| This dissertation studies the art and technology of performing music with digital computers. The primary aim of this research is to construct a theoretical framework that enlightens the approach to designing, implementing, evaluating, and iteratively refining new families of digital musical instruments for the real-time expressive control of digital signal processing algorithms. The core of this framework, the Musical Interface Technology Design Space, MITDS, is revealed in chapter four. It is specifically focused on the design of tools that facilitate enhanced performance techniques through the use of multimodal human-computer interfaces in conjunction with algorithmic generation and processing of sound. Musical interface technology is a broad field that encompasses both technological and artistic areas, such as sensor electronics, human-computer interaction, digital signal processing, and software engineering, alongside music performance, composition, and theory. It also involves disciplines such as psychology, ergonomics, physiology, and human cognition and behavior. The first section (chapters 1-2) of this dissertation covers the history of technological developments in the field of computer music, with attention to the human-computer interfaces and what effects they have had on music composition and performance. The second section (chapters 3-4) develops the foundation of a theoretical framework for developing new digital instruments, focusing on both philosophical and pragmatic concepts within musical, technological, and humanistic areas that can be used to guide and inform future directions for research in the field. The third section (chapter 5) incorporates the author's own digital musical instruments, describes their implementations and performance techniques in detail, and uses them as examples to clarify and understand the theoretical framework previously introduced. Finally, the conclusion includes a brief review of the research and developments of new musical interface technologies, the exploration of new performance techniques they bring about, and the teachings and lessons learned during this evolutionary journey into a modern perspective on one of mankind's oldest forms of art - music. |
