Study #1 is written for Player-Piano (Pianola). The name might suggest a certain spiritual relationship with Conlon Nancarrow's studies for player-piano, which may well be the case. This piece came out of studies of Clarence Barlow's theories of harmonicity and rhythmic indispensability, put in the framework of a two voice Bach style invention. The piece is strictly in two voices; any chords that may be heard are actually made out of fast moving single voices. This system gives the composer control over material, texture and progress and other factors, but leaving the filling out of details not covered by the composer to the computer, according to the rules of the above mentioned harmonicity and rhythmic indispensability . The written "score" is actually a sequence of numbers controlling the behaviour of the computer.
The music was generated with the help of Barlow's Autobusk program running on an Atari computer. The piece was composed in 1992 at the Institute of Sonology, The Hague, and premiered there in the autumn at the Sonology's 25th Anniversary festival.
Study #1 (2:45 min - 1,3 MB)