paternoster-Maschine (2018) for harp and interactive electronics
10’
commissioned by Dr. Jennifer Ellis, harp
— SCROLL DOWN FOR SCORE-FOLLOWING VIDEO BELOW —
the clock operator…
When playing celesta or organ in orchestras, I’m often placed near harpists; I’m endlessly fascinated by their constant shuffling of pedals or other mechanisms of their instrument.
The clock or "paternoster-Maschine" operator from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis always comes to mind…
the Max patch…
For this work for Jennifer, I created an interactive Max patch that randomly generates notational instructions for her to follow. Like the machine in Metropolis, the Max patch often “overloads,” sending out more operations than a human can perform.
In the score, I instruct her to watch the “Maschine” patch at times, and do her best to keep up with its random output…
…with pedaling randomizer…
Click here for a perusal score
PERFORMANCE FILES FOR MAX/MSP (requires Max 7 or higher and the free Bach Notation Suite for Max accessed via the Package Manager)
PATCH | LEFT HAND TEXT FILE | RIGHT HAND TEXT FILE | AUDIO