 Round House (Trains) for Chamber Orchestra with Live Performance Graphics by Sam Stalos |
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A round house (or "roundhouse" being its appropriate spelling in this context), is a large structure where trains are routinely serviced. The tracks that lead into the arched structures look like spokes in a wheel, and at the larger sites, the tracks can be rotated to turn the engines around or shuffle them into different maintenance bays.
From Prokofiev to Gershwin to Strayhorn to Reich, trains have served us well. Planes, on the other hand, have not been so inspirational. Planes swosh and drone, but trains have rhythm. Trains chug, click, clack and chatter. Sure, planes can boom, but a train can blare with profound dissonance and portamento.
With trains, the melody is always in the rhythm. In Round House, the rhythm grinds, shifts and accelerates in the course of a few measures. The common rhythmic element accelerates from 100 BPM to 400 in the first 23 measures, and in so doing ... momentum.
The collection of patterns over time form a recognizable sound that doesn't need a tempo. Train rhythm. Train sounds.
Excerpt 1.
In this example, the French horns are controlling the timing and affectation of the bit mapped images, e.g. the tunnel, the wobbling globe lights that appear in the center of the tunnel after a few seconds, plus the images of the three brass instruments that appear a few seconds later.
Sounds from the trombones are controlling the timing and affectation of the abstract vector graphics appearing first in the center of the tunnel and then expanding from the center.
The other instruments are not involved in any visual affections, for this section at least.
In the 2007 premier performance, two computers were required for visualization effects, but now, with further refinement in software and the advancement in computer speed, only one computer is required. If footage of the orchestra is to be interwoven into the graphic visualization, which is an optional feature, the use of external video mixers and live cameras are required. Otherwise, all the visualization effects are generated from just a single computer.
Those instruments which trigger various visual elements, such as the trombones and French horns in the above example, require their own separate microphones, which feed the computer and stimulate the graphics. The output of the computer feeds a video projector located in the theater. Whether or not a screen is suspended above the orchestra, or placed behind the orchestra is dependent upon the layout of the theater.
Please note that any jerkiness in the animation is caused by the conversion of the original files to make them Flash compatible for viewing on the internet. The resolution used for the concert was 1024 X 768, which fed a single video projector. Higher resolutions are possible with faster computers. Using dual/quad core computer technology, mixing video footage (.mov and .avi formats) with the computer graphics is now possible.
Excerpt 2.
In this excerpt, sounds from the French horns are controlling the appearance of the bridges, the railroad crossing signs and the image of the French horn.
Sounds from the trombones are controlling the timing and affectation of the abstract vector graphics flowing around the bridges.
The fact that sounds from the trumpets are not controlling any effects can easily be observed in this excerpt.
Round House for Orchestra
-- Score and MP3
The complete orchestral score for Round House can be found here.
MP3 sound files for the orchestrated version of Round House can be found here.
