1 MUSIC FOR CLARINET AND ISPW COMPOSED BY CORT LIPPE (1992) By: Glenda A. Miller Besides the usual avenue of opening the liner notes on the CD, my introduction to Cort Lippe was through a personal viewpoint section on a website featuring the composer. Lippe gave his thoughts on being labeled a “computer musician.” He explained that his “…reservations and ‘mistrust’ of technology extends not only to the computer, as a musical tool, but to all its ramifications as a human tool.” He thinks some of his mistrust of technology is absurd, but believes that any technological advances made by mankind through history have had good and bad effects and uses. Lippe also comments on the idea that technology empowers us and can lead some musicians to think they know more than they do. Lippe states that, “…most electronic musicians only understand a portion of this very complicated and multi-disciplinary domain, and many electronic musicians are not excellent pedagogues.” He sees the computer being used extensively in the music education field and one of Lippe’s “mistrusts” of the computer as a musical tool is the ability of the inexperienced music student to rely too much on the computer. He believes that the student’s skill as a musician could be compromised if the student uses the computer too early in his or her education. The student will not develop certain skills such as inner ear (imagination), learning basic music keyboard, and notating readable music by hand. Lippe’s comment on all of this: “I wonder what this will lead to eventually? But maybe none of this is important if we have computers? I just think we should keep in mind the possibility that someday the electricity might be turned off. How many of us will still be able to make music if that happens?” With this said, as a composer, Lippe uses the computer in almost
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MUSIC FOR CLARINET AND ISPWCOMPOSED BY CORT LIPPE (1992)
By: Glenda A. Miller
Besides the usual avenue of opening the liner notes on the CD, my introduction to
Cort Lippe was through a personal viewpoint section on a website featuring the
composer. Lippe gave his thoughts on being labeled a “computer musician.” He
explained that his “…reservations and ‘mistrust’ of technology extends not only to the
computer, as a musical tool, but to all its ramifications as a human tool.” He thinks some
of his mistrust of technology is absurd, but believes that any technological advances
made by mankind through history have had good and bad effects and uses.
Lippe also comments on the idea that technology empowers us and can lead some
musicians to think they know more than they do. Lippe states that, “…most electronic
musicians only understand a portion of this very complicated and multi-disciplinary
domain, and many electronic musicians are not excellent pedagogues.” He sees the
computer being used extensively in the music education field and one of Lippe’s
“mistrusts” of the computer as a musical tool is the ability of the inexperienced music
student to rely too much on the computer. He believes that the student’s skill as a
musician could be compromised if the student uses the computer too early in his or her
education. The student will not develop certain skills such as inner ear (imagination),
learning basic music keyboard, and notating readable music by hand. Lippe’s comment
on all of this: “I wonder what this will lead to eventually? But maybe none of this is
important if we have computers? I just think we should keep in mind the possibility that
someday the electricity might be turned off. How many of us will still be able to make
music if that happens?” With this said, as a composer, Lippe uses the computer in almost
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all areas of his work. He is a composer of instrumental or instrumental and computer
works. His primary interest is in real-time interactive computer music
Rowe illustrates and explains the various levels of processing in Lippe’s piece.
“In the signal flow chart (Illustration 1), there are various levels of processing involved in
the realization of the piece. First of all, the clarinet is sampled through an ADC and
routed through the pitch tracker resident on an IRCAM i860 DSP board (ISPW) mounted
on the NeXT computer. The output of the pitch tracker goes on to a score following
stage, accomplished with the “explode” object. Index numbers output from “explode”
then advance through an event list, managed in a “glist” object, which sets signal
processing variables and governs the evolution of a set of compositional algorithms.”
(Rowe 1994: 88-89).
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Illustration 1. Signal Flow Chart Depicting Various Levels of Processing Involved in Cort Lippe’s Composition,
“Music For Clarinet and ISPW” (1992)
The Composer in the Computer Age – VII, CDCM Computer Music Series Vol. 24,
presents computer music compositions by five accomplished composers. Cort Lippe is
one of the five composers and his piece, Music for Clarinet and ISPW (IRCAM Signal
Processing Workstation), was written in 1992 for clarinetist Esther Lamneck and
premiered in New York in March, 1992. Esther Lamneck received her Doctorate from the
Juilliard School of Music. She maintains an active career as clarinet soloist and as
conductor and director of the New York University New Music and Dance Ensemble.
Lamneck has performed throughout the United States and Europe. The
scientific/technical definition of how this piece was produced is reiterated word for word
from the liner notes of the CD as follows:
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‘Technically, the clarinet pitches are tracked by the computer as the performer plays.This pitch information is sent to a “score follower” which allows the computer to followthe player’s performance by comparing it to a copy of the score which is stored in thecomputer. At specific points designated in the score, electronic events are triggered bythe score follower. Thus, the clarinetist has the double role of performer and“conductor” (of the electronic part). The computer also tracks other parameters of theclarinet, such as amplitude and continuous pitch change, and uses this information forcontinuous control of the digital synthesis algorithms running in the computer on amore local level than the “event” level. The intent is to give the player a level ofmusical control based on performance expressivity, which hopefully allows for a certaindegree of interactivity between the performer and the computer.