When Music and Computer Programs Grow Together


'Maki Namekawa Maki Namekawa

In Japanese calligraphy, the thoughts that are to be expressed are set down on paper in the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling. The characters can have a completely different meaning, depending on how the person writing them feels at the moment. The script lives and breathes. This is also the case with music and its notation. The first time I was ever confronted by the score of the piano part of a piece of music that was supposed to function together with a computer program, I gave a great deal of thought to how such collaboration might work and even whether it could. But I had the good fortune to be able to work together personally with composer/visual artist Ludger Brümmer on several projects. This experience made it clear to me that digital technologies in the hands of a “musical artist” enable music and a computer program to grow together, whereby human breathing plays an essential role. Ludger Brümmer has developed a capacity to give the musical interpreter space to breathe and to phrase; at the same time, he is also able to react quickly with his computer to the musical impetus that I provide. For me, this is like chamber music reconfigured for the Digital Age.

John Cage’s personal development as a composer displays parallels to trends in New Music over recent decades. At the start of his career, he wrote meticulously detailed scores of his compositions in the expectation that the musicians would adhere very closely to these guidelines. Later on, he gave his interpreters greater freedom to use their imagination and even withdrew to a much less prescriptive position as a composer thanks to his “chance methods” work such as Yijing that today, in times of digital live performances, is still an example of great current relevance for many composers.

Translated from German by Mel Greenwald