Palpitations

for piano and interactive computer (max/msp/jitter)
composed 2011; duration 11 minutes
world premiere february 28 2011
Interactive Soloist Series, New York University Steinhardt (USA)
commissioned by New York University Steinhardt with support from the Danish Arts Council
premiered by Manuel Laufer

The computer establishes its interplay with the soloist mainly through body movements. A performer’s well-known (in)voluntary torso movements are in this composition used in a deliberate manner to animate the sonic response, since it is known that such movements have a significant impact on the audience’s perception of a musical performance. The writing for the piano is quite attentive to the instrument’s nature and tradition, using constant movements in steps, ordered melodic cells and quasi-tonal chordal arpeggios. These procedures are rarely intertwined, but are employed as sequences of different musical ‘stages’. At times the player is requested to repeat a particular fragment, and this is where the body movements in particular are explored by the computer.

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