Interactive Technologies and Music Making

Tracy Redhead is a musician, composer, and researcher working in music performance, production, and technology. Her career spans from singer/songwriter roots to pioneering interactive music projects with cutting-edge technologies. Holding a Master of Arts and PhD in Music, she is currently a lecturer in Electronic Music and Sound Design at the University of Western Australia. She explores the intersection of science and art, and novel forms of expression.

This is a book very much of our time… Given the fresh and contemporary subject matter, and the feeling of urgency conveyed in the advisory and pedagogical sections of the book that set out clearly how those with access to the appropriate equipment can become active players in the aesthetic and procedural advances described, Redhead takes considerable pains to place her view of music within a historical context in which the subject of her study represents a future that has emerged from the revolutions of a relatively recent past.Redhead combines the investigation of “how to” with significant advice on evaluation, of one’s own practice, of the reception of one’s efforts by listeners and – the true innovation – of the evaluation of active contributors to transmutable operations on the outcomes of their own influence on the music. There is indeed a new aesthetic at work here…One anticipates that a thorough, active reading of Redhead’s book accompanied by completion of the tutorial tasks will lead on to a longer engagement with both the book’s own Companion Website and the programs and instructional material additionally accessible. Whether or not this engagement heralds a new generation of composers and arrangers achieving exceptional new outcomes we must wait to judge. But if it does so, they will have been provided with an excellent guide to their initial understanding of the processes involved in TM.— Nicholas Bannan, Honorary Research Fellow, UWA Conservatorium of Music

• 1. Introduction Section 1 – Understanding Transmutable Music Systems 2. Aesthetics of Transmutable Music 3. Components of Transmutable Music Systems Section 2 – Approaches for Composing Transmutable Music 4. Experience and Interaction 5. Variability 6. Transmutability 7. Evaluating Transmutable Music Section 3 Interactive Technologies and Music Making (Background and Context) 8. The Convergence of Remix, Production and Video Games 9. The Convergence of Music, Technology, and Interactivity Section 4 Compositional Approaches in Transmutable Music: Tutorial Series 10. Mobile Music Making Basic Tutorials with MIDI 11. Mobile Music Making Advanced Tutorials (OSC) 12. Adaptive Music for Video Games Section 5 - Conclusion, Companion Website and Glossary 13. Conclusion 14. Online Resource 15. Glossary