HarpCI, Empowering Performers to Control and Transform Harp Sounds in Live Performance
- Submitting institution
-
Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 33Z_OP_D0009
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1080/07494467.2019.1706351
- Title of journal
- Contemporary Music Review
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 667
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 6
- ISSN
- 1477-2256
- Open access status
- Exception within 3 months of publication
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
-
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07494467.2019.1706351?journalCode=gcmr20
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
2
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘HarpCI, Empowering Performers to Control and Transform Harp Sounds in Live Performance’ draws on collaborative research undertaken at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s _Integra Lab_. It was written for _Computer Music Review_’s monographic issue on the Twenty-First-Century Harp, and presents the team’s research into musician-centred interaction design, focusing on the physical gestures of harp players. The team write:
“The harp has a distinguished, but often overlooked role in electronic music. We review significant works from the repertoire for harp and live electronics – including a hitherto unknown project by Luciano Berio for an electronic version of his Sequenza II for solo harp – and present detailed interviews with six harpists that use digital technology in their professional performance practice.
Drawing on findings in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Music Interaction Design (MiXD) we introduce HarpCI, a case study exploring the gestures of electric harp performers, and their role in controlling and transforming sounds and stage lights in live performance. For HarpCI we developed the MyoSpat system, based on the Myo armband gestural controller. MyoSpat allows harp performers to map their own instrumental gestures onto different sound processing parameters while performing live. The system complements and amplifies the harpist’s standard instrumental technique, thus enabling him/her to experience a tangible connection between gesture and sound production. We conclude the article by presenting the work of Eleanor Turner, who composed _The Wood and the Water_ and performed it on many occasions using MyoSpat, and the outcomes of a series of workshops to promote our system to different audiences. These examples show how HarpCI can be effectively used to support the creative work of musicians lacking a strong technology background.”
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
