RYAN CARTER : composer

My work as a composer often addresses how emerging technologies affect our experience of music. This began twenty years ago when I asked myself whether humans would still compose music after the “singularity,” a theoretical point in technological development when ultra-intelligent machines would surpass human intelligence and begin improving themselves autonomously. After two years of reading and reflecting, I came to the (brilliantly insightful!) conclusion that humans will keep making music because humans want to make music.

In the intervening years, I have given less thought to this question and more thought to specific developments in mobile computing and social media. The prospect of machines replacing humans, however, has recently captured widespread attention and I found myself asking the same old questions and arriving at the same old answers. The act of coming together to create music or witness the creation of music is a powerful experience that has served important social functions for a long time. Coming together can cultivate communal joy and foster empathy, and the importance of empathy in an uncertain future cannot be overstated. I am not the first composer to write a piano concerto, and I doubt that I will be the last. In a broad sense, this piece is not about anything new, but it does incorporate technologies that were not available for most of the history of the piano concerto. The sound of the piano is processed in real time and live video is generated during the performance, responding to the actions of the pianist.

My work does not reject technology, but rather seeks to use technology to enhance and expand human potential without replacing it. Above all else, this piece is a celebration of how live music reaffirms our shared humanity.

This piece includes live video projection and real-time audio processing. A microphone is placed inside the piano, and processed versions of the sound of the piano are diffused through a four-channel speaker system (front left, front right, rear left, rear right). Video generated during the performance responds to the actions of the pianist. This video is projected onto a large screen behind the orchestra.

All of the audio and video are handled in Max/MSP/Jitter, using a patch that is available from the composer.

You can also view a high-resolution rendering of the live video component synchronized with the audio recording .

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with support from the Daniel W. Dietrich '64 Fund for Innovation in the Arts, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, USA.

Special thanks to Amy Brener and Keith Regelmann for their advice and assistance with the video component.