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Virtual Possibilities

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
Last year I wrote several blogs investigating tools for composition students, specifically those in distance learning environments, and recording possibilities for composers needing realisations of their work. Taking the concept of recording parts separately a step further, several developing projects may be of interest to composers and performers, offering a glimpse of tools that could be very helpful in the future.

Some may already be familiar with ‘virtual’ projects such as Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, or Chip Michael’s TwtrSymphony where performers located around the world each record and email their parts to a piece which are put together to form the ensemble recording. These are exciting experiments which speak as much for current trends in social interaction as they do for technological advancement in art.
Below are examples of the projects. Having performed in VC2: Sleep, and helped record parts for TwtrSymphony Tremulando Dança, I’ve been biased with my choices! I think you can agree that, considering the technical challenges, the results are quite compelling.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WhWDCw3Mng]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGn7j0R2fM]
As each project develops new avenues, technology is starting to place more demands on how they are run. For instance, Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir has become such an expensive technical behemoth to put together that they need to find sponsors to make the next project happen. VC4 – Bliss is being funded via Kickstarter, where people can pledge money to help fund a project. Rather than being sceptical of the motives of this, I’m quite happy to see a return to the centuries-old method of musical patronage where a community of followers fund a project. Check out the project to see just how passionate a project like this can be for creators and followers alike.
These projects are not only exciting social experiments for the participants but also excellent promotional and marketing vehicles for the composers involved. But what about the developing composer or student that doesn’t have a current fan base or a technical team?
Musing over the possibilities last year, I thought about how wonderful it would be to have an ensemble or pool of musicians, virtual or otherwise, that could devote time to recording pieces of new composers and student composers. This would be an enormous boon for the distance learning composer who has less access to performers, providing feedback from the players as well as recordings that can be used to develop compositional technique and professional career. In fact, I am in mind to try raising funding to form a charitable or non-profit organisation that could provide similar virtual services and in-house workshops in the UK.
It would seem that Chip Michael who formed TwtrSymphony has had very similar thoughts. In a recent blog post regarding Cynicism in Classical Music Chip announced that he wanted the project to start premiering works from new composers, to try and bridge the gap between them and the audience. Despite the tremendous amount of work being devoted to this project, Chip has also generously found the time to answer questions from OCA Music regarding his experiences, in order to give students tips should they want to try recording pieces ‘virtually’. These will be published in a separate blog post soon. In the meantime, the TwtrSymphony is a worthy project and a fantastic opportunity for composers to get short sections of works realised; the call for scores can be accessed here.


Posted by author: ChrisLawry

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