Booklet

A complete summary of the process of my Master Project research and my answers on the following questions:

How can I compose for strings, influenced by contemporary neo-classical music?

And how can I perform my music live with the usage of Ableton?

by Theo Carpentier

coached by Miriam Pascual and Teodora Drozdik-Popovic

 Table of contents I. Define my influences

Part A - about composing Since recent years I am more and more occupied with who
I am as an artist and what my personal purpose is in our
cotemporary music scene. There are, of course, multiple
I. Define influences
options of artistic profiles that have relevance in our
II. Analysis society and one single professional profile that fits
III. Gather data from analysis all musicians does probably not exist.This project and
IV. Process and apply data research will be an excerpt of my personal quest to find
V. Use new knowledge who I want to be as musician and artist in our world.

Since I was in high school I often had the feeling that

I wanted to be more creative than ‘just’study the
Part B - about performing violin. Therefore I joined a folk band with some friends
in school. That was the first time I was exposed to to
VI. Basics of Ableton improvising and arranging my own part.
VII. Learn from others This was such an fulfilling experience that I, a few
VIII.Plugins & routing years later, founded with Angela Ambrosini from Germany
the ensemble Antanjula - a violin-nyckelharpa duo. The
IX. Template
Nyckelharpa is a Swedish folk instrument that blends
X. Reheasing very well with violin.For this ensemble I composed all
XI.Performing the music myself, which was my first experience with
composing. One year later we were nominated by Flanders
Folk Awards for ‘most promissing band 2020’.
In 2021 we made together with contemporary dancer Robson
Ledesma, the interdisciplinary performance Bending
Bridges. A performance that premiered in Concertgebouw Once more I would like to point out that it is not my
Brugge. intention to copy these artists style and sound just
like them. I want to get inspired by them and let their
After this project Bending Bridges I wanted to learn to music guide my path to my own musical language and style.
compose for more voices. I didn’t know exactly what
kind of music it would be and for which instrumentation, The first artist I have choosen is Hania Rani. She is a
but I did know the I like music that can be perceived as Polish pianist-composer. Just like me she first studied
simple, pure and touching. By listening a lot to classical music at the conservatorium. Only when she was
different kind of music and performers, I realized that 24, she for the first time made an arrangement herself
the music that was most compelling to me was neo- of a popsong for piano and string quartet, to play with
classical music. There are two main definition for this her friends. From this moment she noticed that she liked
genre: the first one describes the twentieth-century the creative part of - not only playing music, but also
trend, particularly current in the interwar period, in composing music - a lot. From that moment she started
which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts working on her own pieces and songs. After sending some
associated with the broadly defined concept of demo’s around she got picked up by the British lable
‘classicism’(Hyde, 1996). The second definition Grondwana Records and her carrier as got an enormous
describes contemporary music that combines ambient and boost from that moment.
sometimes digital effects with atmospheric, often slow-
moving music (Jackson, 2021). It is this second The first recording I heard from her was the live
definition that I will use in this booklet while talking recording in Studio S2 in Warsaw with some of her pieces
about neo-classical music. from her new ablum Home. From the first moment I was a
big fan of her music and almost couldn’t stop listening.
Between the large amount of super talented and
interesting artists, I though it would be a good idea to I found her music to have a lot of different layers and
focus on just a few of them in depth to not loose each time I listened again I could hear other things and
consistency and direction during this proces. perceive her music in an even deeper way. She - I think
- found the perfect balance between the acoustic II Analysis
instruments and electronic sounds. Also it is obvious
that she is a very skilled pianist and she uses what she In the next phase I determined 2 works of each composer
learned and developed during her clssical training now that I though were representative of their oeuvre. These
in her own music. pieces I analyzed to extract as much as possible the key
element they used in their music that detemined their
I have also chosen Olafur Arnalds as a source of personal style. Also the general feeling and the
inspiration for this research. He is an Icelandic multi- performance aspects I incorporated in my analysis. And
instrumentalist and composer. I new his music already because there are no good scores of the piece I chose, I
from earlier an I aslo found it always very compelling focused more on video’s a let my ears do the job than
and sincere. He often plays together with string on sheet music - the only sheet music I found was for
instruments which is interesting for me to see how he solo piano, which excludes often more than half of the
treats these instruments in neo-classical style. He musical content.
doesn’t come from a classical background, but from
techno music. His music is very simple and touching and Hawaii Oslo
I was especially super hyped about his live performance Composer Hania Rani Length 5:48
in Brussels last year. Musicians 1 Recording By Studio S2, Warsaw
Instruments Upright piano, Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=k
My third inspiration source for this research is grand piano, FRdoYfZYUY&t=1365s
Ableton
Ludovico Einaudi. He is, I think, one of the most famous [00:01] She starts with setting up the right settings on het MIDI controller,
neo-classical composers and performers. He also is which controls Ableton on her computer
strongly grounded in classical music and studied [00:09] Here we can clearly see that the piano is prepared to be able to get
composition with Berio in Italy. He is the only of my different sounds than the ‘classic’ ones
[00:13] Start of the music
three influences that really studied composition at the [00:14] Fast repeated pulse on E in a steady rhythm. The sound in ‘muffled’
conservatorium. His music is always very structured and because of the preparation of the piano and because her left hand is
contains mostly one idea per piece, but well worked out. touching the string itself
[00:21] On some notes she doesn’t touch the string with her left hand. This beginning, the accentuated notes that try to create a melody and the
causes there to be very clear accents on these notes, louder and with a mechanic creaking that is still there
more vibrant sound [03:02] Between the chord blocks where harmony is evolving, she plays now
[00:26] Because of the placing of the microphones, we clearly hear also the the repeated pulse on grand piano and brings an opener sound to that
mechanical part of the instrument, like some creaking and hammers motive
touching the string [03:30] The texture is getting much bigger with more and more bass and keeps
[00:30] She uses the right piano pedal to control the buildup of musical phrases developing
[00:35] First time there enters another note in the piece [03:59] She touches the string with her left hand, like she did in the beginning
[00:39] This rhythmical pattern starts now to evolve, still with E as main note, at the upright piano.
but also other notes the create the feeling of accents [04:08] This is the beginning of new material. The pulse is still there, but more
[00:43] We start to hear some initial ideas of a melody within the accentuated to the background and with now much more melodic material
notes [04:30] This sound like a big improvisation part
[00:50] Music goes back to the original E note, still in the same steady repeated [04:41] The bass starts a very lively syncopated rhythm here
rhythmical pattern, but ow searching for more nuances in sound [04:58] This improvised feeling comes back to the chord blocks from in the
[01:02] And again the other accentuated notes start joining in again, as if they middle part
are searching for their melody [05:15] It stays a while with the same musical material as before
[01:18] This keeps evolving, now with semi tone intervals to add to the tension [05:29] Till you feel it will start fading out. The material one by one dissapears
[01:33] Big new input: her left hand starts now also to play. It is adding short till only the repeated pulse from the beginning remains.
descending arpeggio figures [05:48] She ends the loops and effects in Ableton by pushing the AKAI
[01:42] While the left hand keeps adding this figures, the accentuated notes in controller
the right hand start to find more and more a coherent melody
[01:50] The mechanic noise from the instrument starts to be much louder
[02:01] From this moment the arpeggio figures in her left hand stop. Instead a
Buka
loop of the repeated rhythmical pattern from the beginning starts to
play almost without you noticing. Composer Hania Rani Length 6:00
[02:05] Both her hands start to play in parallell octaves in a higher register. Still Musicians 1 Recording Live at KEXP
using the same pulse of reapeted. Instruments Upright piano, Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?
[02:20] Now also the loop of the short descending arpeggio figures from het grand piano, v=-RgUFJ6KMyA
left hand earlier start to join in. The different layers start adding up keyboard,
[02:36] Till a moment where only the repeated first E remains. This is the Ableton
moment where she moves to the grand piano. [00:01] Little intro by the host KEXP
[02:40] From now she joins the loops with big chord blocks [00:11] Start of the music
[02:50] These chords fit perfectly together with the repeated pulse from the [00:13] She starts playing some arpeggios on the keyboard. On it are some
 effectcs that create a soundscape with the input she plays [04:12] Again the high diffuse pads are very present after they disappeared for
[00:20] Some notes are artificially repeated with different effects, some a while. Since she is alone and all the time playing, this means these
motives of the arpeggios are looped and some notes are added in the changes in effects are programmed before.
same rhythm. This creates an beautiful and ever evolving sound carpet [04:39] The grand piano part comes to and end and she quickly moves back to
[00:37] She keeps playing an melody first ascending and then descending. All the keyboard where she plays new ascending and descending melodies
this the keyboard is using as input for the effects it does by itself. with chords in het left hand. This is immediately used in the algorithm
[00:41] With the knobs on the keyboard, all the parameters of the effects that of the soundscape and pads
make the soundscape can be adjusted. Here she is at the moment [05:15] And back to the grand piano again.
adjusting some of these effects to her liking. [05:19] Exactly the same material from the beginning starts all over again.
[00:56] The sound carpet she just created keeps playing and now she moves to [05:54] Suddenly she stops playing, exactly together with the moment the
the grand piano where she will start playing. sound carpet stops in one long reverb. Again this shows that everything
[00:59] While adjusting the volume of her in-ear monitor system with her left is super precisely programmed and rehearsed.
hand she starts playing brokes chords figures of 3 16th notes in an 4/4 [06:00] She turns down the volume of the still audible reverb. The piece is
bar, therefore the note on the beat is each time changing officially finished.
[01:22] The pattern of 4 broken chords she plays with her right hand keeps
repeating, but her soundcape underneath is evolving and coming more
and more on foreground Hands, be still
[01:39] She start now also playing with her left hand, but higher then her right
hand which is still playing that broken chords pattern. The left hand Composer Olafur Arnalds Length 3:40
adds long high notes. Musicians 17 Recording Live at Sydney Opera House
[01:57] After a while her left hand really start to follow and add to the sound Instruments Grand piano, Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=
carpet texture, so it begins really to merge keyboard, bcln2AL_L1M&t=2s
[02:33] The piano playing start to be more virtuoso and with a bigger range. orchestra,
The overall musical flow is really building up conductor and
[02:48] The effects and settings on the sound carpet start to change. Now they Ableton
start to sound like long high diffuse pads. [30:13] Start of the piece
[03:15] This same texture is going on and on, but because it keeps changing and [30:15] Olafur starts the piece by starting with his tablet a prerecorded sample
evolving it doesn’t get boring at all. At contrary, you start to hear more consisting of repeated synthesizer notes with delay, lots of reverb and
and more details in the same muzical idea. little bit of cracking noise.
[03:47] She uses lots of right pedal to give full chords more power. [30:40] With his tablet he adjusts some parameters of the effects used on this
[03:54] Still, 2 musical ideas keeps coming back one after the other as kind of a sample.
trance. On the video you even see the presenter from the show [30:47] From this moment one violin start some long melody notes and Olafur
completely being into the music adjusts the balance between the sample played through the speakers
 and the one violin Instruments Upright piano, Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=f
[31:03] On a big screen behind the orchestra the audience can see a slow 3 violins, 1 cello 5Ox2ACjAYw
moving image of a cloud and Ableton
[31:16] Multiple other violins start at this point. All of them have their own [00:01] Start of the music
part, so they act individual and not as a section. They are also seated in [00:04] Solo upright piano: broken chords in 4-bar structure with left hand.
two different groups (left-right) to visualise the stereo image on stage. Each bar new chord. Also lots of mechanical noise of the piano that is
[31:37] All of them play very similar melody fragments of 2 long notes and a recorded on purpose and mixed into the total sound
rest. All together they create a very nice carpet of sound without one [00:16] Second sequence of these 4 bars. Here the right hand is adding a
outstanding clear melody in the foreground. Also the woodwinds start melody of long notes on top. The first beat slightly placing later to give a
playing here, similar motives as the violins and perfectly blending in. slow and quiet feeling.
[31:47] Here Olafur starts new rhythmical material by launching an extra [00:30] These whole section of 4 bars is repeated exaclty in the same way once
sample on his iPad, connected with Ableton on his computer. more.
[31:49] The clarinet joins the new rhythmical material by playing short single [00:43] The upright piano keeps same material repeating over and over. This
notes with multiple short delays on. time the first violin is joining with very long notes in a sul tasto sound:
[32:10] The flute start with long and high melody notes and rest motives and little hair, lots of bow and close to the fingerboard
therefore fits in perfectly with the strings at that place. [00:56] Also this is repeated exactly the same for a second time with upright
[32:16] The rhythmical part of the sample starts to have more reverb and sound piano and 3rd violin
more roomy, bigger and futher away. [01:10] 2nd violin joins in this time in same sound and atmosphere, but higher
[32:36] Same material and instruments keep playing in the same atmosphere as the 3rd violin started. She (3rd violin) stil plays the same with a little
[32:46] Olafur Arnald joins for the first time in this piece on his grand piano by variation at the end of the 4th bar.
playing one note every two bars. [01:22] Also these 4 bars are repeated once more with same instruments, only
[33:08] He keeps adjusting with his left hand the volume and effects of the now without the variation in the third violin
samples that are playing. [01:35] 1st violin joins in this time in same sound and atmosphere, but higher.
[33:23] Piano stops, rest of the intruments keep going The 3 violins make a very dense carpet.
[33:29] Arnalds start fading out the samples that are playing along [01:48] Olafur Arnalds keeps playing the same chords in same rhythmical
[33:38] Only the live sound of the Sydney chamber orchestra is remaining pattern (8th notes) but start to differ some notes of the melody and the
[33:53] The whole orchestra comes together to and end chord position on the chords.
[01:59] They keep repeating these chords with the same instruments in the
same atmosphere but there is becoming a bit more movement in the
Happiness does not wait string section. Some half notes are replaced by crotchets.
[02:15] The melody in the piano changed from his right hand to the left, so is
Composer Olafur Arnalds Length 3:59 now in the bass.
Musicians 5 Recording Live at KEXP [02:32] You can see and feel that there is a lot of contact between the
 musicians. Although the music isn’t complicated at all, they treat it with [01:02] These syncopes and special sounds keep going and slightly transforming
so much care for detail, which is super nice. till at this point the keyboard joins in with one chord.
[02:42] Big change: piano come to an end and stops playing from this point. [01:16] Ludovico start to use both his hands at this place for bassnotes and
First violin players gives a big gesture to his colleague and off they go. chords, still used in syncope rhythm
[02:45] Cello begins to join and the quartet (3violins + cello) and from this point [01:24] Cello joins with pizzicatos and interacts with what is already happening
they start to create a completely different sound. Much more solid and in the percussion section
in the string. [01:42] Again the keyboard joins for one chord at the conclusion of the
First violin start a very intense melody in long notes high on the E-string. sentense.
Second and third violin get much more active and start to play parallel [01:48] Bass in piano is now an octave lower. The chords in the right hand are
broken chords in quavers. Cello plays long stong bassnotes. still played in the same rhythm as before, but because of the very solid
[03:15] The whole string section gets a little less intensive and and a little lower and low bass that now plays along with the right hand, the piano start
in tessitura. to feel on the beat and the percussion the syncoped rhythm part.
[03:35] Again they get a little less intensive, start to play a little softer while [02:01] The rain forest sounds and water drops are still there and take a very
they repeat exactly the same material. prominent role on them, especially in between the musical sentences
[03:44] A little ritenuto and suddenly the string end all together. The end of the where there aren’t many other instruments playing.
piece. [02:15] Piano sart to play higher chords and in the percussion sectio, a new
instrument entered, the finger harp
[02:43] The same material goed on and on, with some but little variations
Drop [03:12] Finally a new and strong impulse from the piano part. The bass is now
Composer Ludovico Einaudi Length 6:01 played in octaves, and brings ascending new harmony. The dynamic in
Musicians 4 Recording Live at Maison de la Radio the whole group start slowly to build.
Instruments Grand piano, Link www.youtube.com/watch?v= [03:20] The keyboard follows the topnote of the harmony of the piano but 2
percussion, dHAJyww8wik&t=559s octaves higher with a soft sustained sound.
keyboard, cello [03:30] The cello starts joining with his bow for long bass notes while in the
[00:01] Start of the concert percussion section the tambourine very softly is beginning to join the
[00:03] Percussion starts with very simple repeated rhythm of two crotches and ensemble.
a half note. After a few times a higher sounds is heared once. [03:42] With a special effect on the keyboard, the high long sustained sound
[00:22] While the percussionist make minor variations in this beginning starts to have very clear and audible glissando's for over more as one
material Einaudi enters the stage and audience is applauding. octave.
[00:35] Piano starts very simple by interacting with the percussionist and [04:01] The whole ensemble stops suddenly, except from the grand piano and
playing syncopes in single notes. the keyboard who plays now a rhythmis and syncopated part on one
[00:44] The percussionist is now able to make some weird sounds you would single note.
associate with forest sounds and rain water drops [04:25] From this moment the xylophone joines the syncopes and the grand
 piano starts again with building up by slow broken chords in the right accompanied by a lamento bass.
hand. [00:44] Same material as before but a little higher now
[04:34] Tension is building when the left hand of the piano starts to add [00:55] Now it feels as if he was improvising on the harmony. Here he plays 2
dissonant notes to the right hand. times the simple rhythmic melody pattern with some small
[04:59] Everything stays more or less the same till suddenly all intruments stop embellishments
playing for one bar, except the keyboard who plays a long sustained [01:20] Suddenly much more movement in the music and faster notes. In his
chord. right hand he plays broken chords in quavers.
[05:04] At this place all the instruments join again with the material they played [01:40] Cello joins with long base notes of the chords while Einaudi each time
before. Most audible are again the big glissandi in the keyboard and the varies a little bit how he plays and embellishes the chords
slow broken chords in the right hand of the piano. [01:50] At this place Ludovico expands the tessitura of his voicing a lot by
[05:30] This material keeps repeating till the moment where the keyboard now playing the bass as low as possible on the piano in octaves.
also joins the grand piano’s part [02:02] Violin joins in with the rhythmical pattern of one crotchet and to
[05:45] Cello plays high flageolets to increase the tension and drama in the quavers in one slur. This while descending between two chord notes
music. and a passing tone.
[05:56] Suddenly every instrument stops at the same moment. Only the [02:20] Cello is still very intensively playing a bass line consisting of long notes.
keyboard remains with a sustained note, which makes the transition to Piano embellishes the same chords, but now a little higher in register.
the next piece in the concert. The violin repeats exactly same material as before, but a third higher.
Tension is building.
[02:34] There is a first release in tension and dynamic. Violin start playing the
Experience melody the piano played in the beginning.
[02:44] The piano starts again adding the tension by fast notes (almost tremolo)
Composer Ludovico Length 5:02 in the left hand. The violin repeats the same melody, but now more
Einaudi intensive and one octave higher, on the
Musicians 3 Recording Live from The Steve Jobs E-string.
Theatre [02:50] Cello adds also to tension by thicker sound and much more vibrato.
Instruments Grand piano, Link www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y Violin starts with fast broken chords, played like it was his biggest solo
violin and cello e-IK7YCE60 ever.
[00:01] Grand piano starts totaly alone with 2 repeated chords followed by a [03:08] Again a moment of taking back. Violin stops entirely while piano plays
bar rest. Then again two other chords and a bar rest. This in total 4 suddenly much less notes in a way more intimate way. Cello takes a
times, which sets the structure for the piece. high and fragile melody for his part.
[00:17] Same chords in the same 8 bar structure from above, but now with [03:29] The tension start building up again due to the violin the joins in with
some little embellishments while changing chords. very rhythmic and precise tremolo impulses.
[00:30] Still solo piano but now some simple rhythmical pattern in melody [03:47] Again Ludovico enlarges his tessitura by playing his left hand as low as
 possible and the violin starts playing now the broken chords from playable on a piano. The ‘problem’with string
before but still much quieter.
instruments is that they very easy sound too present and
[04:01] Now the part from where the violin for the first time entered is
repeated entirely and in exactly the same way. melodic. Also we don’t have a right-pedal the enhences
[04:20] All the three of them start to go all in at this point, especially the violin the kind of atmosphere neo-classical music often
that has a high melody that he plays super intensive with fast vibrato. requires.
[04:41] As everything grows in direction, tension and dynamic the violin gives
So from the aspects I had analyzed in their music and
even some extra punch in this place by playing the broken chord part
from before, but now super high and with lots of bow, vibrato and performance and I wanted to bring into my own musical
energy language, I needed to see which elements I could use
[04:48] This last part is repeated whlie the piano even emphasizes even more kind of immediately. Other aspects first needed some
the bass notes
kind of translation into the instrumentation I was going
[04:55] Suddenly everybody stops at the climax and the piece is finished.
to use.

III Gather data from analysis

The next step was to choose which kind of elements I

wanted to incorporate I my own musical language, because
I didn’t want to copy them, I wanted them to inspire me.
From the beginning I decided that I didn’t want to use
synthesizers and too much electronic sounds. I wanted to
try to explore as much as posible the possibilities with
only acoustic audio as source material. I aslo didn’t
want to sing in my pieces (because in my opinion that
wouldn’t sound that enjoyable;). All of my inspiration
artists, and most of neo-classical artists in general,
use piano as main instrument. So quite a lot of the
elements of their music sound good and are relative easy
Analyzed aspects Hania Olafur Ludovico Theo? Adjustment? Remark
They play new music composed by V V V V No
themself
They perform their music at live concerts X V V V No I find it much more attractive from performers view as
with other musicians, so in group well as audiences view to play with multiple musicians
live on stage The interaction between people on stage is,
according to me, a very powerful aspect of music, not
replaceable by fancy technology.
They use grand piano / upright piano V V V X / The piano is a very popular instrument in this kind of
music. However, it is my intention to only use string
instruments (violin and cello)
They use Ableton on stage for loopings V V X V No
and special sound effects
They use backing tracks on stage to V V X X / I find backing tracks a too easy way of performing and
accompany and complete their music on will try not to use them
stage
They use MIDI controllers to connect V V X V Yes As a piano player it is super easy to adjust some knobs in
with Ableton while performing one second and go on playing. Or even keeps playing
with one hand and use your free hand for the controller.
They prepare their instrument to create V V X V Yes It is much more common to prepare a piano the violin.
a bigger spectrum of sounds On string instruments we use more often extended
techniques to accomplish the same goal.
Often they use a continuous pulse in V X V V Yes Because of the instrument, on a piano this is perfect as
their music by quavers or semi-quavers atmospheric drive and tension. On a string instrument
that gives musical drive and direction this sound quickly to melodic and present (important).
Often not a clear melody that you can V V V V Yes Also typical for the instrumentation: piano is easier to
whistle along create atmosphere and strings are quickly too present
on their own.
Often a combination of multiple rather V X X V No This element I would love to incorporate in my music
straight forward layers, but a together
they create a complex structure
Simple harmonic aproach with lots of V V V V No
modal tonalities
Simple rhythmic aproach, only by V V V V No
layering it gets complex
Often very open sounds with use of V V V V Yes Again back to the instrumentation where strings are
pedal inherent more present
They sing V X X X /
They use synthesizers on stage to create V V V V/X Yes I told before that it’s not my intention to use
electronics sounds and pads to enhance synthesizers, that is still the case. But I do like the
their music musical effect they create.

IV Process and apply data I menaged to make a similar sound be recording my violin
from a different range of distances while playing with
For some of the analyzed aspects that I chose to different bow strokes and pressure. The only effects I
incorporate in my own music, I needed to make some added were an octavator, reverb and some eq.
adjustments (see scheme above: adjustments?).
This is what I tried to do in this part of the proces. I Another example is when Hani Rani plays lots of quavers
listened carfully to the intention the music carried by in both hands but with different and changing accents.
that curtain musical or performance aspect. And then I This creates an underlying musical drive without being
tried to create a similar sound or intention within my too present and disturbing the other developing voices.
range of possibilities (mostly limited regarding How I did this is to record multiple layer (at least 4)
instrumentation). This happend with trail and error. of very precisely played quavers and without accents,
but the figures all consisting of different lengths. One
For example Olafur Arnals and Hania Rani use often a motive of 3 quavers, one of 4 , one 5 and one 6 for
sort of sound pad - an electronic created sound that is example. Without any accent, you hear kind of the same
ever evolving - to set a certain mood in the beginning intention in the music.
of their songs.
As a last example I want to give you, I used extended In the beginning of my composing proces in this project
techniques on the violin. This was to replace the need I recorded everything that sounded quite good for me.
of preparing the instrument (piano) to expand the pallet But this resulted in pieces that had lots of short ideas
of sounds it can create. This also helps to be able to glued together. I learned, also by analysis Hania
distinguish different voices from eachother. Rani’s music, that a piece should have no more than 2
contrasting main ideas. But that the art of composing is
V Use new knowledge more in the way your are able to develop these ideas
into a coherent piece. From then on I had much higher
The last step was to use this new gathered knowledge expectations of new musical ideas and only started a new
while composing and recording my three pieces I wanten piece with -what I thought- was a strong musical idea
to make during this proces. I put these two tasks with enough potential to develop for a reasonable amount
together under one chapter because they happen exactly of time.
at the same time. Since I never had one real composition
lesson, my way of composing is very practical. I compose So by improvising I tried to get one idea, sound or
while improvising and when I am happy with what I played concept that I believed could hold a piece together.
I record it immediately to be able to listen to it. When Then I started to record, layer after layer, with the
I composed for Antanjula earlier I could use my phone to intention that each new layer should add value to the
record myself because I only needed to record one extra texture, overall sound or development of the piece.
voice (two in total). In this project this was I ask myself a lot the question: what is missing at this
completely different and I started to use Reaper as point in the music? What should be added to make it all
digital audio workstation. This could have been any DAW, seems to fit perfectly?
but since I had this already on my computer and it has a
free version, I started with Reaper and didn’t change While composing and recording, I also already start
until now. adding some effect and start mixing the volume of eaach
track. This is to get a good idea of the sound that I am
creating, because that is very important to know what is VI Basics of Ableton
stil missing in the piece.
The music program Ableton was one 1,5 year ago
Another aspect to take into account while working on completely new for me. But since multiple people in the
this part of the proces is to know already what are to field had told me “Ableton is the way to go...”,I
possibilities of the live setup that I will use. started figuring out the trail version of Ableton. I the
I my case I choose for string trio and Ableton. This for beginning it was very overwhelming because almost
two reasons. I find the interaction part on stage very everything was differently than on all the other musical
important between musicians, so I didn’t want to be programs I had seen before. The general view was also
alone on stage with electronics. The other reason is completely different an it clearly had lots of options
that if you have three instruments, you can develop new that other programs don’t.
ideas much faster as when I would have to play and loop
all the parts myself. I focused specially on the session view, since this was
This is why part A - about composing- and part B - about what I was going to use the most for the live performing
performing- were conducted at the same time during this part of this project. I started just with the basics, by
research, to know at this point what will be possible trying different buttons and seeing what happend. I also
while performing live. The porpose is that we could play watched lots of Ableton tutorials at that time. For me
the pieces as I composed and recorded them. this works mostly better to let someone explain and show
something to me than to read through a whole manual.
One example here is that if you have three instruments, Though ableton.com has a very useful search engine and
like I knew I would have, there may only be 3 new part fora also helped me a lot with some very specific
or tracks at a time. Only when they are finished (and questions problems.
often recorded to be looped afterwards) they can start
playing new material. The most important, at least for me, was to start to
understand the function of clips and scenes, and how the
routing could be setup to your liking.
 VII Learn from others effect-track. Without these concepts, this whole project
would not have worked. And I want to give fully credit
to Frank Wienk for this, because he made the plugin BINK
During my proces I was lucky to be able to get some help looper and was the initial ‘inventor’of these three
from people in the field that are working with concepts. I will explain them in the next chapters.
electronics on a regular basis. Vincent Caers, a Belgian
researcher and music technologian gave me an
introduction to the program and functionalities of VIII Plugins & routing
external hardware like MIDI controllers and interfaces.
Menno Dereu, a good friend of mine who studied music
production, I could ask lots of little questions along The most important plugin for, to be able to do what I
the way, mostly related to plugins and effects. Laurens did, is the BINK looper. But before that, I need to
Mannaerts, a guitarists who uses Ableton in his explain what a dummy clip is. I assume you know already
performances gave me one of the best tips of them all. the basics of Ableton, if not I recommend to visit
ableton.com for general information. I am also speaking
This was a the time when I was completely stuck after a of audio tracks, since I almost didn’t use MIDI tracks
few months of trail and error. At that time I knew the and there is a lot of information out there if that is
basics of Ableton and could do some simple recording and more of your interest.
looping in the session view. But most of the material I
could find online were MIDI based. The fact is that the A dummy clip is basically an audio clip with no sound
programming of loops and effects with MIDI instruments information. This can be made by recording a clip on a
is much easier as doing the same for real instruments. track where no input is selected or by turning
This is because they use a different kind of tracks. completely down the clip volume of an existing clip. A
dummy clip can be short or long. I used both, but each
The three very important concepts Laurens thought me are in a different scenario.
dummy clips, the BINK looper plugin and the usage of an
In the dummy clip, you are able to edit the automation Another important plugin I got to know during this
and you can program the automation for all the plugins project, and I would like to highly recommend to anyone
that are applicable on that track plus normal track who will be working with the BINK looper and uses
functionalities. multiple scene with a predetermined length, is ASL
We unfortunately can not use the normal follow action in
This is where the BINK looper comes into play. It is in Ableton that would normally be used to program to timing
fact a very simple device or plugin, made in MAX for of new scenes in the performance. This is due to the
Live, that has a record functionality and in which scene fact that the clip with the information in it for the
you want to record. These funcionalities are noting BINK looper need to be triggered slightly before the
special and if you have seen Ableton only once, you first beat you want it to take action. A follow action
probably know already how to use these functions. The would trigger this clip exactly ON the first beat, and
only difference now is that these functions are now that would be to late to work in this case.
available via a plugin, which means if you remember well
what I said about (dummy)clips, that it can be automated. But fortunately there is ASL, or automatic scene
launcher. It is a plugin, also created in Max for Live.
If we combine here the functionality of short dummy It works on a MIDI track, and each time it get a note
clips and the BINK looper, we are able to program in input it triggers the next scene, the same way as you
advance when Ableton will be recording, for how long, on would trigger it with, let’s say, a MIDI foot
wich track and in which clipslot it will be stored. The controller. But now it is exactly precise programmable,
only thing we need to do is to create a dummy clip; which means you can’t forget it anymore and you can’t
place it in the scene where we want it to be triggered; launch the next scene on a wrong moment anymore while
program the automation for the BINK looper in this clip performing. The way to use it: make a MIDI clip for each
and set length and storage place. Now, while performing, scene you want to apply a follow action, make this clip
we launch the scene where this clip is placed, the as long as you want this scene to last and insert one
recording and looping starts by itself note (doesn’t matter which one) right at the end of the
last bar. From the moment this note is played, it
triggers the ASL which will trigger Ableton to launch then to the master (or wherever you need it to go). This
the next scene. And off we go... Super handy and it is also the moment where long dummy clips come into play.
saved me a lot of stress. What we can do with this concept in mind is to record a
loop of 4 bars in the track‘violin 1’. This keeps
Regarding the hardware routing: I use 3 clip-on looping and would sound normally the whole time exactly
microphones, one for each instrument, connected straight the same. What we can do now is create a long dummy clip
to the interface. From the interface the signal goes of 1 minute in the track ‘violin 1 FX’and automate the
through Ableton on my laptop and back to the interface. effects (plugins) and track parameters on this track.
From hear the result of the main mix in Ableton goes to Let’s say we put a reverb plugin on the‘violin 1
the PA and the metronome + live instrument sound goes to FX’track, then we can automate the reverb from 0% to
the headphones of the three musicians. Then there is one 100% and the volume from 100% to 0% over the whole
MIDI foot controller conected directly to my computer. length of this track (1 minute). This means that violin
This is just for general cues, to go to different pieces 1 can record 4 bars and from that moment he/she can play
in the performance and start and stop everything. All al kind of other material, doesn’t matter. But without
the rest is programmed and I (normally, if everything having to do more than recording these 4 bars, they will
goes right;) don’t have to worry about that anymore and keep looping while fading out and gradually having more
just play beautiful. and more reverb. I hope you understand that this is a
completely game changer and enables so many more musical
Regarding the software routing, there was one very options.
important concept that was crucial to do what I did. I
am talking about effect tracks. Here you have to VIII Template
understand that one track can only be playing one clip
at the same time. You also need to know that in Ableton Now you understand how dummy clips, routing and effect
it is possible to adjust the input and output from each tracks work, you should be able to make a template
track to your liking. This enables us to program the yourself. Keep in mind that this template is a schematic
signal to go from ‘violin 1’to ‘violin 1 FX’and only representation of the structure of the piece, not the
exact timing since every clip and scene (can) have definitely felt a bit overwhelming because there was so
different lengths. Underneuth you will see an excerpt of much going on that we were not used to. Each rehearsal
one of my templates: was also an important check if my script was working. As
I thought, in the beginning there was a lot to be
adjusted. And these things I couldn’t try out myself at
home, we had to be with the three of us and really try
to perform to see what wasn’t working still. We also
had to figure out the volume of each recorded track so
in the end there would be a good mix coming out of the
speakers.

X Performing

Performing with electronics on stage is a very risky

thing. That’s what everybody told me, and that’s what
I tell everybody. On the Night of Classical Music, there
was one setting of one plugin changed, I have no clue
how and when. This problem had never occurred before,
but the ASL didn’t work. It took me 2 minutes to figure
IX Reheasing out what the problem was and to fix it. In the end, it
was really something minor, but I can assure you, these
Except from the normal rehearsing aspect, a assume every 2 minutes -where the whole audience is looking at you
musician knows about, we had to spend also some time to and notice something is not working- felt like ages!
get used to this kind of playing, where we al have Luckily the rest of the performance went super smooth.
headphones and where quite a few parts are looping while Feel free to have a look: RE
playing the rest of the pieces. In the beginning it youtu.be/Hh72BAkiq-M
 References

Hyde, M. M. (1996). Neoclassic and Anachronistic Impulses in

Twentieth-Century Music. Music Theory Spectrum, 18(2), 200–235.
https://doi.org/10.2307/746024

Jackson, C. (2021, augustus 9). What is post-classical music? Classical

Music. Geraadpleegd op 16 januari 2022, van https://www.classical-
music.com/features/articles/what-post-classical-music/