Shes

Only Singing is the third piece that I composed/performed with an electronic component that utilizes the combination of Arduino, Photo-sensors, and Supercollider. Details of the other two pieces can be found at http://eoincallerysound.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/between-bare-trees-and- falling-leaves. This third version is my first attempt to integrate this combination of technology into a piece for multiple live performers. The piece consists of several mildly chaotic musical lines presented in a quasi- theatrical manner. Due to the indeterminate morphology of each musical line and its chaotic components, and the indeterminate temporal organization of the stage directions each element of the piece might obscure, highlight, or re-interpret any other element; but in the end this piece is primarily a song; I hope that in some way this song is a one-time live analogy for the way some of us hear the elements of our favorite songs differently time and time again, over many listens: while any realization of the song will have a different and indeterminate sequence of events the general atmosphere of the resulting soundworld will never significantly change. The Elements (in order of sonic density) Electronic element 1 - Several Supercollider objects respond to the light level as read by a single photo-sensor connected to an Arduino Nano. The Arduino reads the level of light at set intervals ranging from 3 seconds to 18 seconds. The reading from the photo-sensor is then scaled in various ways and transmitted to Supercollider. The variously scaled values control the frequency and attack times of multiple sine waves and the slope of an audio gate the slope that works in a reverse ie, the gate opens when the level of the input signal (through the in-built laptop mic) drops below a certain level; this causes an abrasive coloring of the live input (mostly the voice) and radically distorts its dynamic range. Electronic element 2 The built in microphone of a laptop is sent through 9 separate channels of Logic Audio. Each channel is then severely limited. A slightly different reverb is the applied to each channel. The sequencer is then played back with the breakpoint automation controlling the volumes of each channel. Several pre-recorded short impulses are also played back in the sequence. Vocal line A short text set to a simple melody is sung four times. The text is slightly altered each time it is sung. For the first three times the text is sang by a live performer directly into the microphone input of a laptop. The final iteration of the text is pre-recorded and played back using some manner of small audio device, again the speaker of this small device should be held as close to the in-built microphone of the lap top as possible. Guitar A short phrase is played by guitar using the following tuning: lowest pitch D possible, D, D, A, B, A. The phrase is repeated as many times as the guitarist whishes. Each measure can be played at a different tempo. The notated harmonics are played FFF and all other pitches are played PPP

Light and Color Gel The light is adjusted and the Color Gels are added to the water bowl that is mounted above the photo-sensor as the performer sees fit.