Sing! | Austin Franklin

Sing! is an electroacoustic piece utilizing autonomous controls and real-time MIR techniques to control and process audio input. The piece uses only a singing bowl with a single pitch, and processes the sound using several MIR models, such as brightness, depth, roughness, and hardness. -Austin Franklin (composer) The score for Sing! comprises an overview of how the electronics work and the various ways to trigger the live-electronic effects. The rest is left up to the interpretation of the performer. Because of the freedom allowed in this framework, I have explored different approaches to this piece. The openness of the directions also allow the performer to act as either interpreter (via a graphic score, photograph, word collage, etc.) or composer. Occasionally this piece is a meditation, utilizing standard singing bowl techniques. Other times, the piece becomes a collage of quotations or textural explorations through extended techniques and a variety of striking implements. The piece has also been successfully realized by following similar chance operations that are found in pieces by John Cage. The latitude given to the performer allows one to become intimate with a wide variety of sounds available from the singing bowl. Regardless of how the piece is planned, there are still aleatoric elements with the processed sounds as they respond differently in each performance environment and cannot be exactly replicated from performance to performance.