UQ Touch Ensemble

An inter-faculty relationship in the making

It was decided at the completion of Semester 1 of 2016 that there was definite potential to develop the MozART installation further. Discussions at the DECO3850 showcase with Dr Eve Klein of the School of Music led to a proposed collaboration with UQ’s newly established Touch Ensemble. The work done in Semester 1 was used as a starting point for a new direction in development, with the assistance of ensemble members in the ideation process and observations of their interactions within the ensemble. This was then used to inform the next iteration of MozART, culminating in a feature piece in the Touch Ensemble’s concert performance on the 25th of October, 2016.

The purpose of this collaboration was to establish a connection between the Music and Information Technology faculties, and allow exploration of emerging musical technologies as well as development of new ones. This project is likely to be the first of many future collaborations between the two faculties.

Exploring using iPads as instruments

As written in the lunchtime concert programme by Dr Chris Perren: “Touch Ensemble is an exploratory group, working with instruments and media that have no dedicated repertoire or established performance practice. We use iPads, MIDI keyboards, and laptops alongside traditional instruments and voices, connected and amplified via wired and wireless analogue and digital means to explore the music-making capabilities of these technologies. The ensemble was established by Dr Eve Klein as part of her groundbreaking research into music technology and education.”

“One of the greatest challenges of working with iPads and other digital instruments is the limitless possibility. Unlike traditional instruments which have well-defined boundaries and norms, each iPad contains a multitude of diverse instruments (apps) which can be connected in a multitude of ways to other devices, media, and instruments. It is easy to get paralysed by the abundance of choice. But in taking on this challenge, we can help to shape an emerging performance practice for these instruments, as they become more and more widespread in music performance and education.”

The iPad Ensemble is an extra curricula initiative run by Dr Eve Klein and Dr Chris Perren within the University of Queensland School of Music. Open to all students, the ensemble explores the possibilities of mobile and digital music making. The ensemble consists of between 10 and 20 students that meet each week to learn how music creation and collaboration can be accomplished on regular iPad devices using a variety of music creation and alteration applications available on the Apple App Store. The ensemble also takes advantage of Ableton Link, software that synchronizes important musical data between each device the performers are using, allowing them to play in unison effortlessly.

The culmination of the ensemble is the final performance presented in the UQ Music Building on the 25th of October, 2016. In this performance, the students will be able to show off the skills they have learned and developed over the semester by playing pieces that they both created and rehearsed in groups. This will be the second performance for the UQ iPad Ensemble, with the first being in Semester One when the Ensemble was ran for the very first time at the university. Only a few members of the ensemble from Semester One have returned to be a part of it again this semester, so the final performance will likely be very different with a new set of students and their varied tastes in music and different skills.

A unique aspect of the ensemble is the highly mobile nature of the devices and their performers. This allows the ensemble to explore all new depths of musical creation by incorporating surround sound speaker systems encompassing the audience with sound. Each piece performed by the ensemble can have single or multiple performers using a multitude of apps. With the very ambient and cyclical nature of the sounds being made by the iPad's, performers do not have to stick a strict song structure and can instead play as they feel and improvise where they feel appropriate.

The ensemble is also an ongoing subject of research by the UQ School of Music. The research is currently looking into how iPads and app based music technologies can change musicians thinking around their role as a performer and whether it enhances their perception of their own role to encompass improvisation and composition. How musicians work with iPads, use them as musical instruments encompassing: the kinds of gestures and interactions they make with the device, the kinds of problems they encounter performing with the device (especially in relation to ergonomics, musical communication and performance outcomes. Finally how musicians develop pieces for iPads including notation styles and systems for remembering and learning musical parts.

More Information

For more information about the Touch Ensemble, feel free to contact the UQ School of Music (See: https://music.uq.edu.au/) or email Dr Chris Perren at c.perren1@uq.edu.au . It is anticipated that the Touch Ensemble will return in Semester 1 of 2017, to welcome both new and returning members.