Riesenrad Premiered at Wien Modern in Vienna!

Videography and editing by Evo Szuyuan.
This video is an overture featuring some highlights from my brand new composition for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse called "Riesenrad" that was premiered on November 24th, 2007 at the Wien Modern Festival in Vienna in Real Life (RL). If you cannot see this embedded video, click here. Please click here for the Youtube version.

If you wish to hear the full audio recording of Riesenrad, Bingo Onomatopoeia recorded the whole thing on his Transponderfish website.

Hey there Classical Canon-ites, Sirius Stock(hausen)holders and Turkish Delights,

PHEW! I have finally blogged this posting all about my second Orchestral composition "Riesenrad" that was premiered last week at Wien Modern (Philiale im Gartenbaukino) in Vienna (RL) and also at Virtual Haidplatz on Odyssey Island (SL).

In this posting, I have tried to compile all the relevant information about my most recent composition since SLippery SLope (also ca. 2007) and so you might see some updates to this posting in the next few days since I want to make sure that my full intention as a composer has been expressed and articulated properly to you (yes "you", the blog reader).

Hopefully in a few days, I will have recovered enough energy to continue my blog about the Orchestra's concert at Wien Modern since there were three other compositions (and one other Premiere) on display at this historic event.

So for now, let me just post the official documents and some of my most candid thoughts that both inspired the composition as well as help bring it from the realm of the virtual into the real...er...back into the "virtual" again...or.... maybe it is back in the realm of the "real"? SIGH! HELP!!!!

I almost fell into a philosophical black hole there so enough of that, lets focus on my official programme notes for Riesenrad....

OFFICIAL PROGRAMME NOTES FOR WIEN MODERN:

RIESENRAD - Wirxli Flimflam (Jeremy Owen Turner - Vancouver, Canada),
2007

Subtitle: An abstract musical ferris wheel Gesamtkunstwerk for
Modernist and Classicist Avatars.

Composer/Conductor - Wirxli Flimflam.

Modernist HUD Interface Designer - Bingo Onomatopoeia (Andreas Müller
- Regensburg, Germany)

Set Designer and Architect - DeThomas Dibou (Detlef Thomas -
Regensburg, Germany)

Performers - Avatar Orchestra Metaverse (Global)

This timbrally maximalist composition is an homage to all the
composers throughout history that have either lived, worked or
premiered any of their own compositions in Vienna.

Structurally speaking, this composition can be seen as a hyper-
modernist and mechanistic "proof-of-concept" rather than a Romantic
style composition with a clearly defined programmatic narrative with a
Schenkarian tonal resolution hierarchy.

The "real" Riesenrad is actually Vienna's largest family-sized Ferris
Wheel and a familiar tourist attraction. The Riesenrad (German for
"Giant Ferris Wheel") was built with Teutonic and Turkish themes for
the amusement of the local royal family of the time. The original
wheel was erected in 1897 to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's Golden
Jubilee. The designer was an Englishman, Walter Bassett.

Since the composer in real life (Jeremy O. Turner) happens to be of
direct English ancestry and is one who worships the Germanic Classical
Music Tradition, the Riesenrad seems like an ideal choice for a
musical object. Although the original Riesenrad was equipped with 30
plus-sized cabins, the Riesenrad in Second Life only has 12 cabins in
order to mirror and honour Vienna's glorious dodecaphonic dynasty (ie.
Schoenberg and Webern) that will most certainly ensure the supremacy of
Germanic music for another 1,000 days.

The Orchestra repesents the (virtual) wheel's virtually moving chairs/
cabins - the ferris wheel itself never spins on its assigned axis...In
this case, the original virtualization/asbtraction of the Vienna
Riesenrad has been further virtualized/abstracted to suit the playful
whimsy of the avatar playground known as Second Life. In this sense,
the Riesenrad has been reduced to a theatrical prop without its own
mechanical autonomy.

At the wheel's maximum orchestral capacity, Riesenrad includes
aleatoric elements from the North American Kiddie game, Musical
Chairs.

If the wheel is not filled to capacity during the performance, the
conductor (who produces their own sound drones that emanating from the
magical laser baton and the conductor's sidepack) can determine how the
piece ends based on his/her personal aesthetic judgement.

In the case of the composition's World Premiere at Wien Modern, the
Composer/Conductor will discretely end the composition at the 15
minute mark. For this abridged composition, the Composer will allow
the Modernists (who by nature, prefer immediacy to reflection) to play
first in order to illustrate the speed and dexterity of the virtual
wheel's clockwise and counter-clockwise axis.... These Modernists play 2
custom in-world performance interfaces that allow them to trigger at
will 24 recycled samples from various composers affiliated with
Vienna. The Modernists have two HUDs to suit their mood(s). One is
Germanic and the other is Turkish in order to suit the closeted
cosmopolitan character of the historical and contemporary Vienna.

After awhile (well, 5 minutes actually), the Composer and will then
gradually introduce the more contemplative Classicist performers
(flute and cello players) who are assigned specially composed mini-
mantras from which they must perform gruelling circular transposition
cycles that have been directly appropriated from the Romantic Genius
of Beethoven's later String Quartets.

Riesenrad in essence, is the ultimate abstration of a perpetual Slow-
Motion machine built for the hyper-post-modern age.

PERFORMANCE SNAPSHOTS FROM THE PREMIERE OF RIESENRAD AT WIEN MODERN...

Here is a visual overture of the ferris wheel designed by the Orchestra's in-house set-architect, DeThomas Dibou. This snapshot was likely taken on the very first downstroke (bat) of my conductor's baton. This baton, by the way not only produced duo-tone lasers but also produced its own sound loops via a HUD (Heads Up Display) that you can see at the top of the screen. This is probably only of those instances where the conductor actually directly contributes to the sonic palette of the orchestra in addition to merely cueing the ensemble's sounds in the conventional manner.

At the top of this pic, there are 3 buttons:
1) A purple rewind button for counter-clockwise wheel movements
2) A blue stop button which stops both the conducting cues for the orchestra as well as the sound and....
3) The pink forward button which allows the orchestra to move foreward.

Each conducting motion has it own drone-loop sound that I composed as it represents the conducted motion (engine) of the ferris wheel. These loops were embedded into this playable HUD by Bingo Onomatopoeia.

In this view, we can see in more detail the nametags of the Orchestra performers as well as some distinguished members of the audience (well, at least those who managed to peer into my eye-cam at the time).

Here is a good close-up of the conductor (me) in action.

Here I am at the end of the performance of Riesenrad. Instead of giving the crowd an encore, I displayed the back of my t-shirt to the audience. Viva Mozart! Rock me Amadeus!

INSPIRATION BEHIND RIESENRAD:

Well, it should be pretty obvious by now that I would be influenced by what Vienna is most famous for, their Genius-Level Classical Composers! Of course being inspired by pure Germanic genius kinda sorta means that the standard for achievement is somewhat higher than usual, eh? I mean if it is anything slightly aesthetically less than what the Viennese-based composers have produced, then the audience simply will not take notice, correct? No wonder composing my Riesenrad exhausted me! SIGH! Only history will judge whether or not my efforts have merited even a nod from my divine ancestors!

Speaking of Germanic genius level composers, I guess I should also retroactively acknowledge one of the last living composers from this immortal pantheon, Karlheinz Stockhausen. I had no idea about his ferris-esque spiral piece shown here until my dress rehearsal but maybe it was in my subconscious somewhere and for sure, Stockhausen would certainly inspire anything produced in a virtual world because his own compositions in the "real" world were probably only really meant to have been played in an environment such as Second Life or some astral parallel dimension or something. Maybe Stockhausen is channeling an avatar alt or some extraterrestrial being from elsewhere because I heard this story from my orchestral colleague Hars Hefferman. Hefferman studied with Stockhausen in RL and apparently, Stockhausen insisted that his performers truly learn to fly as he had outlined this in his score - he was NOT being symbolic when he said this and I am guessing his mind may have briefly been lurking in SL during his own rehearsal! Geez, I think maybe Stockhausen might genuinely become interested in composing for the AOM since at least we know how to make his score come literally (well, virtually) to life!

Another influence which I absolutely need to mention before I (conveniently)forget is the Maximalist (formerly Minimalist) work of the Dutch composer, Diderik Wagenaar (not to be confused with the German composer, Richard Wagner). He composed this piece called Metrum (ca, 1981-84) which I heard and subconsciously absorbed via aesthetic osmosis when studying music composition at Uvic in RL a decade ago... Metrum actually reminds me alot of my own Riesenrad composition and it probably does not help my novelty credibility to recall that his album cover also featured a ferris wheel...sigh! I guess I am enhancing the myth that creativity in Second Life is only about remediation of something more "original" in Real Life...sigh!

In terms of other European influences, I guess I will have to concede that there was at least one (gasp!) French influence. Olivier Messiaen's Modes of Limited Transposition definitely had an influence on my (here is my new title) "Modes of Relatively Frustrating and Still Somewhat Limited Circular-Virtuo-Spatial-Aleatoric-Romantic Transposition(s)". Ok, my permutation might not be as catchy sounding but at least the result is nowhere near as bird-brained! Heheheheheheh. ;-)

Hmmmmmm... Any other influences? Oh yes, I have one American one and several Canadian ones. The Orchestra's Founder Maximillian Nakamura wisely pointed out that I am influenced by the polytonality of Charles Ives. Even in my music composition days at University in RL, my Professors compared my early work and sensibility to (probably a second-rate) Charles Ives. I have actually been revisiting Ives lately but not for his aesthetic innovations.... On the contrary, the next lesson that I need to learn from my continentally tuned guru is how to enact a get-rich-quick scheme ASAP so I can focus all my future efforts on my art :-D Some of you might know that Ives is one of the few independently wealthy maverick composers to have ever existed and this was because he channeled some of his genius towards the creation and development of the then-radical concept of life insurance.

As for my most local Canadian influences, I am a big fan of the Electacoustic scene championed by Montreal's Empreintes DIGITALes Label: Paul Dolden (whom I interviewed in RL for Musicworks Magazine) and Robert Normandeau (whom I had some drinks with in RL at the Bengal Lounge in the Empress Hotel in Victoria) are a couple examples of the composers I am deeply influenced by. Another extremely local influence is Barry Truax who (along with people like Curtis Roads), invented granular synthesis.

Outside of the music world, I was also directly inspired by a musical lecture that the Dutch artist John Körmeling gave a few years ago in Vancouver (RL) about his drive-in ferris wheel called, Mobile Fun.

Ok, enough about my musical muses and other assorted immortal idols, lets focus now on more practical matters...

MY COMPOSITIONAL PROCESSES:

THE CLASSICALLY NOTATED SCORES FOR THE "CLASSICIST" PERFORMERS:

Before I show you the notated scores, here are the official Performance Instructions for Classicist Performers (which applied to both flute and cello players):

1) NAVIGATING FROM START TO FINISH ON THE FERRIS WHEEL (RIESENRAD)

a- At the composition's beginning, all performers pick their own seat on the ferris wheel and wait for Wirxli to begin conducting (or through a group IM from Wirxli).

b- All seats will seat one avatar except for the very top and very bottom chair, which will seat two.

c- Sitting is done by right-clicking on the chair. To move to the next chair, just right-click on it and "sit here".

d- To begin the piece, Wirxli will conduct (using a sound and corresponding animation) the Orchestra to begin moving in clockwise motion but this will reverse over time.

d- Please only move your avatar from chair-to-chair when Wirxli is conducting. If Wirxli has stopped waving the baton, you must also remain in your chair.

e- If there are no places on the wheel either directly in front or behind you to sit down when Wirxli stops conducting. You join the audience and stop playing.


2) PAY ATTENTION TO WIRXLI's CONDUCTING ANIMS AND CORRESPONDING SOUNDS

a- When instructed by Wirxli (in conducting mode), the players will perform either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion.

b- Wirxli is the conductor and will be playing two samples while conducting.

c- One sound to cue the performers to gradually move from chair to chair (right-clicking on the next chair) in a clockwise motion.

d- ...and the other in a counter-clockwise motion. The counter-clockwise sample sounds slightly "backwards" and is also lower in pitch.

3) CLASSICAL PERFORMANCE INSTRUCTIONS

a- The Cello and flute players have their own "mantra" available as an uploaded image showing a few measures of conventional notation composed by Wirxli.

b- Each performer will transpose their personal mantra depending on the chair they are sitting on.

c- The rhythm is merely suggested for playing under ideal conditions.

d- If one cannot play their instrument reliably in realtime due to lag or other factors, one can treat the notated score as a basic TONE-ROW.

e- Transposing the pitch-set (tone row) in ascending or descending order will be determined by the direction each Classcist is traveling on the wheel.

f- The classcist can move after playing one repetition of the mantra (or Tone Row) in its correct transposition and direction (see below).

g- The transposition is as follows: Starting chair = notated mantra...
Pink chair = transposed up/down one semitone,
blue chair = transposed up/down one minor third ,
purple chair = transposed up/down an additional semitone

h- After going through 3 seat transpositions, one may return to the tonic position (as seen in notated score) and begin transposing again.

i- When moving clockwise, please play the entire mantra from beginning to end once unless Wirxli stops conducting.

j- when moving counter-clockwise, please play the mantra in RETROGRADE unless Wirxli stops conducting but the colour-coded transpositions still apply.

4) STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

a- The composition formally ends when enough orchestra players cannot find a place to sit in their immediate vicinity when Wirxli's conducting has paused.

b- You are not encouraged to listen to the Modernists as they might distract you from your realtime sight-reading pitch transpositions and focus on the conductor.

c- most importantly, focus on the conductor and the avatar(s) one seat next to you (front and behind).

NOTE: IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION ABOUT THE CLACISSISTS'S PERFORMANCE ROLE IN "RIESENRAD", PLEASE CONTACT WIRXLI DIRECTLY ON THE GOOGLE LIST OR IN-WORLD.

This is the c-score for the hypercello's mantra. The rhythm is subjective and also based on the bandwidth speed ("lag") at the time. So, if the bandwidth lag is really slow, the performer can ignore the tempo and rhythmic intervals and treat the score more like a tone-row.

This is the c-score for the hyperflute's mantra. The fact that the notation seems "faster" than the cello's score does not mean the flute may actually play faster in realtime. Again, the speed of this can vary according to the performer's confidence in the piece and the bandwidth "lag" that may slow down the instrument's response to the performer. The rhythmic notation is only meant to be performed under ideal conditions and can also be played as a tone-row if the instrument is barely responsive due to bandwidth "lag" issues.

THE MODERNIST HUDs DESIGNED BY BINGO ONOMATOPOEIA FOR THE MODERNIST PERFORMERS:

Before I show the picture, here is an excerpt from the official Performance Instructions for the Modernist Performers (and I quote):

1) NAVIGATING FROM START TO FINISH ON THE FERRIS WHEEL (RIESENRAD)

a- At the composition's beginning, all performers pick their own seat on the ferris wheel and wait for Wirxli to begin conducting (or through a group IM from Wirxli).

b- All seats will seat one avatar except for the very top and very bottom chair, which will seat two.

c- Sitting is done by right-clicking on the chair. To move to the next chair, just right-click on it and "sit here".

d- To begin the piece, Wirxli will conduct (using a sound and corresponding animation) the Orchestra to begin moving in clockwise motion but this will reverse over time.

d- Please only move your avatar from chair-to-chair when Wirxli is conducting. If Wirxli has stopped waving the baton, you must also remain in your chair.

e- If there are no places on the wheel either directly in front or behind you to sit down when Wirxli stops conducting. You join the audience and stop playing.


2) PAY ATTENTION TO WIRXLI's CONDUCTING ANIMS AND CORRESPONDING SOUNDS

a- When instructed by Wirxli (in conducting mode), the players will perform either in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion.

b- Wirxli is the conductor and will be playing two samples while conducting.

c- One sound to cue the performers to gradually move from chair to chair (right-clicking on the next chair) in a clockwise motion.

d- ...and the other in a counter-clockwise motion. The counter-clockwise sample sounds slightly "backwards" and is also lower in pitch.

3) ABOUT THE HUDs DESIGNED BY AND DISTRIBUTED BY BINGO ONOMATOPOEIA

a- Each Modernist is given two circular performance HUDs: Germanic and Turkish (the latter with crescent shaped buttons).

b- For both HUDs, you may play any of the buttons with any rhythm in any sequence as long as it corresponds to the colour of the chair that you are seated in.

c- When moving to a different coloured seat, you must select only the buttons that match the corresponding seat colour... Blue, Pink and Purple.

d- For the most part, you are encouraged to play the Germanic HUD far more often than the Turkish one.

e- It is only with restraint and in the height of passion do you resort to playing a colour-coded button from your Turkish HUD wheel.

f- When you press any button from your HUD, your avatar's body will automaticaly animate as it if were a ferris wheel chair.

3) STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

a- The composition formally ends when enough orchestra players cannot find a place to sit in their immediate vicinity when Wirxli's conducting has paused.

b- Even though you are allowed to improvise with the HUDs and are only limited to interface colour coordination, listening to other Modernists is encouraged.

c- You are also encouraged to listen to the Classicists while improvising with the Modernist HUDs but most importantly, focus on the conductor and the avatar(s) one seat next to you (front and behind).

NOTE: IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION ABOUT THE MODERNIST'S PERFORMANCE ROLE IN "RIESENRAD", PLEASE CONTACT WIRXLI DIRECTLY ON THE GOOGLE LIST OR IN-WORLD.

Ok! Phew! You must almost be feeling the same stress each Modernist performer felt during the Dress Rehearsal, right? Heheheheheheh... Ok, as a reward for your virtual sweat and tears, here is the pic to illustrate the 2 interfaces:

Here is the aforementioned pic I took of myself at the Music Academy shortly before this blog posting was published simply for the purpose of showing you (the blog reader) these 2 Modernist Performance HUDs that Bingo Onomatopoeia helped me bring to fruition. As you can see, each HUD is mirrored after the design of the ferris wheel (that the Orchestra's Set-Architect Dethomas Dibou actually built using the HUD interface design themselves as 2-dimensional schematic diagrams). So in this case, each of the 12 buttons (12 per HUD, that is) represent the 12 ferris wheel chairs. The HUD on the left is the plainer Germanic one while the funkier and less restrained Turkish HUD on the right was originally supposed to have crescent-shaped buttons but instead, wound up looking like the marshmallow moons that one can find in Lucky Charms brand cereal boxes for kiddies in North America...sigh! ;-) And in no way, am I making a direct correlation between these 2 illusrated HUDs and the 2 photographed DUD(e)s from the Second Viennese School shown boldly in the background... although, now that I think about it, I think Berg was slightly more "Turkish" than Webern....hmmmm...if only those two composers switched spaces or the Academy could have inverted their pose in photoshop somehow? Maybe then, everything would fall into place and we could accept the Received Canon ;-)

SELECTED PHOTOS FROM THE RIESENRAD REHEARSALS:

Photo by Maxxo Klaar. Here is a nice shot of me on the old unvarnished conductor's podium which was being designed in realtime by Bingo Onomatopoeia who is also the Orchestra's Instrument Builder. In this pic, you can see Maxxo has rolled right over in anticipation of further choreographed rolling, tilting and rocking on performance day. In the video at the top of this posting, you can also see some extreme close-ups of Maxxo rolling over.

Photo by Maxxo Klaar.Maxxo took this wonderful action-shot of me entertaining the masses while cueing the Orchestra with my divinely conducted laser light show.

Photo by Maxxo Klaar.Here is a sublime shot of the immortal and divinely guided Conductor/Composer taken from the lowly vantage point of the music critic...heheheheheh!

Photo by Maxxo Klaar.Here is a momentary peek back not just behind the scenes and behind the wheel but also behind the times way back into the earliest rehearsal days but let me tell you, I am hardly nostalgic for this preperatory era. During these rehearsals, 2 identical ferris wheels (one was a virtual doppelganger) were accidentally installed side by side and the floor was littered with one giant invisible trap door (more like a trap HOLE, actually!). At least this pic shows the full seating arrangement on the floor.

I actually managed to take a snapshot at the exact moment that Maxxo mentioned the infamous trap "doors".

Photo by Maxxo Klaar. Here is an additional close up of the seating arrangement and also illuminates the immortal profile of the Orchestra's in-house videographer, Evo Szuyuan.

Here is another look at the conductor's podium at an even earlier stage of development.

Yet another podium for you here but you will see that at the time this snapshot was taken, the podium was being sufficiently sized so I can could stand on it properly without falling (or nodding) off...

This pic is important to pay attention to because not only is it another glorious example of me conducting close-up (all you scholars can drool in awe over my meticulous masterstrokes) but it also shows a detail of my interactive floating sidepack (yes, the thingie that looks like a miniature version of one of the pink chairs...this sidepack was also designed by Bingo) that was responsible for remotely generating and spatially transmitting my conductor drones. Acting as a kind of meterosexual traffic light, the sidepack was also colour coded so it could indicate to the Orchestra players the direction they should be moving in on the wheel (purple for counter-clockwise and pink for clockwise). For awhile, this sidepack was too small to be visible by enough players so they kept on missing their cues. During this uncertain transitional rehearsal period, Bingo temporarily enlarged this sidepack but it grew to also have an autonamous life of its own. I guess the sidepack had an insatiable appetite to grow even larger so it began to look for some local avatar pixel-flesh to consume. It was not long before my very own trusty sidepack (more like side-PacMan) knocked me off the conductor's podium and chased me all the way to the other side of Odyssey Island. I know this sounds kind of surreal to those blog readers who are only accustomed to rehearsal situations in real life but how often do you come across a scenario where the conductor gets hunted down by his own ravenous gear? I wish I had a snapshot of this sidepack chase scene but unfortunately, I was too busy engaging in the fight-or-flight survival instincts that I was unable to take a good photo of my mutated monster sidepack. Regardless, I eventually came to my senses and realized during our dress rehearsal that I had to re-shrink the sidepack as it was getting to hazardous to live the lifestyle of a populist just to feed the functional needs of my own Orchestra. Oh, on another note, that weird looking "Starship Enterprise" thingie is some sort of sculpture by another artist (maybe Dethomas Dibou?) so that was not an intentional component of my Riesenrad's set design but it sure did make the audience members contemplate the possibility that my compositation may have possessed an additional enigmatic component.

Here is a generic pic that basically is just showing you a decent side profile of one of our regular rehearsals (which occur every Tuesday) in early November.

I guess I am running out of historically meaningful pix about Riesenrad from my documentation archive but at least this one is aesthetically pleasing! Ahhhhh... How many Orchestras in Real Life get to rehearse outside with a fully forced sunset (or maybe it is sunrise)?

Well, as you and your blog-reading partner in RL walk off into the forced Schopenhauerian sunset together to contemplate the enormity of the divine meaning behind my musical composition, I should prepare the rest of my archives from the Orchestra's landmark show at Wien Modern....stay tuned for more Procrastination...er... prolific productivity ;-)

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse in Chicago, Berlin and Regensburg...

If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.
OFFICIAL VIDEO INFO: The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a pioneering New Music Ensemble in the popular virtual world, Second Life. This is a promo video from the AOM's recent concert tour in Berlin. The composition being performed for this promo is Fragula by Miulew Takahe. This video clip was recorded directly off of a screen in real life (RL) by Eifach Vacirca on behalf of the Kunstnet community. For the hi-rez movie links, go to the Kunstnet posting and to the direct download...

Here are members of the Orchestra getting ready to perform one the earliest classics from our repetoire for the SLCC in Chicago. This aforementioned composition is called WNK and was created by our German HUD builder, Bingo Onomatopoeia.

***UPDATE FROM THE NEAR FUTURE....
BINGO ONOMATOPOEIA HAS BEEN INTERVIEWED ON THE RADIO IN BERLIN ABOUT THE AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE... HE IS THE LAST SPEAKER ON THIS AUDIO EXCERPT... TO LISTEN TO HIS AUDIO INTERVIEW IN GERMAN FOR DEUTSCHLANDFUNK (A NATIONWIDE STATE-OWNED RADIO STATION), CLICK HERE...***

Hey there Contemporary Classicists, Bavarian Beermongers, and Gesamtkunstwerk Gamers,

This past weekend has been a frenzy of ear-frequency activity... The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse had officially launched their 2007 World Tour at the SLCC in Chicago and within a day had played the Kulturforum in Berlin's famous Potsdamer Platz!

Here is the official website for more information about our final event in Berlin...

Be sure to look carefully at both the official AOM and xxXtenxion blogs for info but in the meantime, check out more photos below and amuse yourself with my quasi-witty text commentary (in Italics, for tradition's sake)....

AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE's CONCERT FOR THE 3RD ANNUAL SECOND LIFE COMMUNITY CONVENTION IN CHICAGO:

Here is a close-up of some of the orchestra members (myself included) getting ready to dance to Bingo's in-world breakbeats...

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse in Leerer Beutel - Regensburg...

Here is the Orchestra at Leerer Beutel in Regensburg. The photo on the wall is showing documentation of the RL component of this festival set up by Pomodoro Bolzano and Maxxo Klaar. Klaar also curated a panel called Dresscode Avatar and a headphone festival for all the off-world Bavarians to enjoy :-) Speaking of headphones, in the furthest right-hand corner, you can see two bohemian Bavarians enjoying the live tunage with the help of virtual headphones... Oh, you have probably also been somewhat intrigued with Nnoiz Papp's new avatar. Alot of my camera angles were calculated to display his exotic form...If you more closely at Nnoiz, you will see his custom designed snake-charmer "oboe" and this large fog-horn on his back that he premiered during his performance in my composition for the 2nd set for the Regensburg crowd called SLippery SLope....You will read more about that below...

Here is another angle showing even more gratuitous profiles of myself and my classical-colleagues-in-crime...

In this picture, I was able to document the 3 Wonders of the World which official are: I - The bling bling from my shades, II - Evo Szuyuan's "pink" bunny SLippers and III - The charming visage of Nnoiz.... Oh, I must also namedrop one of our charming videographers, Angrybeth Shortbread...In a sense, she remains the fourth wonder of the weird world called the Metaverse...

In this pic you can get a better sense of how claustrophobic the performance space actually was....I guess one should not complain since I think we were actually performing in a restaurant, after all ;-) Aside from the classically connisseured crowd, you are probably also dilligently studying the pop-up window in the upper-left region which happens to be the notecard score for Miulew Takahe's composition, Rue Blanche...All Orchestra performers have to read scores just as an Orchestra in RL would... I am sure the crowd of mostly Germans appreciated our level of professionalism and efficiency ;-)I must say though, that we usually need more headroom when performing this piece...Thank goodness my SLippery SLopes were not installed here....oh, for the context behind my "Slippery SLope" composition, you will need to scroll down past this next photo below (I am ever the shameless self-promoter, eh?)...

Here is a close-up of those phone-y Bavarians....heheheheheh! Placed efficiently on the wall is the schedule of events in Regensburg.... I am guessing though that you first impression of the scheduled events was that it was for some sort of Euro-Glitch-Rave taking place in the middle of a virtualized Black Forest, right? Hmmmm... I wonder if Poli Papp depicted in this photo is actually related to Nnoiz Papp? Hmmmmm.....Poli want an Oboe?

My composition SLippery SLope (2007) was re-performed in Virtual Haidplatz/Regensburg...


Here once again we have the Orchestra lining up for a group photo in commemoration of the (approximately) 1 month anniverssary of the previous performance of my first in-world composition, "SLippery SLope" (2007) at Virtual Haidplatz... Ok, to save you and me precious blogging time/space, just click on my previous blog postings to watch the video, observe the dress rehearsal, hang out with the SLopes, the first official rehearsal, the composition's world premiere in London and the history behind this composition.... Oh, and also check out the archive of recordings located here, here, here and here... As much as I like to re-hype my own compositions, I certainly loathe having to explain it every single time...sigh! The only major differences between this performance and previous performances of this composition are threefold: 1 - I actually finished the Slippery journey first... 2 - The AOM's dedicated architect DeThomas Dibou considered making my SLopes a little more Slippery than usual but decided instead to merely re-install them at a slightly different geographical orientation.... 3 - Nnoiz Papp played his brand new snake-charming oboe and added a middle-eastern flavour to the score...I hope someone recorded and/or video-documented this performance!

Here is proof that I was the very first avatar to complete the previous two SLopes before anyone else. Some of the more lag-luster Orchestral performers accused me of cheating but I actually did not land on the ground for any considerable length of time...For the most part, I landed on the same SLope that I ascended on and since I am the composer of this piece, I do not consider this to spatial "loophole" to be a form of "cheating" ;-)

This is further evidence (nay, proof) that the actual essence of my composition is experiential and non-competitive in nature....If my composition was a form of competitive sports, you would have seen me being mugged by the rest of the Orchestra by now ;-) But seriously for a minute, this piece was composed in good spirits and was intended to be more of a subjective and participatory experience than simply a "game"....

AOM's bonus performances from the 2nd set in Virtual Haidplatz for Regensburg...

Well, because I actually came in first instead of last like last time, we managed to complete this composition ahead of schedule so we decided to play a couple of our classics from our immortal repetoire... So, once again, we played Bingo Onomatopoeia's WNK as a sort of extended encore...

Since the audience's enthusiasm was on the borderline of being overwhelmingly positive and fanatical, we just HAD to perform Miulew Takahe's visually stunning composition, Fragula.... It became rather apparent to everyone present for this performance that we needed a much more substantial RL venue to absorb the ecstacy and mania embedded into the emotional content of our compositions and fortunately, we had one such venue booked in Berlin... In a matter of minutes, we blasted a splash presentation at the RL Postdamer Platz in Berlin!

AOM's 1st set at Potsdamer Platz (Kulturforum) in Berlin...

Here we are at the Odyssey Ampitheatre peforming our 1st set for a very large RL concert in Berlin's Kulturforum (aka. somewhere in the Potsdamer Platz downtown). I have not seen the photodocumentation from the RL side of the screen but I am sure (well, I hope and have faith) that the audience attendence was at least as big as the in-world one. You are probably focusing your gaze on the 3 pop-windows mentioned 3 dance moves...yes, one of the moves says "Bored Dance" but that does not mean that I was bored while playing Bingo's "WNK" composition...On the contrary, I merely started with this template dance to make the Flashdance...er... "fastdance" (designed by the owner of Odyssey, Sugar Seville) look that much more ecstatic and luniverian...ummmm...is "Luniverian" a word?

AOM's 2nd set at Potsdamer Platz (Kulturforum) in Berlin...

After a merciful 2 hour lunch-break (dinner break for those in Berlin's local time-zone), the Orchestra reconvened to perform the oldest of our Golden Oldies - Fadheit (2006) by Maximillian Nakamura. And yes, the pop-up window is Nakamura's elegant notecard score.... As for those square buttons, click here to read what they are. Since we craved a change of scenery, we decided to perform underwater (naturally) so we could host an evening on Top of the Pops called "Drowning Amongst The Classics". In other news, the guy with the punky green hair and fashionable minimalist white suit and tie ensemble is none other than my good friend and possible future collaborator, Nyko Nakamura (no known relation to Max)...

Here we are on the verge of completing our concert in its entirety. Again, you can get a sense of the population density partaking in our audio phantasy...

...did I mention that consumers of classical music can appear quite eccentric at times? Heheheheheheheh....

SLippery SLope Video!

Wirxli FLimflam - "SLippery SLope" (2007)
Video recorded and edited by Evo Szuyuan. If you cannot see this embedded video, click here.

Hey there in-world music composition fans,

Finally, Evo Szuyuan has recorded an accurate and sublime machinima version of my first composition for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, called "SLippery SLope" (2007).

Many many thanks to all the Avatar Orchestra performers as well as Evo Szuyuan for reflecting the composer's original intention in the form of a fantastic video/audio edit!

Also, super thanks goes out to:

A) DeThomas Dibou who designed and built these special architectonic SLopes exclusively for my composition.

B) Bingo Onomatopoeia for the customized HUD performance interface design for my composition.

C) Miulew Takahe for coordinating the Orchestra rehearsals as well as engineering the audio recording archives.

D) DannyDarko Raymaker for taking the very first video-document of SLippery SLope.

E) Maximillian Nakamura (the Founder of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse) for helping me develop the first performance HUD for SLippery SLope.

To learn more about the history and context (including the performer credits) behind my very first music opus composed exclusively for the Second Life universe, click on these previous blog postings:

1) SLope SLipping and hanging out.

2) SLippery Slope's in-world Premiere for the Pages exhibition in London. This first performance includes the first machinima video archive by DannyDarko Raymaker (video recording) and Miulew Takahe (audio recording) as well as the full transcript of the official notecard score.

2) SLippery Slope's dress rehearsal.

3) Thursday's SLippery Slope rehearsal.

4) Bingo's HUD help in his Hometown.


Also, check out these audio podcast archives recorded and collected by Avatar Orchestra Metaverse co-founder, Miulew Takahe in reverse-chronological order...

I - Recording of the studio version of SLippery SLope recorded by Hopi Jun and Miulew Takahe for the official machinima performance for Evo Szuyuan's videography.

II- The second half of the official machinima re-take peformed in reverse-SLope order to generate bonus video material for Evo Szuyuan.

III- Documentary recording of the 1st official performance of SLippery SLope.

IV - HUD test for SLippery SLope (the composition-in-progress).

SLippery SLope Dress Rehearsal

Here I am performing with both my hypercello and my purple HUD backpack alongside the HUD designer, Bingo Onomatopoeia. Quite the action shot, eh? Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Hey performance art and muzak fans,

Yaaay! The attendence was superb for the dress rehearsal of my brand new composition "SLippery SLope" for the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse. We will be playing the premiere as part of the Pages Exhibition in London on June 30th. Spinster Voom will be curating this event.

Anyways, the orchestra performers were very resilient and rarely slipped on the 3 SLippery SLopes that DeThomas Dibou made for my composition. I think we can perform this within the 30 minute time frame offered by the curator. I am also very pleased that the AOM is starting to be more "orchestral" in scale...I think I had a full string section (well, a string quartet of cellos anyway) and at least 2 flutes!

Here is the quick bit of PR about SLippery SLope that I wrote on the fly to meet Spinster's looming press deadlines...

"Wirxli Flimflam's SLippery SLope is a performative composition that enables each orchestra performer (avatar) to navigate through the SLopes designed for him/her (Wirxli is gender neutral) by DeThomas Dibou in Virtual Haidplatz.
Wirxli has divided the roles of each orchestral performer into 2 groups: Classicist and HUDer. The Classicist plays "conventional" classical instruments such as cello and flute. The HUDer wears a HUD (Heads Up Display) whose interface was designed by Bingo Onomatopoiea. The goal of each performer is to climb up 3 SLippery SLopes without falling. Aleatoric instructions are given to each orchestral performer in order for them to determine how to musically interpret these 3 SLippery SLopes."

I want to thank Evo Szuyuan for taking such great action shots of yesterday's rehearsal. If you want to see more of here photos from this event, click here.

Well, here are a few more from Evo's Picasa website.

Here is an aerial view of Virtual Haidplatz. This gives you a general sense of what the entire performance space looks like with all 3 SLopes visible. Photo by Evo Szuyuan.


This pic was taken near the beginning of what I think is our 1st dress rehearsal. We are on the 1st blue SLippery SLope which I think is the most difficult one to ascend without falling off. In skiing, the "Blue Square" is the intermediate level, but this felt more like we were skiing uphill on a "Black Diamond" ski run...yikes! Photo by Evo Szuyuan.


It looks like Bingo and Jannne Janus have successfully reached the crest of the blue SLope...yaaay! Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Bluewave Ogee also made a concerted effort to finish ascending the blue SLope. Maybe she just liked the colour blue because it matched her name? Maybe she was fixated on the colour or something? LOL! ;-) One tip I have for the performers is to take a run straight up the blue SLope without looking back - be brave and the blue SLope will be bypassed. Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Here is proof that I actually eventually made it to the concluding purple SLope...phew! Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Here is Jannne Janus triumphantly playing his hypercello on the edge of the pink SLope...what a cliffhanger....er...SLopehanger! ;-) Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

This a lovely pic of my good friend Chi5 Shenzhou who decided to perform as a HUDer for my composition...yaaaay! Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

My composition was not the only one we workshopped for June 30th. In fact, the orchestra also previewed Miulew Takahe's brand new composition, Fragula. Here is a pic of the two of us performing it...the way this photo was taken, you would think it was a duet or something. ;-)



....anyways, I look forward to performing premieres of both my composition SLippery SLope and Miulew's piece Fragula on June 30th :-)

Thursday's SLippery SLope rehearsal...

Posing in front of the blue starting SLope - Left-right: Wirxli (me), Miulew Takahe, Junivers Stockholm (hyper-flute), Bingo Onomatopoeia and Way Sands (hyper-cello). Miulew and Bingo are going to be "HUDers" while Junivers and Way will be among the mini-legion of "Classicists". Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Hey performance art and new muzak fans,

My first official rehearsal dedicated to my new music composition, SLippery SLope was a success! Many thanks to DeThomas Dibou for creating my 3 SLopes. I encourage you to attend the in-world premiere on the 30th of June as it already sounds radically different than our 1st HUD-only rehearsal in late April.

I will not tell you much about the composition within this post as I would rather save that for a future blog posting where I can reflect on SLippery SLope's in-world premiere at Spinster Voom's Pages exhibition in London (RL) and Haidplatz (SL).

I will only say for now that I am mixing classical performers and HUD navigators into my composition...It will be a tribute to both the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries :-)

In the meantime, check out a couple more photos from thursday's AOM rehearsal of my composition "SLippery SLope"...

Aerial view of Haidplatz. This view shows the blue, purple SLopes and part of the pink SLope. Photo by Evo Szuyuan.

Here is a pic that I took where I show some of the performers' nametags for your convenient benefit. You can see a colourbar to my left. That is part of the performance HUD designed by Bingo.

I almost forgot to mention that my AOM composition will be premiering on the same day as my collaborative performance with my adopted SL daughter, Fwwixli Swindlehurst.