Building Mobile Instruments for Improvised Musical Performance
By: Damon Russell Holzborn
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2013
Place of publication: [New York, N.Y.?]
Language: eng
Description: This paper explores an approach to building electronic musical instruments for use in improvised music that I have found to be particularly effective for developing flexible, dynamic, and versatile instruments well adapted to the improvised context, and a resultant set of suites of solo improvised character pieces. The lessons learned from this research can be useful beyond the scope of this particular instrument design philosophy. In Part I, I present the foundations of my approach to instrument design, based on my past experience and the technological environment in which electronic music has developed. I discuss the values that guide me in the creation of instruments for use in improvised performance, and describe the development tools iRTcmix and Nikl, and Dixey, an instrument I have created with those tools and hardware devices using the Apple iOS operating system. Part II discusses the musical issues related to the creation of Character Weekend, a set of solo recordings produced with the tools described in Part I.
Notes: Department: Music.

Thesis advisor: George E. Lewis.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University, 2013.