A Performer-Centric Approach to Extending the Saxophone with Live Electronics

Doctoral Dissertation (Doktor der Künste)
Joel Diegert, 2018
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz

Abstract

The rapid advance of computer technology in the past few decades has transformed the way music is performed and recorded. One aspect of this 'digitization' has been the introduction of computers powerful enough to generate and manipulate audio signals in real-time. These hardware and software tools have recently become affordable, and therefore available to anyone with a laptop computer. While composers have been quick to adopt these tools to produce music spanning a wide range of genres, the integration of real-time electronics with traditional instruments has proven difficult to achieve. It may be that a more active role on the part of performers would facilitate this integration: a performer working hands-on with his or her instrument while designing a system of electronics is likely to make different choices than a composer would make, thereby producing a different outcome. 
The act of designing an electronics system seems to be an important part of the creative process that leads to the production of new pieces of music, so this shift of responsibility from composer to performer also challenges the traditional relationship and power dynamic between the two. Some performers choose to entirely bypass the composer, by writing and performing their own music, or improvising. However it may also be possible to arrive at collaborative strategies that maintain both the performer and composer's voices. This hypothesis was tested over a five-year period from 2013 to 2018, in the form of a collaboration between the author, saxophonist Joel Diegert, and composer Adriàn Artacho. The resulting musical work, aubiome (2017), is offered here as a kind of 'proof of concept', providing one possible example of what could be achieved through this type of collaboration.