The Magic Flute — hardware/software instrument (C++, Arduino, Max/MSP)
Year: 2024
Duration: 6′30″
Presented: Selected, ICMC 2025 (International Computer Music Conference), Boston (Jun 2025)
Duration: 6′30″
Presented: Selected, ICMC 2025 (International Computer Music Conference), Boston (Jun 2025)
The Magic Flute takes its title and its idea from Mozart's opera: a flute that makes sounds an ordinary flute cannot. The instrument is built in the form of the large xindi in G, a keyless Chinese transverse flute without the membrane of the dizi, and it is held and blown like one.
The body is a single kraft paper tube. Paper is light, it can be cut to any length, and sensors are easy to mount on it. The tube carries a microphone at the blow hole, four touch sensors under the fingers, a knob, and an accelerometer. An Arduino Uno sends the sensor data to Max/MSP.
The sound material is pre-recorded flute, four sounds from nature (wind, stone, thunder and rain) and electronic sounds. The player calls them up through the sensors: for example, blowing into the microphone brings thunder, touching the sensors brings drops of rain, and the knob brings in the sustained flute sound. The accelerometer follows the movement of the instrument in the player's hands.
The piece listens to nature from the flute's point of view. The performance is partly improvised and includes random elements.
The Lament of Plants — for Pipa,Cello and Max/MSP
The piece began with a paper. In 2023, Khait et al. at Tel Aviv University reported in Cell that tomato and tobacco plants emit airborne ultrasonic clicks when they are short of water or have been cut. The sounds are too high for us to hear, and the likely mechanism is cavitation in the plant's vascular system.
After reading it, I wanted to mourn on the plants' behalf, and that is the lament in the title. The piece does not use recordings of plants and is not a sonification of the data. All of the sounds are composed for pipa, cello and electronics.
The two instruments are treated differently. A pipa note starts to fade as soon as it is plucked, while the cello can hold a tone. Both parts also use extended techniques, such as striking the body of the instrument and heavy bow pressure on the cello, and some passages are left free for the performers.
Both instruments are recorded and processed live in Max/MSP, together with material prepared in advance. Granular synthesis is the main process, because it breaks sound into very short grains, much like the clicks the plants emit. Delay, harmonizer and reverb are used alongside it.
The body is a single kraft paper tube. Paper is light, it can be cut to any length, and sensors are easy to mount on it. The tube carries a microphone at the blow hole, four touch sensors under the fingers, a knob, and an accelerometer. An Arduino Uno sends the sensor data to Max/MSP.
The sound material is pre-recorded flute, four sounds from nature (wind, stone, thunder and rain) and electronic sounds. The player calls them up through the sensors: for example, blowing into the microphone brings thunder, touching the sensors brings drops of rain, and the knob brings in the sustained flute sound. The accelerometer follows the movement of the instrument in the player's hands.
The piece listens to nature from the flute's point of view. The performance is partly improvised and includes random elements.
The Lament of Plants — for Pipa,Cello and Max/MSP
Year: 2025
Duration: 8′30″
Awards:
First Prize, Acoustic/Electronic Category, 7th International Electronic Music Competition (IEMC) (Dec 2025)
Second Prize, Mixed Electronic Music, Macau Digital Intelligence Multimedia Music Creation Competition (MDIMC) (Nov 2025)
Duration: 8′30″
Awards:
First Prize, Acoustic/Electronic Category, 7th International Electronic Music Competition (IEMC) (Dec 2025)
Second Prize, Mixed Electronic Music, Macau Digital Intelligence Multimedia Music Creation Competition (MDIMC) (Nov 2025)
The piece began with a paper. In 2023, Khait et al. at Tel Aviv University reported in Cell that tomato and tobacco plants emit airborne ultrasonic clicks when they are short of water or have been cut. The sounds are too high for us to hear, and the likely mechanism is cavitation in the plant's vascular system.
After reading it, I wanted to mourn on the plants' behalf, and that is the lament in the title. The piece does not use recordings of plants and is not a sonification of the data. All of the sounds are composed for pipa, cello and electronics.
The two instruments are treated differently. A pipa note starts to fade as soon as it is plucked, while the cello can hold a tone. Both parts also use extended techniques, such as striking the body of the instrument and heavy bow pressure on the cello, and some passages are left free for the performers.
Both instruments are recorded and processed live in Max/MSP, together with material prepared in advance. Granular synthesis is the main process, because it breaks sound into very short grains, much like the clicks the plants emit. Delay, harmonizer and reverb are used alongside it.
Sonic Relief: Loong — audiovisual, stereo (Processing, Max/MSP)
Year: 2026
Duration: 4′30″
Duration: 4′30″
The piece has two sources, one for the image and one for the sound. The image, made in Processing, comes from a circular nine-dragon relief, where the dragons coil around each other without leaving the surface. The sound comes from eight Chinese characters: 盤 庚 龍 百 怪 猙 獰 固. They are recorded as voice samples and then processed with various effects. The characters belong to the music only and are never shown on screen.
The first character, 盤, names a vessel, the coiling of a body around itself, and the first syllable of a king's name. The title keeps 龍 as “loong” rather than “dragon” because the two are not the same animal.
The sound is built in Max/MSP with sgran~, stgran~ and maraprob, which are ports of Mara Helmuth's RTcmix granular instruments. The material is handled as grains and densities rather than as notes.