Browsing by Author "Eagle, David"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 22
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    AAIM: Algorithmically Assisted Improvised Music
    (2016) Fay, Simon; Eagle, David; Boyd, Jeff; Prusinkiewicz, Przemysław; Radford, Laurie; Eigenfeldt, Arne; Oxoby, Robert
    The AAIM (Algorithmically Assisted Improvised Music) performance system is a portfolio of interconnectable algorithmic software modules, designed to facilitate improvisation and live performance of electronic music. The AAIM system makes no attempt to generate new materials in one particular style, nor to act as an autonomous improviser. Instead, the goal of the AAIM system is to facilitate improvisation through the variation and manipulation of composed materials entered by the user. By generating these variations algorithmically, the system gives improvisers of computer music the ability to focus on macro elements of their performances, such as form, phrasing, texture, spatialisation, and timbre, while still enabling them to incorporate the rhythmic and melodic variations of a virtuosic instrumental improviser.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    An Affective Music Recommendation System
    (2010-12-22T18:17:08Z) Pon, Aura; Sharlin, Ehud; Eagle, David
    Given that the affective features of music are often the most relevant criteria in selecting music, we propose in this abstract that a music database should be able to be categorized according to its affective influence, and likewise, music recommendations made with consideration to the user’s current affective state. This can be made possible using pre-existing emotion-measuring technology with new algorithms for selecting music with appropriate affective influence, as proven by several studies. An affective music recommender system could avoid many of the inadequacies of traditional recommender systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Body language: interactivity in sound and art
    (2006) Baer, Philip; Woodrow, Paul; Eagle, David
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Improvising New Consonance: Following the Subterranean Connections between North American and Italian Avant-Garde Collectives (1963–1976)
    (2018-06-26) Bertolani, Valentina; Sallis, Friedemann; Eagle, David; Neidhöfer, Christoph; Piekut, Benjamin; Cadel, Francesca
    “Improvising New Consonance: The Subterranean Connections Between North American and Italian Avant-Garde, 1963–1976” is grounded in both music history and music analysis and explores the communities created around collective improvisation in the Bay Area, Rome, and Montreal through four case studies: New Music Ensemble, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Musica Elettronica Viva and MuD / Sonde. This research challenges the understanding of collective experimental improvisation as a genre, framing the phenomenon through the contemporary paradigm of “artistic practice as research.” This reading favours a broader understanding of experimentalism as a cross-generic phenomenon. The work is articulated in two interconnected and equally important parts to sustain my argument: 1. Using Actor-Network Theory, I examine what cultural policies were put in place within a Cold War and post-colonial context to support international exchanges among otherwise extremely localized experiences. This geography challenges dominant narratives about post-war music, normally focussed north of the Alps and on the US East Coast. 2. Building on Steinbeck’s work on the Art Ensemble of Chicago, I analyze the collective practices that allowed the groups to develop unconventional improvisatory responses. I discuss exercises developed to solve peculiar improvisational problems, and assessment strategies used to evaluate recorded sessions, linking this body of knowledge to the recordings we have to build an innovative analytical framework.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    JunctionBox: A Multi-touch Interaction Mapping Toolkit for Creating Musical Interfaces
    (2015-08-06) Fyfe, Lawrence; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Eagle, David
    This thesis describes my research into the development of a unit interaction model for multi-touch interactions in a musical context. To create this model of unit interactions, I first determined the most fundamental aspects of multi-touch that offer interaction building blocks that can be combined in a variety of ways, allowing for a high degree of freedom to design and build musical interfaces. This unit interaction model is implemented via JunctionBox, a toolkit for mapping multi-touch input to control of music. With JunctionBox, composers, musicians, and programmers can build interfaces that combine multi-touch and mapping for use in a wide variety of musical contexts. As a toolkit, JunctionBox features multi-touch input tracking, mapping of input to output via messaging, output for graphical feedback, and flexible networking options. All of these features are designed such that they can be used in any combination, allowing for tremendous creative freedom in building interfaces. To put JunctionBox in a context, it is compared to other toolkits to examine its interaction features in comparison to other tools. The comparisons show that JunctionBox provides a richer set of interaction options than the other tools. By providing a rich set of interactions, JunctionBox opens the door to greater creativity in designing multi-touch musical interfaces. JunctionBox is also explored via practice-based research. During my research, I have created and performed with a variety of interfaces that I built with JunctionBox. These interfaces range from live performance interfaces to controls for an interactive installation. The variety of interfaces shows the flexibility inherent in the design of JunctionBox. In addition, these interfaces serve to show the creative interface possibilities that JunctionBox affords. Finally, research into the design and implementation of JunctionBox led to the development of a series of design principles that can be applied to toolkits that aspire to balance features and creative freedom. The design principles are variations on tolerance. Tolerance for allowing developers to use their own creativity in designing and building musical interfaces.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Manifest: A Music Composition for Soundscape and Amplified Clarinet Engaging the Windsor Hum
    (2020-09-25) Garbet, Brian David; Radford, Laurie; Bell, Allan; Eagle, David; Sallis, Friedemann; Epstein, Marcia Jenneth; Smallwood, Scott
    Manifest is a five-movement composition for amplified clarinet and fixed multi-channel audio. The context for this work is the subject of noise pollution and the effect it can have on people and the ecosystem. In addition to the industrial noise of a manufacturing region, areas of Windsor, Ontario, are afflicted by a bothersome and persistent low frequency excitation known as the Windsor Hum. Unlike visible pollution, noise is an often-neglected concern, and much more discussion is needed to bring awareness to the health issues that arise from prolonged exposure to it. A community of resilient citizens has been enduring the disruptive consequences of industrial noise in Windsor and strive for a peaceful, healthy quality of life. Manifest is a social commentary delivered in the form of musique documentaire, a documentary-inspired approach to electroacoustic music. The foundation for the work was a series of investigative field recording trips to the Windsor region to capture the soundworld that would be used to establish the piece’s setting, while also acquiring an understanding of the predicament people were reporting. Through these recordings, additional research, and interviews with local residents, the relationship between heavy industry, industrial noise, the geography of the area, and the experiences of the people were developed into a narrative structure that was then used as the framework for the piece. The composition presents an immersive journey through Windsor, and the phenomenon of the Hum unfolds en route. The heterogeneous soundscape evokes parklands, a steel mill, and a large active river, all unified by recordings of spoken word, the clarinet, and brief transitional segments. The clarinet with live electronics represents the people and technology and serves as a common element linking these diverse sonic environments, featuring the versatility of this expressive instrument. As a compositional point of departure designed to strengthen the relationship between the clarinet and the soundscape, pitch material was derived from transcriptions and spectral analysis of the field recordings. This report presents the context, conceptualization, creative process, and analysis of this composition.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Metaanthropos/evolution 2 for chamber orchestra and electronics
    (1999) Spasov, Miroslav; Eagle, David
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    MUSE: a Music Sandbox Environment for Novices
    (2017) Popa, Iulius; Boyd, Jeffrey; Eagle, David; Boyd, Jeffrey; Eagle, David; Radford, Laurie; Manzara, Leonard
    Collaborative musical interfaces for novices allow people with limited to no musical education access to a “walk-up and play” group musical experience. However, research shows that the ease-of-use of an interface tends to be inversely proportional with its creative affordances. My research aims at increasing the level of creative controls in interfaces for novices without compromising the “walk-up and play” characteristic or negatively affecting the perceived quality of the musical output. This thesis proposes a new design paradigm – a “game of music” and presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of MUSE – a real time, collaborative musical interface for novices. Participants in user studies of MUSE found learning and using the interface easy, described the music as pleasant, and reported having creative control over the music output. Further research could explore this new paradigm and its potential to maximize creative affordances when designing new collaborative musical interactions for novices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    On the Eve of Ivan Kupalo
    (2013-04-25) Pidgorna, Anna; Eagle, David
    This paper examines the process behind the creation of "On the eve of Ivan Kupalo," a chamber opera in a prologue and four scenes scored for seven singers, accordion, piano, and percussion. Drawing heavily on Ukrainian folklore, the opera explores the particular singing style used in Ukrainian villages and incorporates existing folk repertoire into a musical language, which freely mixes diatonicism, chromaticism, and atonality. The work frames the experience of village dwellers within the ritualized structure of the Kupalo festival, a pagan tradition, which merged with the Christian persona of St. John the Baptist. The analysis of the music and libretto concludes with a discussion of how this opera fits into post-19th century operatic development as a whole, and where it stands in relation to contemporary operatic composition in Ukraine and Canada.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Osmosis/Zymosis: The Integration of Eastern Mediterranean Music Elements in Contemporary Composition
    (2013-05-01) Andronikou, Michalis; Eagle, David
    Osmosis/Zymosis is a work of twenty minutes duration, for a mixed chamber ensemble (augmented “Pierrot ensemble”) comprising flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion. The underlying concept of the work is based on the integration into contemporary Western music practice of musical gestures derived from the Eastern Mediterranean tradition. The title consists of two scientific terms used to describe chemical and biological processes: “Osmosis” refers to the gradual absorption of one solution by another, and “Zymosis” refers to both the process of fermentation and the development or the spread of an infection. These Greek words are also useful for the description of the blending of cultures and especially for individuals who face displacement or immigration. A related concept in anthropology would be the rite of passage, a ritualistic event that marks a person’s transition from one status to another. A music composition that incorporates elements transferred from one culture to another is even more than that. Both the process and the resulting work are steps towards musical maturity and openness. In many ways the integration of music elements from one culture into another is a glimpse to the future, which could be helpful in bridging cultural and aesthetic differences. In this compositional project, a clear, balanced and intuitive combination of elements from both cultures is attempted. One of the things that I have learned through this experience is that this path is always inviting and endless for anyone who is willing to take one more step.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    Passages and Scenes, Reflection and Memory
    (2011-01-16T02:54:19Z) Eagle, David
    Passages and Scenes, Reflection and Memory is a large-scale sonic art work that explores aspects of ecological and social change in the Canadian west. There are three related environment-related themes that inspire the work: exploration and travel, moving through time and across the land, and geological, social and personal transformation. The form of the composition outlines a movement through time evoking prehistory, first peoples, exploration, settlement, the modern era, our present, and reflection.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sonic Matter: A Real-time Interactive Music Performance System
    (2018-12-20) Soydan, Abdullah Safa; Eagle, David; Welling, Miriam Joelle; Sharlin, Ehud; Radford, Laurie
    This research proposes a multi-channel interactive performance system called Sonic Matter. The system embodies newly developed motion tracking technology in accordance with well-accustomed MIDI technology in quest of achieving greater expression in live electroacoustic music performance. Sonic Matter is an open system, which offers a great deal of artistic flexibility and control due to its modular structure. The system gives its performer the ability to manipulate many qualities of sound in real-time. This thesis presents the background for the research, discusses the design considerations, details what each module does, and presents the author’s musical compositions created with Sonic Matter. The collection of five compositions, Sonic Matters, was premièred in the Sonic Arts Lab at the University of Calgary on June 14th, 2018.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    String quartet no. 1: eu sonhei com a Ilha Formosa
    (2006) Feria, Roger Jr.; Eagle, David
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Woman and the Lyre
    (2017) Aska, Alyssa; Eagle, David; Bell, Allan; Radford, Laurie; Hynes, Laura; Biró, Dániel
    The Woman and the Lyre, for voice, flute, cello, piano, and electronics, is a multi-faceted musical work that integrates elements from various disciplines including poetry, drama, and movement. The text is drawn from fragments of poetry by the ancient Greek poet Sappho as well as interpretations of her work by the 20th century Canadian poet Bliss Carman. Different approaches to electroacoustic performance practice are used to enhance the emotional meaning of the text. These approaches focus on the relationship between the performer’s actions onstage and the resulting sounds, aided through the integration of live electronics. The performers interact with these electronics both with gestural controller systems and video tracking, and have varying degrees of perceived control throughout. Electronic processing is used to enhance the instrumental sound and create diverse sonic environments that serve the dramatic narrative of the composition. The Woman and the Lyre is comprised of two large parts: Sapphic Cycle, and Fayum Fragments. Sapphic Cycle is a musical setting of four poems from Bliss Carman’s work Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics. Fayum Fragments is inserted between these movements and consists of ten short miniatures, presented in variable order. Each of these miniatures musically evokes text fragments from a recovered papyrus attributed to Sappho. This portion of The Woman and the Lyre involves the singer also taking on the role of conductor: the performer’s physical gestures, tracked by a Leap Motion sensor device, determine which miniature will be performed at any given moment, thus creating the variable form of the composition. The Woman and the Lyre, therefore, while consisting of many layers of material, is unified by integrating the electronics as an important component of the narrative and form.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Through a Window: A Networked Music Composition for Four to Six Instruments and Electronics
    (2018-09-11) Bosse, Naithan; Eagle, David; Radford, Laurie; Bell, Allan; Fields, Kenneth; Chafe, Chris; Manzara, Leonard
    Through a Window is a three movement networked composition for four to six variable instruments and electronics. In this work, musicians are distributed between three performance sites and connected by sending multi-channel audio streams across a high-bandwidth network. The composition explores how the networked setting together with live sound-processing, soundfile playback, amplification, and spatialization creates a unique sonic performance environment. By applying sound-processing differently at each location, the composition creates dynamic configurations in which elements of the work such as harmony and orchestration are perceived differently at each location. As the physical distance between performance sites increases, the time delay required to send audio between the sites also increases. This poses a significant challenge for music performance since tight synchronization becomes impossible. In Through a Window I employ several practical strategies to accommodate ensemble performance in the presence of network latency such as composing audible cues within the music, adopting proportional notation, and using networked stopwatches. Formally, the composition presents a variety of musical processes based upon evolutionary algorithms, recursive algorithms, and swarm algorithms. These processes occupy multiple sections throughout the composition and contribute to aspects of the composition such as the harmony and melodic contours. As the composition unfolds, these algorithmic materials recur in new configurations and contribute to create an interlocking macrostructure in which the musical tension increases and recedes in a pattern inspired by ocean waves.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Unremembered Soundscapes: Musical Images of Iran
    (2014-12-15) Nader Esfahani, Ali; Eagle, David
    Unremembered Soundscapes, is focused on the development of advanced techniques in composition and sound design applied to traditional Iranian musical material, soundscapes and sound objects. I am curious to see if a new musical language can be created that transforms ancient musical materials through the use of current Western performance practice and digital technologies. This is explored in the context of a large multi-movement work for violin, bass clarinet and piano, along with live and prerecorded electroacoustic music. The piece is in five connected movements, each based on one of the traditional Iranian professions. The first movement, “a tapestry of glass”, is based on the Persian art of carpet weaving. Sounds such as those of the warps and wefts, scissoring, or combing, serve as the sound material for the electroacoustic part, whereas the graphical design of the carpet inspires the macro and micro musical structures. “A curl in ink” reflects on the Persian art of calligraphy. In this movement one can hear seagulls and other creatures that seem to be hidden in the sound of a bamboo pen on a glossy paper. The third movement, “a fluff of smile”, draws upon sounds involved in the old Iranian professions of cotton-fluffing and felting such as the resonant sound of the bow-shaped fluffing tool. The sounds in “a breath of tea” come from the soundscapes of traditional Iranian teahouses, like the sound of the samovar, the bubbling hookah, and the small glass teacup and saucer. Finally, “dust of aged hands” makes use of the sounds of etching and coppersmithing that were recorded in an aged bazaar in Isfahan. In concert, along with the musicians on stage, the computer performer triggers sonic material and controls parameters of audio processing in real-time. Physical gestures and motions are tracked by a motion capture device and mapped to sound processing parameters in the Max software on the computer.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Vuzik: An Interactive Surface Application for Music Visualization and Creation
    (2011-08-24T16:13:03Z) Pon, Aura; Ichino, Junko; Sharlin, Ehud; Eagle, David; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    Vuzik is an interface designed to empower people to create digital music by painting. Through an intuitive mapping of sound to visuals designed to be simple enough for a child to comprehend, Vuzik uses a painting metaphor to enable people to compose and perform music through simple painting gestures and effectively "see" their music as they hear it. Our paper presents the design of Vuzik, details the implementation of the current prototype, and discusses the preliminary user evaluation we performed and how it informs our coming design efforts. We envision that Vuzik will help both the creator and audience better understand music's construction, thereby making the composition of music more accessible to children and novices, and opening up new ways to create and express music.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Vuzik: Music Visualization and Creation on an Interactive Surface
    (2011-08-24T16:18:41Z) Pon, Aura; Ichino, Junko; Eagle, David; Sharlin, Ehud; Carpendale, Sheelagh
    Vuzik is an interface for creating computer music using painting gestures and graphical music representation on an interactive surface. We present the design and implementation of the current prototype of Vuzik, discuss the current ongoing user evaluation, and propose applications of the system in music education