The Activities of Centro Ricerche Musicali

MUSIC/SCIENCE FORUM The Activities ofCentro Ricerche Musicali Laura Bianchini and Michelangelo Lupone The activities undertaken by various music research centres in the past few years have highlighted the need for specialisation. In other words, scientific research has concentrated its efforts on developing technologies and other areas that best further its own ends and make best use of the resources available. Many centres, having decided to concentrate on non-expert or commercial applications, have adopted MIDI, which is in keeping with simplified production demands and with the market. Others, the Centro Ricerche Musicali (CRM) ofRome among them, pursue .the goal of a constant interaction between the language of music and that of science by means of flexible experimentation with algorithms and systems for musical composition adapted to the demands of the expression of contemporary music. Monteverdi, while proposing the particular conditions for the advancement of style, specified that the evolution of technology and of compositional thought should coincide and be integrated within the musician. While we do not intend here to combine humanistic thought with scientific thought, nor the culture of the immeasurable with experimental tradition , we retain, however, the view that a rapport between these two types of thought is indispensable for a conscious culture-such a rapport might render them capable ofverifying, promoting and comprehending the need for the advancement of each other. From this view emerges the figure of a musician conscious of scientific implications and, conversely, the figure of a scientist culturally aware of contemporary artistic reality. This is a sort of preliminary condition that lays Laura Bianchini (composer. music/science researcher), Centro Ricerche Musicali, via Lamarmora, 18-1,00185 Rome. Italy. Michelangelo Lupone (composer. music/science researcher), Centro Ricerche Muslcali, via Lamarmora, 18-1,00185 Rome. Italy. Received 10 February 1992. Manuscript solicited byMarcBattier, the foundation for a common creative and speculative laboratory. Ambitious as this idea may seem, CRM takes the view that it is the only one capable of satisfying the goals of a centre of musical research and capable of promoting a collaboration that is really dynamic and coherent with the progress in the realms of both humanistic and scientific thought. At CRM, the two kinds of activities, artistic and scientific, directed by Michelangelo Lupone and the engineer Antonio Pellecchia, bring together the contributions of musicians and researchers with the characteristics described above. The results encourage the belief that the approach of CRM can prove useful in creating a more active exchange between the two cultures. In particular, CRM, the organizational direction ofwhich is entrusted to Laura Bianchini, identifies itself with research and musical productions that, despite their typical technical complexity, have demonstrated themselves flexible and congenial to many diverse compositions. The inherent flexibility of the methods utilised at CRM has permitted CRM, in the past year, to deepen and dedicate ample space for psychoacoustic research . Considerations regarding research activities are coordinated by Fiammetta D'Emilio, a musician-anthropologist who is engaged in projects of exchange with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). Our scientific research avails itself, above all, for the realization of computer music's environmental settinghardware and software. The Centre collaborates with Alessandra De Vitis (physicist), whose expertise in the field of music permits a more immediate informative exchange on questions that are also technological. CRM also avails itself, for high-level programming, of the expertise of composer-mathematician Teo Usuelli and of some students at the University ofRome. Teo Usuelli is the author of an interactive program based on the system Fly 10 and of the protocols of communication between the systems Fly 10 and Fly 30 with machines and commercial audio instrumentation . FROM THE FLY 10 SYSTEM TO THE FLy 30 SYSTEM The Fly 30 system derives from the Fly 10 system posed in 1984 by Michelangelo Lupone (first version for Apple computer, 1984; second version for IBM personal computer [PC], 1986) and is based on the high-speed processor TMS 32010. The success that Fly 10 has achieved in both the artistic and scientific fields is due toa design philosophy that postulates that by maintaining high calculating power, user-interaction is also enhanced, facilitating all input functions and data control. The Fly system, originally designed to...