To Max Mathews, in memoriam

Consort for Convolved Violins is dedicated to Max Mathews, pioneer of computer-assisted sound synthesis, who passed away in 2011. He also loved the violin.

This “consort” is the result of the application of digital convolution techniques to objects taken from the sonic world of the violin. Three musicians are playing figures from a score written especially for this project. The sounds they make are captured by a microphone and digitized. Nowadays we have techniques that make it possible to produce convolutions in real-time, but working in delayed time allows a higher level of precision — to a few milliseconds — in how sound materials are tied together. This explains why Consort for Convolved Violins is an acousmatic piece realized in the studio with an approach later used for PianoHertz (it is actually an ancestor of the latter).

— Horacio Vaggione [English translation: François Couture, ix-17]

Consort for Convolved Violins was realized in 2011 at the studios of the Centre de recherche informatique et création musicale (CICM) of the Université Paris 8 (France) and premiered on May 8, 2012, during the Écologie des sons conference in the Amphi X of the Université Paris 8 (France). Source-violins: Wen Chen, David Brown, Manfred Kraemer.

Premiere

• May 8, 2012, Écologie des sons, Amphi X — Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis, France)