The San Jose State School of Music and Dance electrified the crowd in front of the Music building on Nov. 30 as students of the Electro-Acoustic Music class performed for the Electroacoustic Computer Music Performance.
The Electro-Acoustic Music class was instructed to use different synthesizers that were designed and programmed throughout the course of the semester. Students would then input their work into Max, a software that would allow the user to edit and adjust the music to their liking.
Christopher Luna-Mega, assistant professor of music theory, technology and composition, said their performance was an ensemble of computers.
“It’s pretty much a programming language that is not code, but instead a visual programming language in which you connect different elements to each other,” Luna-Mega said.
Luna-Mega played each students’ piece at the beginning of the event and finished with a group performance.
The group performance had students interacting with the computers and programs to form an orchestra.
Music theory and composition graduate student Elizabeth Jonasson said the class learned how to use different recording software to make their music.
Jonasson said as a music graduate student, she wanted to expand her knowledge on all kinds of music.
“As a composer, I thought it would be interesting to explore electronic music in my next composition,” Jonasson said.
To make each student’s piece unique to themselves, Luna-Mega required that each student would have to design their own program based on his instructions.
“The students rebuilt everything they saw that I made, so they made their own instruments from scratch,” Luna-Mega said.
Music composition student Andrea Gutierrez said this class has taught not only the techniques for writing electronic pieces, but also how to experiment with them to form something new.
“This class taught me different ways I can manipulate acoustic and synthetic sounds to create something new that we’re not typically used to hearing,” Gutierrez said. “You never really know what you are going to end up with and I think that’s pretty exciting.”
At the end of the night, Luna-Mega said one of the main reasons the performance was held outside was so he could get a message across campus that they are continuing the electro-acoustic class and want to expand the program going forward.
“I meant for this concert to be outside as a laptop ensemble as a way to start introducing it into the student communities,” Luna-Mega said. “This is the kind of thing I want students from not only the music department but any department to know that they can take this class.”
