semi-automatic live performance music for computer

As in all typical studies, material is kept to a minimum (in one sense). The piece is currently constructed from about one hundred recordings of the word hello (hence the title).

Audio purists amongst you will not appreciate the many clicks, bumps and crackles throughout – caused primarily by my current lack of precise knowledge of the workings of one particularly irritating process. I’m trying to appreciate these as the inevitable extra-musical noises created by anyone learning a new instrument: similar extraneous noises are made by anyone playing many acoustic instruments: string noise on a guitar, the action of the keys in a harpsichord…

More importantly, it is highly feasible that the whole performance may end in sudden, unexpected silence when the machine crashes.

Finally and incidentally, if the piece works at all, you’ll doubtless see me frantically poring over my computer trying to sort things out. This isn’t how it’s meant to be. As a composer, ideally, I’d like to be able to relax and fret while others deal with the problems, or even while just the computer deals with it. Unfortunately this is not yet the case with Hello.