The Magic Lantern

Jonny’s Web-app for Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers.

For his piece, Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers, the audience was asked to access a website on their smart-phones. The app give each individual 7x7 (49) opportunities to add to the piece by triggering short bleeps and bloops, specifically triangle waves of different pitches with delays of different speeds and feedback amounts.

While I initially thought that the user might be triggering simple sound-files made previously by Jonny in Max, upon closer inspection I found that the sounds were being generated within the browser itself, created uniquely each time someone pressed the circular button in the center of the page.

The source code of the page revealed that the sounds were being generated using HTML5’s Web Audio API. Knowing Jonny’s self imposed reputation as a nerdy programmer (and, of course, his open love of Max), I’m sure that he built the program himself. Here are some examples from the source code:

var MAX_OSCS = 1; var MAX_TONE_DURATION = 500; var TONE_COUNT = 49; var VOLUME = 0.25;

var note = randomNote(); oscillator.frequency.value = note; oscillator.type = 'triangle'; gainNode.gain.value = 0;

function randomNote() { var baseNote = SCALE.sample(); var octave = JUMPS.sample(); return baseNote * octave; } function randomDelayTime() { return Math.floor(Math.random() * 300) + 60;

"The only person with you all your life is you. Your parents die. Things inside you die — illusions, gushes of personality. Only you can sort yourself out. Yourself may not be all you need, but it’s all you’ve got.”

PEERLESS RUSSIAN PIANIST PAVEL NERSESSIAN MARKS HIS BOSTON DEBUT

Pavel Nersessian opens the symposium on the evening of Friday, June 27 with a recital not to be missed! 

Mr. Nersessian’s program features Hindemith’s Tanzstücke, Op. 19, Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, Op. 120, Schubert/Liszt “Ständchen” and “Erlkönig”, and Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B Minor.

For more information about Pavel Nersessian’s recital, visit the Rivers School Conservatory website. You can also join us on our Facebook page.

Andrew Tyson in a splendid performance of Chopin’s Etude in F Major, Op. 10, No. 8 (Live at the 2010 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland)

An artist of great promise, Andrew Tyson returns to the symposium on the evening of Saturday, June 28, 2014 in performances of solo works by Chopin and Mendelssohn, and in the American premiere of Charles Valentin Alkan’s transcription of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for two pianos eight hands.

Victoria Spivey // “Blood Thirsty Blues”