Refereed Papers 2010-12

Digital adaptions of the scores for Cage Variations I, II and III 
Lindsay Vickery, Cat Hope, and Stuart James
ICMC 2012 Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel have devised a software-based tool for creating realisations of the score for John Cage’s Variations I and II. In these works Cage had used multiple transparent plastic sheets with various forms of graphical notation, that were capable of independent positioning in respect to one another, to create specifications for the multiple unique instantiation of these works. The digital versions allow for real-time generation of the specifications of each work, quasi-infinite exploration of diverse realisations of the works and transcription of the data created using Cage’s methodologies into proportionally notated scrolling graphical scores.
2012vickeryhopejamesicmc2012.pdf
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New digital interactions with John Cage’s Variations IV, V and VI 
Cat Hope, Stuart James and Lindsay Vickery
ACMC 2012 Brisbane

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To celebrate the centenary of John Cage’s birth in 1912, Western Australian new music ensemble Decibel undertook the realization of the John Cage’s complete Variations I – VIII. The works offer a unique insight into the development of Cage’s approach to composition practice, aleatoric approaches, spatial arrangements and the use of electronics.  The preparation and reading of the scores that make use of transparent sheets (Variations I, II, III, IV and VI) has been adapted using digital score creators and readers. This permits real time generation of measurements and graphics, as well as the assemblage of performance symbols, that can occur during the actual performance of the works. This paper examines the approach to Variations IV (1963) and VI (1966) from the perspectives of digital adaption and the context of the program as a whole.
2012hopejamevickeryacmc.pdf
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Adapting John Cage’s Radio Music 
for digital performance 
Lindsay Vickery
ACMC 2012 Brisbane

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This paper discusses the creation of a digital score reader and installation version of John Cage’s Radio Music. The context surrounding the work’s composition is explored as well as the changing context of the work in light of the evolution of radio broadcasting since the 1950s. The score for the work is explored in detail particularly in regard to the issues its determinate and indeterminate aspects, and their implications upon the performance of the work. The concept of “available indeterminacy” is introduced to describe the real-world limitations that exist as a result of Cage’s specifications for the work. The presence of form-bearing structural features and consequently the potential for the emergence of an indeterminate and nonlinear formal structure from the performance of Radio Music is investigated.
2012vickeryacmc.pdf
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The Evolution of Notational Innovations from the Mobile Score to the Screen Score
Lindsay Vickery
Organised Sound 17(2) 2012  pp 128-136

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This article examines the evolution of music notational practices from avant-garde-era experiments in ‘mobility’ to the advent of the digital ‘screen score’. It considers the varied goals of the composers who initiated these developments and the dissonance between these goals and the practical possibilities actually afforded by the paper score.
The advent of graphical computing is charted along with the consequent expansion of possibilities afforded by screening the score from a platform that also provides the potential for performer coordination, sound synthesis and transformation. The performative, interactive and formal implications of these possibilities are considered.

The possibilities of novel formal structures through computer controlled live performance
 Lindsay Vickery
ACMC 2011 Auckland

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Computer controlled performance opens a range of novel structural possibilities. This paper explores the mechanisms and ramifications of this approach, and its potential to expand the repertoire of formal structures available to the composer.
Traditional and computer coordinated performance models are compared. Modes of computer control, permutation, transformation and generation are discussed and their implications are evaluated.
The range of implications of this approach to the performance environment are given together with illustrations from the author’s own work.
2011vicpossibilitiesofnovel.pdf
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Screen Scores: New Media Music Manuscripts
Dr Cat Hope and Lindsay Vickery
Createworld 2010 Brisbane

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This paper examines the screening of music notations and the impact of this configuration in a live music performance situation. Before the development of graphical computing, Traditional music notation, was rarely shared with the anyone other than other musicians, composers and analysts; let alone displayed during the performance. However, some composers experiment with scores and their visual presence in performance by employing automated ‘score-players’ or actual films specifically developed to be interpreted by musicians. This paper raises some questions and possibilities for this new way of sharing musical qualities of composition and performance.
2010hopevicaestheticsscreenscore.pdf
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