Improvisations for piano and MaxMSP

This is very much an active work of mine and Oliver Flaig’s. We’ve played it a couple of times, and appreciate the fluidity of the piece.

Oliver designed a MaxMSP that he interacts with through an xbox controller, allowing him to sample bits of the incoming piano stream, and play them back dynamically. The patch is designed to be minimal through which a wide range of possibilities can arise.

While setting up for a performance, we agree of the range of characters, timbres, and the general arc that we’ll follow. Other than that, every decision we make about which note to play or which section to loop is taken spontaneously, and influences the other.

Here are two playthroughs of our piece. one of them was played in front of guests at the Edinburgh University Music Technology Society showcase, and the other was recorded in a more controlled environment.

Personally, I like that each has it’s own personality, and don’t sonically sound like they are the same piece. In the future, we’ll be playing it with a different stream going into the patch, perhaps varying noises, or speech.