Hmmng
Music for Perimeter of a Parameter by Armadillo Dance Project
The music for the dance Perimeter of a Parameter is called Hmmng and is not entirely in fixed form, but exists as a collection of soundfiles to be played by a
patchor program written in the graphical object-based computer language Max/MSP. Sequences of soundfiles are initiated by the composer in response to cues from the dance, and processed according to pre-programmed instructions. During one section the audio output is filtered in a way that varies depending on telemetry data originating in the movements onstage.
Thus the realization of Hmmng changes with each performance of Perimeter of a Parameter, and in particular what you hear on the audio recording linked to in the first paragraph above is not exactly what you hear on the videos of live performance. (The music has also been remixed to make up for the acoustics in the theatre.) At some point a final set version of the music may be produced....
The music was realized on a Mac G5 using recordings of animals from the sound effects CD series Wild World of Animals from Sound Ideas, as well as instrumental samples from the sampler program Kontakt by Native Instruments. These soundfiles were then processed, mixed, and arranged using the programs Soundhack, Kontakt, Digital Performer, and Max/MSP.
To perform the music Hmmng alone requires only a computer with the program Max/MSP Runtime, and someone, like the composer, who knows what the cues are. Alternatively, one could simply play a version on CD.