Rat King

an  interactive  multimedia  work  

for  electric  violin,  electronics,  and  video  

 

   

Dylan  Neely  (Music)  

Alex  Nathanson  (Video)  

 Premiered at takt kunstprojektraum, berlin, may 2012

Photo and video documentaiton from AKC Medika, zagreb, june 2012

Composer’s  Note    Rat  King  is  a  multimedia  work  for  electric  violin,  electronics,  found  objects,  and  interactive  video.  It  is  a  collaboration  with  the  video  artist  Alex  Nathanson.  The  performance  is  for  two  performers:  a  violinist,  and  a  video  artist  who,  in  addition  to  live  video  processing,  is  in  charge  of  both  triggering  the  pre-­‐recorded  electronic  sounds  and  producing  live  amplified  noise.    The  violinist’s  part  contains  a  mixture  of  notated  pitches  and  rhythms  and  a  certain  amount  of  controlled  improvisation.  The  choice  to  leave  certain  parameters  (particularly  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  rhythm  and  time)  to  the  discretion  of  the  player  stem  from  two  concerns:  

1) To  allow  the  player  the  freedom  to  respond  to  and  engage  with  the  video.  2) To  allow  the  player  the  flexibility  to  respond  to  their  own  loops  (both  

recorded  and  played  back  live  during  the  performance)  in  varied  ways.      The  piece  proceeds  through  six  sections:  

1) Electric  violin  introduces  the  four  sections  of  split-­‐screen  video  through  a  repeated  gesture.  This  gesture  is  looped,  played  over,  expanded,  silenced,  and  complicated  until  building  to  a  climax  and  then  immediate  silence.    

2) Pre-­‐recorded  synthesizer  piece  (INT  A):  carnivalesque  music  comprised  of  a  number  of  compact  phrases  recurring  in  different  combinations,  potentially  punctuated  and  accentuated  by  violin  pizzicato  and  rapid  ostinati.  

3) Live  sound  produced  by  found  objects  (i.e.  tinfoil,  styrofoam,  bottle  caps,  bottles)  and  their  interaction  with  the  microphone,  coupled  with  a  sparse  violin  pizzicato  loop  and,  later,  squeaky  dissonances.  

4) Pre-­‐recorded  processed  noise  (INT  B)  is  added  to  the  previous  environment,  and  quickly  becomes  dominant.  

5) The  pre-­‐recorded  soundsources  (INT  A  +  INT  B)  are  now  juxtaposed  rapidly  and  without  transition  or  apparent  order  in  a  way  that  is  intended  to  become  increasingly  grating.  Fades  to  silence.    

6) Electric  violin  returns  to  its  first  loop,  which  was  left  in  a  very  noise  form.  The  other  audio  sources  are  brought  back  together,  creating  a  cacophony  of  sounds.  The  violinist  builds  to  a  climax  and  suddenly  stops  –  the  video  is  cut  off  simultaneously  with  the  music’s  cessation.    

 Sections  1)  and  3)  are  notated  to  specify  certain  pitches  and  rhythms  and  how  they  unfold  over  time  with  regard  to  both  the  video  and  the  looping  mechanism.  Section  3)  includes  interplay  with  soundmaking  from  the  video  artist.    Sections  2)  and  4)  have  the  option  to  be  played  over  (sparsely)  live  by  the  violinist.  Certain  suggestions  for  what  form  this  “playing  over”  can  take  are  included  in  the  notation,  but  they  should  not  be  considered  binding.  The  violinist  can  choose  to  be  silent,  or  can  choose  to  improvise  material,  provided  that  the  player  is  familiar  with  

the  shape  and  duration  of  these  sections  and  does  not  overwhelm  the  prerecorded  material,  which  should  remain  the  predominant  audio  source  at  those  times.      Section  5)  should  not  involve  any  live  playing  on  the  part  of  the  violinist.  This  section  involves  the  two  electroacoustic  interludes  (INT  A  and  INT  B),  both  of  which  have  already  been  heard  in  their  entirety.  The  video  artist  triggers  one  of  the  pieces  at  a  time,  which  starts  randomly  from  one  of  several  time-­‐markers  in  either  piece.  This  trigger  will  be  used  increasingly  often,  creating  a  sense  of  unease,  anxiety  and/or  irritation  in  the  audience  as  textural  pre-­‐recorded  snippets  are  heard  out  of  context  while  the  violinist  stands  silently.      Section  6)  begins  with  the  violinist  playing  a  (very)  short,  haphazard  cadenza  and  then  triggering  the  loop  in  its  final  state  from  the  end  of  section  1).  INT  A  and  INT  B  begin  playing  simultaneously.  The  violinist  improvises  chaotically.  This  is  completely  freeform  for  the  violinist,  but  is  of  necessity  as  loud  as  possible  to  compete  with  all  the  other  sounds  happening  concurrently.  The  piece  ends  with  the  violinist  escalating  to  a  ffff  climax  and  suddenly  ending  (all  the  other  sounds  are  triggered  to  stop  when  the  violinist  stops  playing).      Dylan  Neely        A  Note  on  the  Video    The  video  part  has  2  main  elements:  

1) The  computer  program,  written  in  Max/MSP/Jitter      2) 4  different  videos  from  the  Rat  King  series    

Elements  of  the  computer  program:  1) Video  input  2) Video  Effects  

       a)  Rate          b)  Noise          c)  BRCOSA  (Brightness,  Contrast,  Saturation)          d)  Frame  jump  3)  Violin  Input          a)  decibel          b)  audio  event          c)  inverted  decibel          d)  audio  event  float  4)  Audio  Samples          a)  decibel          b)  audio  event          c)  inverted  decibel  

       d)  audio  event  float  5)  Live  Noise  Input          a)  audio  event  6)  Routing  and  “Get  Crazy”  7)  Shut  it  down  

 The  operator  should  understand  the  performance  of  live  video  as  being  similar  to  any  type  of  musical  performance.    The  program  and  the  projector  are  both  instruments.    Within  the  loose  structure  of  the  piece  there  are  three  main  relationships  between  audio  and  video  that  should  be  maintained:  

 1)  Violin  correlates  to  time,  via  rate  and/or  frame  jump.  2)  Audio  samples  correlate  to  BRCOSA.  Random  jumps  within  the  audio  samples  correlate  to  video  positions.  3)  Live  Noise  correlates  to  video  noise.    

 The  piece  proceeds  through  the  following  sections  (which  correspond  numerically  to  their  musical  counterparts):  

 1)  (a)  “Bring  up”  -­‐  The  piece  starts  by  turning  on  the  trigger,  in  the  Violin  input  section.    When  the  violin  passes  the  audio  threshold  each  quadrant  of  the  video  fades  in,  in  clockwise  order.    After  all  quadrants  are  up,  begin  previously  defined  routing  between  violin  and  time.  2)  Trigger  audio  samples  and  route  to  BRCOSA.    Maintain  violin  and  time  relationship.  3)  Live  noise  -­‐  this  should  be  performed  and  visible.    The  relationship  between  audio  noise  and  visual  noise  should  be  very  apparent.  4)  Noise  samples  begin  again.    Maintain  all  previous  relationships.  5)  Noise  samples  jump  rapidly.    Video  quadrants  change  randomly  in  sync  with  noise  samples.    Maintain  all  previous  relationships.  6)  Cacophonous  and  crazy  ending  begins.    Turn  on  “Get  Crazy”  trigger  (current  recorded  versions  do  not  include  this  trigger).  “Shut  it  down”  is  triggered  at  this  point.    When  the  violin  stops,  i.e.  passes  the  audio  threshold,  the  video  and  audio  samples  turn  off  simultaneously.    The  ending  can  also  be  triggered  manually,  but  is  not  ideal.  

 Alex  Nathanson  

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ELECTROACOUSTIC INTERLUDE A (Synthesizers)

To be started after 5" - 20" of silence and stopped after playing forat least 2' and before file ends (.wav file is 5'10" long).

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At the beginning of the interlude, the violinist should save previous loop in its final state and prepare the pedal for a new loop.During interlude, occasional punctuations of pizzicato and trills can be played. The specific pitches are not important, but theyshould generally be consonant and have the feeling of accentuation within the relatively banal tone-world of this interlude.

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INTERPOLATION OF TWO INTERLUDES AT INCREASING VELOCITY OF CHANGE

Monitored by video artist. See note at beginning. Violin is silent but violinist is stationed and poised (the violinist should prepare the loop pedal with the loop saved at the end of section [1]. 1' - 2'. Silence.

ELECTROACOUSTIC INTERLUDE B (Processed Noise)

Started to interrupt the pizzicato violin loop. Occasionally the loop will be restartedand stopped after a short period (5" - 30") during this interlude. After 1' - 2' this will seamlessly transition into section 5.

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