Lexikon-Sonate
algorithmic music generator© 1992-2007 by Karlheinz Essl
|
vs. 3.2 - Universal Binary NEW
released: 11 Jan 2007 (Freeware) |
|
|
vs. 3.2 - Universal Binary NEW
released: 11 Jan 2007 (Freeware) |
|
"The compositions generated by Lexikon-Sonate are surprisingly pleasant and interesting, mainly because of the ingenious manner in which tempo and volume vary and in particular due to a liberal use of pauses and silence. Many composition automatons suffer not from a lack of variety but from an inability to take a breather. Hats off to Herr Essl for this wonderful gift." (kornball)
|
Lexikon-Sonate is an interactive realtime composition environment for musical composition and live performances. It takes advantage of composition algorithms that has been developed by Karlheinz Essl since 1985. With this algorithmic music generator on can easily create fascinating and complex musical structures on the fly. Furthermore, Lexikon-Sonate is an infinite music installation that can run on a computer for years without repeating itself. Finally, Lexikon-Sonate can be used as an instrument for live performance of electronic music.
Lexikon-Sonate est un logiciel de composition musicale interactif, il peut être utilisé aussi bien pour de la composition musicale que comme instrument pour du live, il utilise 24 modules sonores utilisant les algorithmes conçus par Karlheinz Essl, les combinaisons multiples et complexes possibles entre ses modules sonores permettent de créer rapidement des ambiances sonores et des structures musicales complexes et variées.
Download mp3 (6:41, 7.7 MB)
Lexikon-Sonate is a work-in-progress which was started in 1992. Instead of being a composition in which the structure is fixed by notation, it manifests itself as a computer program that composes the piece - or, more precisely: an excerpt of a virtually endless piano piece - in real time. Lexikon-Sonate lacks two characteristics of a traditional piano piece:
- there is no pre-composed text to be interpreted, and
- there is no need for a pianist or an interpreter.
Instead, the instructions for playing the piano - the indication "which key should be pressed how quickly and held down for how long" - are directly generated by a computer program and transmitted immediately to a player piano (or the built-in Quicktime synthesizer) which executes them.
Navigation map of the electronic Lexikon-Roman
© 1992-98 by Libraries of the Mind
The title Lexikon-Sonate refers to the "Lexikon-Roman", written in 1968-70 by the Austrian-Slovakian author Andreas Okopenko. This novel appears to be one of the very first literary HyperTexts, independently of Ted Nelson who introduced this term about the same time. This novel - "a sentimental journey to a meeting of exporters in Druden" (subtitle) - consists of several hundred small chapters which were brought into alphabetical order. By reference arrows as in a lexicon the reader could make her own investigations through the multiple nested web structure of the text. Instead of presenting a sequential text with a predefined direction of reading, Okopenko provides a structure of possibilities, which challenges the reader to become a creator of her own version of this novel.Originally, Lexikon-Sonate was conceived as a musical commentary to an electronic implementation of Okopenko's "Lexikon-Roman", carried out by the interdisciplinary group "Libraries of the Mind". But soon afterwards it started its own life due to its manifold ramifications, becoming an outstanding example in the domain of algorithmic composition.
User interface of Lexikon-Sonate 3.2
click-able map: clicking on one of the boxes (like "Esprit") will supply you
with more information of this structure generator and a sounding example.
Up-to-now, Lexikon-Sonate consists of 24 music-generation modules (structure generators) which are related in a very complex way as a musical HyperText. Each module generates a specific characteristic musical output as a result of the compositional strategy that has been applied. A module represents an abstract model of a specific musical behaviour. It does not contain any pre-organized musical material, but a formal description of it and the methods how it is being processed.These modules are structural re-implementations of piano gestures obtained by analysis of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, Schönberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen and Cecil Taylor. They will never appear as verbal quotation (because none of this gestures has been "sampled"), but mainly as "allusion". Furthermore, they are open and generic enough so that different modules playing at the same time can intermingle, creating unpredictable meta-structures.
Installation at KLANGTURM ST. POELTEN (summer 1998): Lexikon-Projekt
Computer-Stele (design: Regina Freimüller) - Yamaha Disklavier
The idea of autopoiesis - material organizing itself due to certain constraints - plays an important rule. By using a lot of different random generators which are controlling each other (which - according to serial thinking - form a scale between a completely deterministic and a completely chaotic behaviour), always new variants of the same model are generated. Variants that may differ dramatically from each other, though they are always perceptable as "inheritances" of the given structural model. Seen in this light, Lexikon-Sonate can be perceived rather as a meta-composition which enables the unfolding of piano music than a fixed work.
Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
Bösendorfersaal, Vienna (12 Dec 2008)
© 2008 by Wladimir Fried
The underlying program was written in Max (© 1990-2006 IRCAM / Cycling '74), an interactive graphical programming environment for multimedia, music, and MIDI, running on a Macintosh computer. Having worked with computers for many years - designing my own xLOGO-based software environment for Computer Aided Composition - I felt the challenge to write an interactive computer program which is able to compose in Real Time. For this purpose I took advantage of my Real Time Composition Library (RTC-lib), a collection of MAX-objects designed for musical composition which includes a variety of musical functions, compositional techniques, and algorithmic strategies.
Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
12 Dec 2008, Vienna (Bösendorfer-Saal)
Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a sampler piano
4 Apr 2005, Vienna (Porgy & Bess)
David Borgo improvising along Lexikon-Sonate
June 2007, La Jolla (USCD)
David Borgo, sopranino saxophone, improvising with algorithmic music software by Karheinz Essl (the piano part) set to computer animation created using Artmatic and Vtrack (U&I Software). Part of a 12-video DVD project titled Chance, Discovery and Design.
German 
Dutch / Flemish
Italian
Dansk 
Lexikon-Sonate is a composition of Karlheinz Essl. It is distributed as freeware and protected by copyright. As far as the entire content of the original distribution is not changed and no money is charged, this program may be spread freely and can also be included in CD-ROMS and Internet archives.The work provided here for download is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work under the following conditions:
- Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
- Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
- No Derivative Works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
Please note that this free version only uses Quicktime as its playback device - you can neither use MIDI (as in previous shareware versions) nor you can record the output into a MIDI file. However, there does still exist a MIDI-fied version of "Lexikon-Sonate" which is not in the public domain. It can be requested for concerts and installations, but not for private use.
As some people have misused this feature for generating musical structures to be used for their own compositions, I decided to prevent this by disabling the MIDI facility. One should also be aware that the Creative Commons Licence under which Lexikon-Sonate is released does not allow derivative works.
However, there exists a MIDI-fied version which I exclusively use for my own performances of Lexikon-Sonate. For public installations of Lexikon-Sonate with a Yamaha Disklavier, I am willing to supply a MIDI-fied version on the basis of negotiation. In this case, email me.
|
Lexikon-Sonate 3.2 for Mac OS X (10.3.9 or later) - for Intel and PPC processors
released 11 Jan 2007: ZIP archive (5.6 MB) |
 |
Lexikon-Sonate 3.1 for Mac OS X (10.2.8 or later) - for PPC processors only released 10 Aug 2004: ZIP archive (1.2 MB) |
 |
REplay PLAYer (© 2000-2005) generative sound file shredder REplay PLAYer is a computer program that de-constructs a given sound file and re-composes it by using realtime composition algorithms. It can be used as a tool to generate an infinite and every-changing sonic stream from a single sound file for artistic, compositional or mere recreational purposes. It can also be regarded as a computer based instrument for live performances, as an interactive sound installation or a generator for ambient music. |
 |
fLOW (© 1998-2004) ambient soundscape generator fLOW is an audio computer program running on Apple Macintosh machines. It generates an ever-changing and never repeating soundscape in real time that fills the space with flooding sounds that resemble - metaphorically - the timbres of water, fire, earth, and air. This ambient sound scape generator adjusts itself through various parameters and controllers that are represented in real time on your screen. |
| Home | Works | Software | Sounds | Bibliography | Concerts |
Updated: 19 Jan 2009
