital musical instruments leads us to conclude that these new-media artefacts allow unique insights into ensemble interactions, comprehensive archiving of improvised performances, and the potential for re-synthesis into new performances and artworks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Metatone apps are available on the iTunes apps store and links can be found on http://metatone.net. This website also includes videos and audio recordings of performances with these apps.

  2. 2.

    http://metatone.net/metatoneclassifier/

  3. 3.

    This includes Apple’s built in UIGestureRecognizer class (Apple 2015).

References

  • Apple Inc. (2015) Event handling guide for iOS. Apple Developer Documentation (published online). https://developer.apple.com/library/

  • Bailey D (1993) Improvisation: its nature and practice in music. Da Capo, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Blades J (1992) Percussion instruments and their history. The Bold Strummer Ltd., Westport

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgo D (2006) Sync or swarm: musical improvisation and the complex dynamics of group creativity. In: Futatsugi K, Jouannaud JP, Meseguer J (eds) Algebra, meaning, and computation. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 4060. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 1–24. doi:10.1007/11780274_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Breiman L (2001) Random forests. Mach Learn 45(1):5–32. doi:10.1023/A:1010933404324

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Burtner M (2011) Syntax of snow for bells and amplified snow. Published digitally by the author. http://matthewburtner.com/syntax-of-snow-2/

    Google Scholar 

  • Cahn WL (2005) Creative music making. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook G (1997) Teaching percussion. Schirmer Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies S (1991) The ontology of musical works and the authenticity of their performances. Noûs 25(1):21–41. doi:10.2307/2216091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies S (2005) Themes in the philosophy of music. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Evens A (2005) Sound ideas: music, machines, and experience. Theory out of bounds, vol 27. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman M (1965) The king of Denmark for solo percussionist. Edition Peters, Glendale

    Google Scholar 

  • Fette I, Melnikov A (2011) The WebSocket protocol. RFC 6455 (Proposed Standard). doi:10.17487/RFC6455

  • Fowler CB (1967) The museum of music: a history of mechanical instruments. Music Educ J 54(2):45–49. doi:10.2307/3391092

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Freed A, Schmeder A (2009) Features and future of open sound control version 1.1 for NIME. In: Proceedings of the international conference on new interfaces for musical expression. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, pp 116–120. http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2009/nime2009_116.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Hope C, Vickery L (2015) The Decibel scoreplayer – a digital tool for reading graphic notation. In: International conference on technologies for music notation and representation (TENOR 2015). IRCAM, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaltenbrunner M, Bovermann T, Bencina R, Costanza E (2005) TUIO – a protocol for table based tangible user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on gesture in human-computer interaction and simulation. Springer, Ile de Berder

    Google Scholar 

  • Kania A (2006) Making tracks: the ontology of rock music. J Aesthet Art Crit 64(4):401–414. doi:10.1111/j.1540-594X.2006.00219.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur A (2005) A history of robotic musical instruments. In: Proceedings of the international computer music conference. International Computer Music Association, San Francisco. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.2005.162

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazzaro J, Wawrzynek J (2004) An RTP payload format for MIDI. In: 117th Audio engineering society convention. Audio Engineering Society, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald C (2009) Scoring the work: documenting practice and performance in variable media art. Leonardo 42(1):59–63. doi:10.1162/leon.2009.42.1.59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manovich L (2002) The language of new media. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin C (2012) Creating mobile computer music for percussionists: Snow Music. In: Hitchcock M, Taylor J (eds) Interactive: Australasian computer music conference 2012 conference proceedings. Australasian Computer Music Association, The Basin

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin C (2014) Making improvised music for iPad and percussion with Ensemble Metatone. In: Proceedings of the Australasian computer music conference ’14. Australasian Computer Music Association, Fitzroy. http://acma.asn.au/media/2014/01/ACMC-2014r1.pdf

  • Martin C, Gardner H (2015) That syncing feeling: networked strategies for enabling ensemble creativity in iPad musicians. In: CreateWorld 2015: A Digital Arts Conference. Griffith University, Brisbane

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin C, Gardner H, Swift B (2014a) Exploring percussive gesture on iPads with Ensemble Metatone. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’14). ACM, New York, pp 1025–1028. doi:10.1145/2556288.2557226

  • Martin C, Gardner H, Swift B (2014b) MetaTravels and MetaLonsdale: iPad apps for percussive improvisation. In: CHI ’14 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (CHI EA ’14). ACM, New York, pp 547–550. doi:10.1145/2559206.2574805

  • Martin C, Gardner H, Swift B (2015) Tracking ensemble performance on touch-screens with gesture classification and transition matrices. In: Berdahl E, Allison J (eds) Proceedings of the international conference on new interfaces for musical expression. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, pp 359–364. http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2015/nime2015_242.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin C, Hopgood C, Griffiths J, Lam Y (2014) Ensemble Metatone. Digital Audio Album available on Bandcamp. https://charlesmartin.bandcamp.com/album/ensemble-metatone/

  • Mazzola G, Cherlin PB (2009) Flow, gesture, and spaces in free jazz. Computational music science. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mey TD (1987) Musique de tables for three percussionists. Percussion Music Europe, Tienen

    Google Scholar 

  • MIDI Manufacturers Association (1996) The complete MIDI 1.0 detailed specification. MIDI Manufacturers Association, Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunn T (1998) Wisdom of the impulse: on the nature of musical free improvisation. Self-published

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedregosa F, Varoquaux G, Gramfort A, Michel V, Thirion B, Grisel O, Blondel M, Prettenhofer P, Weiss R, Dubourg V, Vanderplas J, Passos A, Cournapeau D, Brucher M, Perrot M, Duchesnay E (2011) Scikit-learn: machine learning in Python. J Mach Learn Res 12:2825–2830

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pressing J (1988) Improvisation: methods and models. In: Sloboda J (ed) Generative processes in music. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Reas C, Fry B (2006) Processing: programming for the media arts. AI Soc 20(4):526–538. doi:10.1007/s00146-006-0050-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rinehart R (2007) The media art notation system: documenting and preserving digital/media art. Leonardo 40(2):181–187. doi:10.1162/leon.2007.40.2.181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schick S (2006) The Percussionist’s art: same bed, different dreams. University of Rochester Press, Rochester

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmeder A, Freed A, Wessel D (2010) Best practices for open sound control. In: Proceedings of the Linux audio conference, vol 10. http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2010/papers/37.pdf

  • Smith SS, Goldstein T (1998) Inner-views. Perspect New Music 36(2):187–199. doi:10.2307/833528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stenström H (2009) Free ensemble improvisation. ArtMonitor, vol 13. Konstnärliga fakultetskansliet, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/20293

  • Swift B, Sorensen A, Martin M, Gardner HJ (2014) Coding livecoding. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ’14). ACM, New York, pp 1021–1024. doi:10.1145/2556288.2557049

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor B (2014) Seeing spaces. Available on the author’s website. http://worrydream.com/SeeingSpaces/

  • Waisvisz M (1985) THE HANDS, a set of remote MIDI-controllers. In: Proceedings of the international computer music conference (ICMC ’85). International Computer Music Association, San Francisco, pp 313–318. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.1985.049

    Google Scholar 

  • Wobbrock JO, Wilson AD, Li Y (2007) Gestures without libraries, toolkits or training: a $1 recognizer for user interface prototypes. In: Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology (UIST ’07). ACM, New York, pp 159–168. doi:10.1145/1294211.1294238

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Xenakis I (1975) Psappha for solo multi-percussionist. Universal Music Publishing – Durand Salabert Eschig, Paris

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Martin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Martin, C., Gardner, H. (2016). A Percussion-Focussed Approach to Preserving Touch-Screen Improvisation. In: England, D., Schiphorst, T., Bryan-Kinns, N. (eds) Curating the Digital. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28722-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28722-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28720-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28722-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics