“road, river and rail” for violin, viola, violoncello, clarinet, piano and electronic (fixed media, 7.1) will be performed on November 11th, 2023, at the Daegu International Computer Music Festival in Daegu, South Korea, which will take place at the Suchang Hall of the Daegu Art Factory. This festival is organized annually by the Multimedia Arts Troupe ARS.
This work was originally written for the counter)induction ensemble based in New York, which premiered it in Washington DC (USA) on 12.06.2010 as part of the 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) held at George Washington University. Originally the electronics of the work was conceived in a 7.1 configuration but this time, at the DICMF it will be performed in a 4-channel configuration.
road, river and rail is not only a musical composition in the usual sense. It is also a sort of multi-interaction on different levels between real and virtual life. These interaction-levels comprise, not only a performance-interaction, but also an interactive creation by the composition as well as by the interpretation.
The concepts of reality and virtuality are here applied to the two sides of the composition: the acoustic and the electronic one.
The source of the work, which comes from the reality (bell sounds of Korean Buddhist temples), will be analyzed through a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in order to provide the structural materials as well as the form organization of the composition.
The structural materials (the frequencies of the sound’s partials) steer the control of the recorded sounds of the instruments and so will be formed the electronic, the virtual part of the composition. The instruments interact with the raw materials and with the electronic in a structural level.
Both parts of the work (the real one and the virtual one) will be processed with various systems whose handlings also interact in reciprocal form.
The final product of the processes will be the digital audio-tracks (virtual) and the score (real). By the performance, the electronic will interact with the musicians (score), modifying the interpretation of the work in a controlled manner.
The audience will be the observer of the last step on a chain of interaction processes, a sort of feedback without the perception of the dry signal. They will be confronted at the same time with the virtual part of the work (electronic) as well as the real one (score-musicians). The listener will also go through a sort of live-interaction, which will be processed as a perception in a subjective way.
The last step of the interaction-chain will be also controlled through the spatialization of the electronic: the audience and the musicians will perceive the electronic in a dynamic movement through the room, which will also influence the subjective recognition of the audio data and so the final impression (audience) and the interpretation (musicians).
The DICMF (Daegu International Computer Music Festival) is an annual event organized by the Multimedia Arts Troupe ARS in Daegu. This year is the seventh edition. It has gained a reputation as one of the most prestigious festivals for electroacoustic music and multimedia art. With its excellent technical resources and specialized performers, the festival showcases contemporary music and multimedia performances. Each year, internationally renowned composers, sound artists, and organizations participate in this event, contributing to its international recognition.
PROGRAM
Bumki Kim – Spacewalk
Jun Hyunsuk – Toccata
Yemin Oh – Ironic Sounds
Panayiotis Kokoras – AI Phantasy
Byung-moo Lee – Dry Glut
Jorge García del Valle Méndez – road, river and rail