LiveScore

LiveScore is the title given to an interactive music piece and a software tool created by composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and software programmer Harris Wulfson (1974–2008). The software allows network streaming of real-time notation delivered to one of several client computers. The interactive music piece consists of this real-time notation system set up for audience control. The authors describe both the musical work and the software and touch briefly upon the unique musical background of this visionary composer. Keywords: Harris WulfsonReal-time NotationLiveScoreAlgorithmic MusicAutomatic Notation Generators Notes [1] We use italics to refer to the piece LiveScore, while the software system appears as LiveScore. [2] The inaugural meeting of SAMN, held on 18 September 2006 at CiNE Studio Space, New York, was host to the third performance of LiveScore (see Barrett, Winter, & Wulfson, Citation2007). A portion of this performance is described at the beginning of this article. [3] One knob not mentioned above, ‘pulse’, is not handled by the software code. Though Wulfson may have intended to address this issue in future versions of the LiveScore system, in practice the presumed function of the knob can currently be accomplished by using the ‘duration range’ and ‘togetherness’ knobs in tandem: if tones are set to be the same duration and to consistently begin together, the resulting pulse may then be altered by the ‘durations’ knob. [4] The ability to add new instrumental parts throughout the course of the performance was a feature Wulfson had incorporated in the original Objective-C version of the LiveScore client following the piece's premiere, but the feature has yet to be implemented in the latest version of the software written in Java. [5] Wulfson provides a statement on LiveScore in Everybody Loves Difficult Music (Orsher, So & Roberts, Citation2007, 24), the publication that accompanied the Machine Project event. [6] The posthumous performances of Wulfson's LiveScore that have occurred in Los Angeles and New York were facilitated by adapting the original server written in SuperCollider to work with the newest client written in Java (specifically for Enumerated Types). These packages are now available at http://wulfson.com/livescore

Arithmetic · Art · Musical · Musical notation · Notation · Programmer · Programming language · Visual arts · Computer Science · Mathematics · Music and Audio Processing · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Software