dystopia 2010
maxwell Tfirn
Dystopia Dystopia is a work composed for at least five laptops with Max/MSP. This piece is a sonic representation of a dystopian society, in which chaos is the normal state and resolution never occurs, opposed to a utopia. The only people who are “in power” control everything with a violent iron fist and raise fear in the citizens. Each player has a different patch with many different parameters that can alter the spectrum of the sound being produced in that particular patch. The instructions are given to the individual performers regarding the dynamic and type of sound as well as specific commands, i.e. “normalize the sample”. The individual performers are free to control all other parameters based on their listening for the overall sound and balance with other performers. This piece was written for FLEA ( Florida Laptop and Electronic Arts ensemble). Performance Notes Players are free to changes parameters of the patch as they choose but must follow the instructions on the score. It is important to soundcheck before the concert and have everyone at the same volume for a reference point. Dynamics can then but set by the ensemble. The computers global volume can make dynamics easier to control A conductor may be used.
Max/MSP Libraries In order for these patches to work, Dan Trueman and Luke Dubois’s Percolate library, Karlheinz Essl’s Real Time Composition Library, and Stephen Lumenta’s ports of Supercollider Objects must be installed. An abstraction called Bin is also included to be added in the externals folder for parts 1, 2.
Ensemble Setup Below are three setup options that are dependent on the equipment available. If parts are being doubled, then each part will have to have its own mixer in order to separate the sound. One setup all the parts are sent to a mixer and the mixer sends out stereo sound to two speakers. The second setup uses three speakers and parts 1-2, 3, 4-5 are paired to a speaker. For this setup multiple mixers may need to be used, or one mixer with multiple subgroups. The last setup, every part gets its own speaker. This can be done with multiple mixers or one mixer with many subgroups.
Dystopia Max Tfirn Part 3 grainy! ! ! Part5 mid freq range! ! Part 4! ! ! ! Part 5 Raise Frequency! ! slowly filter down ! Cresc. and Decresc! ! Fade out mf!! ! changing Q, mf! randomly, altering sound ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! mf -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part 1! ! ! ! Part 1, 2! ! ! Part 3! ! ! ! Part 5 Fade in! ! ! ! Normalize!! Fade in! ! ! ! Fade in mf! ! ! Loop play at f High Freq filter sweeps Slowly, p Part 4 Fade out! ! ! ! ! ! ! slowly, p ! Part 3 Fade out ! ! Part 2 Fade in ! ! mezzo-forte -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part 4! ! Fade in p ! ! !
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All Parts! ! p < fn~! ! (Global Volume)
rest 1 second! ! !
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Part 1! p! !
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Part 5 < fp
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All Parts ! ! ! ! Improv sound, Loud! ! Overall sound = violent ! ! ! ! !
Parts 1, 3, 5! Raise pitch Parts 2, 4 Lower Pitch
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All Parts Fade out