As a composer I have engaged in a lot of research-led practice and also practice-led research. My earliest compositions were often focused on topics in computer music that I was interested in. Many of the papers investigate the ways in which electronics can be used to interact with form and narrative in musical composition, especially with regards to performance practice aesthetics.
The Woman and the Lyre (2016), for voice, flute, cello, piano, and live electronics – doctoral dissertation composition
The Woman and the Lyre, for voice, flute, cello, piano, and electronics, is a multi-faceted musical work that integrates elements from various disciplines including poetry, drama, and movement. The text is drawn from fragments of poetry by the ancient Greek poet Sappho as well as interpretations of her work by the 20th century Canadian poet Bliss Carman. Different approaches to electroacoustic performance practice are used to enhance the emotional meaning of the text. These approaches focus on the relationship between the performer’s actions onstage and the resulting sounds, aided through the integration of live electronics. The performers interact with these electronics both with gestural controller systems and video tracking, and have varying degrees of perceived control throughout. Electronic processing is used to enhance the instrumental sound and create diverse sonic environments that serve the dramatic narrative of the composition. The Woman and the Lyre is comprised of two large parts: Sapphic Cycle, and Fayum Fragments. Sapphic Cycle is a musical setting of four poems from Bliss Carman’s work Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics. Fayum Fragments is inserted between these movements and consists of ten short miniatures, presented in variable order. Each of these miniatures musically evokes text fragments from a recovered papyrus attributed to Sappho. This portion of The Woman and the Lyre involves the singer also taking on the role of conductor: the performer’s physical gestures, tracked by a Leap Motion sensor device, determine which miniature will be performed at any given moment, thus creating the variable form of the composition. The Woman and the Lyre, therefore, while consisting of many layers of material, is unified by integrating the electronics as an important component of the narrative and form.
Publications
| Year | Paper | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Aska, Alyssa and Martin Ritter “Looking back, looking forward: reflecting on the past for a notation of the future,” in eContact 19.3, Canadian Electroacoustic Community. | Read |
| 2016 | Aska, Alyssa, and Martin Ritter. “Approaches to Real Time Ambisonic Spatialization and Sound Diffusion using Motion Capture,” in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2016. | Read |
| 2016 | Ritter, Martin, and Alyssa Aska. “Extending the piano through spatial transformation of motion capture data,” in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2016. | Read |
| 2016 | Aska, Alyssa, “Improvisation and gesture as form determinants in works with live electronics,” in Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Network Conference 2016. | Read |
| 2015 | Aska, Alyssa. “The displacement of agency and sound source in electroacoustic music as compositional approach in works including live performers,” in Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network Conference, Sheffield, England. | Read |
| 2014 | Aska, Alyssa. “The Black Swan: Probable and Improbable Communication Over Local and Geographically Displaced Networked Connections as Musical Performance System,” in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Athens, Greece, 553-556. | Read |
| 2014 | Ritter, Martin and Alyssa Aska. “Leap Motion as Expressive Gestural Interface,” in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Athens, Greece, 659-662. | Read |
| 2014 | Ritter, Martin and Alyssa Aska. “Performance as Research Method: Effects of Creative Use on Development of Gestural Control Interfaces,” in the Proceedings of the Practice-Based Research Workshop at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) Conference, Goldsmiths University, London, England. | |