Repurposing a Rhythm Accompaniment System for Pipe Organ Performance

Nicholas Evans, Behzad Haki, and Sergi Jordà

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of a human-machine collaborative musical performance by Raül Refree utilizing multiple MIDI-enabled pipe organs at Palau Güell, as part of the Organic concert series. Our earlier collaboration focused on live performances using drum generation systems, where generative models captured rhythmic transient structures while ignoring harmonic information. For the organ performance, we required a system capable of generating harmonic sequences in real-time, conditioned on Refree's performance. Instead of developing a comprehensive state-of-the-art model, we integrated a more traditional generative method to convert our pitch-agnostic rhythmic patterns into harmonic sequences. This paper details the development process, the creative and technical considerations behind the final performance, and a reflection on the efficacy and adaptability of the chosen methodology.

Citation

Nicholas Evans, Behzad Haki, and Sergi Jordà. 2025. Repurposing a Rhythm Accompaniment System for Pipe Organ Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15698807 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@article{nime2025_16,
 abstract = {This paper presents an overview of a human-machine collaborative musical performance by Raül Refree utilizing multiple MIDI-enabled pipe organs at Palau Güell, as part of the Organic concert series. Our earlier collaboration focused on live performances using drum generation systems, where generative models captured rhythmic transient structures while ignoring harmonic information. For the organ performance, we required a system capable of generating harmonic sequences in real-time, conditioned on Refree's performance. Instead of developing a comprehensive state-of-the-art model, we integrated a more traditional generative method to convert our pitch-agnostic rhythmic patterns into harmonic sequences. This paper details the development process, the creative and technical considerations behind the final performance, and a reflection on the efficacy and adaptability of the chosen methodology.},
 address = {Canberra, Australia},
 articleno = {16},
 author = {Nicholas Evans and Behzad Haki and Sergi Jordà},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15698807},
 editor = {Doga Cavdir and Florent Berthaut},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 numpages = {5},
 pages = {116--120},
 title = {Repurposing a Rhythm Accompaniment System for Pipe Organ Performance},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2025/nime2025_16.pdf},
 year = {2025}
}