Doubtful Sound/Cassiopeia

This composition contains a wide dynamic range with many delicate sounds.
They are best perceived by listening with headphones.

For Disklavier, pianist, and field recordings.

Performed by the composer at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in March 2018. Field recordings (many made at the VCCA) were played by an interactive sound structuring system, called Doubtful Sound, which is based on network data from dolphin studies undertaken in New Zealand by David Lusseau.

I’m interested in how the emergent properties of these network data might form musical shapes and processes.

The field recordings were accompanied by two simultaneous realizations of
the 1961 composition Cassiopeia, by George Cacioppo:
by a computer-controlled Disklavier
and by a pianist playing the Disklaver.

Spectrograms showing the full frequency range ↑ and zoomed in ↓

Thanks to the VCCA, and to many interested colleagues there, for their support of this ongoing experimental project.