Calder's Violin (2011-2022)

Composed by Richard Hoadley, first performed by Mifune Tsuji, Saturday 22nd October 2011, Cambridge UK.

Violoncello: Marine Rodallec; Musicatreize, Marseille, 10th May 2022; Audiovisual recording by Se-Lien Chuang; Calder's 'Cello has also been performed as Calder's Violin and Calder's Flute.

Performance of algorithmically transcribed version, Calder's Flute, by Ming Wang at the 2016 Sound and Music Computing Conference in Hamburg, Germany:

Calder's Flute (2011-16) from Richard Hoadley on Vimeo.

Performance by Marcus Barcham-Stevens at the 2012 SuperCollider Symposium in London:

Calder's Violin (London 2012) from Richard Hoadley on Vimeo.

Video of a rehearsal of the piece allowing video of the computer screen:

Calder's Violin (Cambridge 2011 rehearsal) from Richard Hoadley on Vimeo.

'Calder's Violin' is a composition for violin and automatic piano. The music is algorithmically generated, including the violin part which is notated live as the piece progresses. The general textures and references of the music are intended to be predictable, but detail is new each time: an attempt to emulate in the medium of electronically generated music the 'mystifyingly exquisite variation' of performance on traditional, acoustic instruments. Some of the material for Calder's Violin has been previously developed for the on-going dance and music project 'Triggered'.

The piece is still being developed with regard to other instruments and enhancements in both SuperCollider and INScore enhancements. The 2022 Marseilles version features a more developed 'translation' algorithm to aid performance on different instruments.

The piece is primarily composed in the music programming environment, SuperCollider.

This piece uses the software INScore and Guido significantly, both currently being developed by the Grame Computer Music Research Lab.
- More information on INScore.
- More information on Guido.

Papers, publications and presentations related to Calder's Violin

Performances

- Hoadley, R. (2014e), performance by George Panagiotopoulos, International Computer Music Conference 2014, Athens, Greece, 17 September 2014

(2013) Calder's Violin
performed by Mifune Tsuji, 20th October 2013, INTIME Symposium, Coventry University
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directory/art-design/intime-experimental-music/intime-symposium-2013/

(2012) Calder's Violin
performed by Marcus Barcham-Stevens of Plus Minus at City University
April 17th 2012
a part of the London 2012 SuperCollider Symposium http://www.sc2012.org.uk/live/concert/
video recording: https://vimeo.com/42338675

(2011) Calder's Violin
performed by Mifune Tsuji, 2011 October 22, as a part of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2011
Festival website: http://www.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/foi2011.pdf (p21)
video recording: https://vimeo.com/30975652

Papers
(2012) Notating algorithms
Symposium for Performance of Electronic and Experimental Music (SPEEC), University of Oxford, January 6-7
symposium website: http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/speec/
presentation: http://rhoadley.net/presentations/SPEEC002s.pdf

(2011) Real-time generation of music notation using algorithms and physical movement
DMRN+6: Digital Music Research Network One-day Workshop 2011, Queen Mary University of London, Tuesday 20th December
presentation: http://rhoadley.net/presentations/DMRN11_002s.pdf

Publications
Calder's Violin: Real-time Notation and Performance through Musically Expressive Algorithms, ICMC 2012
paper: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/calder-s-violin-real-time-notation-and-performance-through.pdf?c=icmc;idno=bbp2372.2012.035

Software
SC Class: INScore

Other video and audio examples

Video of a concert performance of the piece:

Calder's Violin from Richard Hoadley on Vimeo.