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This thesis presents the creative process of Instrumental Interaction V for 3 Karlax, ensemble, and electronics. This piece was premiered on February 21, 2025, at the Multi- Media Room (MMR) by ensemble Éclat and Karlax players D. Andrew Stewart, Tom Mays, and Huizi Wang as part of the Montreal Nouvelles Musiques 2025 festival. The Karlax is a clarinet-shaped digital musical instrument (DMI) whose main sensors are ten continuous keys, eight velocity pistons, a rotary axis, and an inertial unit with three axes of accelerometers and gyroscopes.
After over fifty years of creations with DMIs and the first conclusive interfaces such as Michel Waisvisz’s The Hands conceived in the 1980s, digital musical instruments remain little integrated into contemporary musical practices (Ferguson & Wanderley 2010). This thesis first addresses the main issues of using DMIs in a mixed context with acoustic instruments. A DMI consists of three parts: an interface, a sound-generating system, and mapping strategies that associate interface data with sound synthesis parameters (Miranda & Wanderley 2006). One of the main differences between an acoustic instrument and a DMI lies in the sound-gesture relationship. For an acoustic instrument, this relationship is determined by the physical behaviors of vibrating structures (e.g. strings, membranes, air columns, etc.), whereas for a DMI, this relationship is to be constructed by composers and performers. This particularity implies elements of language specific to DMIs, such as an emphasis on gesture, both physical (instrumental or choreographed) and metaphorical (Smalley 1997), an intermodal perception that is both acoustic and visual, a parametric writing, specific instrumental interactions described by metaphors drawn from computer music and human-computer interaction field, and an original conception of musical time. In addition, the use of DMIs involves a range of techniques of its own, such as data conditioning to expand the gestural vocabulary, techniques linked to the mapping phase (scaling, smoothing, adding functions, morphing, etc.), sound synthesis, real-time sound processing, spatialization techniques, and notation. Depending on the project, notation techniques can be either prescriptive, describing the performer’s actions, or descriptive, commenting on the sound phenomenon. Finally, this first part presents in detail the Karlax interface, its main composition and interpretation strategies, and its originality to other interfaces.
The second part first analyzes the piece Instrumental Interaction V. This piece is built around several layers of writing, based on typologies of musical “gestures” and predetermined situations that favour interactions between the Karlax and acoustic instruments. It presents the writing strategies for the Karlax with choices of playing techniques, mappings, sound synthesis, spatialization, notation, and movements. Subsequently, perceptual aspects are discussed by presenting a perception study conducted at McGill University commenting on the strategies of interaction between a Karlax and an acoustic instrument. Based on the results of the experiment, this section offers an audiovisual analysis of Instrumental Interaction V. Finally, the thesis returns to the use of DMIs in general and the Karlax in particular, through a review of a unique creation for three DMIs in an ensemble context interacting with acoustic instruments.

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IDMIL Participants:

• Benjamin Lavastre

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Thesis_Lavastre_Final_Submission