"RUDRAVEENA" - LIVECODING & RAGAS

AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO MAKING LIVE COMPUTER MUSIC :

As opposed to music created by triggering samples or playing midi instruments and Virtual synthesizers, livecoding makes use of the computer as a live instrument for improvisation by musicians. The codes are projected on a screen by videoprojectors and thereby, the audience may following the musical score & variations created by the computer musican, as if they were watching someone play an acoustic instrument (e.g. the fretwork of a guitarplayer or the hand movements of a drummer)

Livecoding music and sound live requires computer programming skills for the musician as well as for the audience : to be able to follow whats going on and how the piece is being created & its evolution over time. I propose to use a language which is more accessible to the audience & viewers for my live improvisation. The program i intend to use is built over the computer language Supercollider (created with elements of Smalltalk & C++) and is a text based comand line program. This is a new and innovative innovative "on-the-fly" technique of writing programs while they are interpreted and is based on the write/compile/run model.

THE SOUND : (Name of performance - "RUDRAVEENA")

The sound generated would be loosely based on the genre known as IDM (Intelligent dance music) in the field of electronic music and would be improvised live during the session, A musical structure however, would be preplanned mentally but written out directly in front of the audience without any waiting time. The instruments making up the piece would execute & improvise the phrases on real time by alphanumeric manipulations. "Rudraveena" is a livecode performance based on computer codes and drones of an Indian raga - Marva. This raga is played after sunset.