Linee Scomposte
Experimental notation for patchable musical instruments
Linee Scomposte is a system for notating patches on synthesizers using transparencies.
Every time we turn toward synthesizers to make music, we’re confronted with the challenge of using conventional notation on unconventional instruments. We wanted this project to be an open ended exploration in different ways of notating patches, and came to a result which leaves a lot up to the performer.
Any number of transparencies can be overlaid above the bottom grid of circles, to create more or less complex patches that we have defined as “warm up exercises welcoming happy accidents“. The patches inspired by the notation would ideally let the performer discover new ways around their instrument, and therefore the exploration of new music-making could continue from there.
The chosen symbols in the notation were inspired by our use of the Buchla 100 Series located at the Ernst Krenek Institut in Krems, during our residency at AIR Niederösterreich.
About the Buchla 100 Series
Purchased in 1967 by the Austrian composer Ernst Krenek, the Ernst Krenek Forum’s Buchla 100 Series is among the oldest Buchla instruments in use.
In 1963, Don Buchla was commissioned by the Electronic Tape Music Center to build an electronic device that could expedite the process of creating Musique Concrète: that machine was the first voltage controlled modular synthesizer and the first of the 100 Series.
Krenek’s instrument consists of two cabinets which each feature their own touch controller. A later Buchla filter, the 291 dual bandpass, was added externally.
