Quintet.net at the Münster "Mystik und Maschine" festival (October 26 - 29, 2000)
Composer Georg Hajdu (www.wireworks.de/Hajdu.html), noted for his multimedia opera "Der Sprung," will premiere his project quintet.net on October 28th in Münster, Germany--a project that connects five performers over the Internet under the control of a "conductor."
There have been numerous Internet compositions recently. What's unique about quintet.net is the combination of several principles that allow spontaneous, real-time musical interaction using both visual and acoustic cues, even over slow modem connections. Using a "conductor" constitutes a musical metaphor that's been absent from Internet compositions so far.
Mr. Hajdu has spent the past year programming the quintet.net application using the MAX/MSP environment. Its built-in pitch-tracking and synthesis capabilities add to the application's comfort and flexibility, which may be personalized to fit the participating musicians' needs.
A more detailed technical description is given below:
Quintet.net
1. Architecture
5 players interact over the Internet by sending musical (control) streams to a server/reflector. The streams are multiplied and sent back to the clients. In addition, a conductor can log into the server and control the musical outcome by changing settings remotely and sending streams of parameter values as well as short text commands to the players.
2. Synthesis
Quintet.net uses synthetic speech, sampled sounds and MIDI for instrumental playback (input via MIDI or a built-in pitch tracker). It also features granular and speech synthesis engines controllable by the conductor. Sound designer Canine (Münster) developed the 11 banks of sampled sounds.
3. Notation
Quintet.net has additional graphical properties, which allow for interaction and control on a symbolical level, i.e. the performers see the music that the participants produce on screen in standard notation on five grand staves. The conductor can also send short musical phrases, which are displayed on screen and played back by the performers.
4. Form
Mr. Hajdu conceived a piece of exactly 30 minutes, divided into 5 sections of equal length (6') and structure. Each section features a 'lead' instrument, and is characterized by an underlying sample on which granular synthesis is performed. Each sample is specific to the featured instrument. Hence, the musicians shouldn't only react to each other but also to the (slow changes of the) granular synthesis.
The structure of each section resembles a Jazz composition with its interchange of notated passages and (free) improvisation. In addition, a short story about a "virtureal" experience will be told by a synthetic narrator.
5. Platform and Software
Quintet.net runs on the Macintosh platform only. A G3/G4 computer and a screen with 1024x768 pixels are strongly recommended. It needs the MAX/MSP run-time version (download from www.cycling74.com) with memory set to 40 MB. Since only control data are exchanged between server, conductor and clients, quintet.net will perform well even over slow modem connections. It uses udp (user datagram protocol) for Internet communication.
6. Premiere
Quintet.net will be premiered at the Münster "Mystik und Maschine" festival on October 28th, 2000 at 10.30 PM. The participating musicians are Anne La Berge, flute (Amsterdam) ; Anthony De Ritis, ZETA violin (Boston) ; Chris Brown, keyboard (Oakland) ; Erhard Hirt, MIDI guitar (Münster); Melvyn Poore, tuba (Bonn). Visit www.gnm-muenster.de/index.html for further information.
7. Further information
A text (in German) explaining the theory of quintet.net is downloadable from www.mhs-muenster.de/Dozenten/Hajdu/MAX/Quintet.net.html.
8. Future ideas
At this point, only private, pre-registered performances are possible. A future release will allow for public, random musical encounters on the Internet. Video streaming capabilities (using NATO) will also be included. This will make it possible to watch the musicians performing (recommended for public performances with projections on large screens).
9. Acknowledgements
Quintet.net wouldn't be possible without the preliminary work of Miller Puckette, David Zicarelli, Matt Wright and many others to whom I'd like to express my gratitude.