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I have given a number of lectures on composing for interactive audio. But each time I
felt like I was not fully communicating all that was necessary to make interactive music
work in the real world. I have always known that a certain amount of musical skill was
also necessary and hoped that the listener would have the necessary skills to implement
the suggestions that I was presenting. As I thought more about it I realized that the
musical skills required for interactive composition go beyond those needed for linear
composition. In interactive music many situations can arise that have no parallel in
linear music. In linear composition there is a beginning, a middle and end so the composer
lays out a linear composition like a story and can be certain that the various sections
will be played in the correct order for the whole composition to have the intended effect.
For example, the beginning of the tune usually presents a theme to the listener. In
subsequent measures that theme will be expanded upon in various ways until the composer
feels that the theme has been fully presented.
An interactive composition may have a beginning, middle and an end or it may not. It
all depends on how that music will be implemented in the program. Because of this, several
factors that a composer has traditionally relied upon are not present. He may not know for
sure whether the exposition will happen before the conclusion; whether the first verse
will be heard before the second; or even whether this particular series of notes will ever
be heard at all. Because of this each small piece of music must have a much stronger
internal structure than if it were in a larger linear composition. This has caused many
interactive composers to resort to a very closed modular design in which each segment of
music is completely independent of every other. The big problem with this scheme is that
the result is often no longer a composition as much as a series of short, independent
musical phrases. For music to be satisfying it must have a path to follow. Several
well-used analogies apply. One is that the music takes the listener on a trip down a path,
which twists and turns but eventually returns to the point of origin. Another is the idea
that a piece of music serves the purpose of showing off or framing a simple musical idea.
Yet another analogy is that of a roller coaster ride wherein the listener begins calm and
is subsequently taken through a series of emotions culminating in high tension and drama
but eventually returning to a state of calm and rightness. There are many more analogies
describing what a piece of music does between the beginning and end but they all have one
thing in common. They all have a structure that relies on knowing where the beginning and
middle and end will happen. Interactive music rarely has this luxury so these effects must
be achieved in a more creative manner.
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