Zipper Music

Judith Shatin, and Maxwell Tfirn

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Zipper Music is scored for 2 amplified zipper players with interactive electronics performed by a MIDI controller operator. It forms part of my Quotidian Music series, embodying the musicality afforded by everyday sounds, and performable by 'everyday' people, without requiring traditional musical training. Each zipper has a distinctive timbre, depending on material and length, as well as the fabric to which it is sewn. The zipper players are amplified and the sound of each is sent to a laptop. Next, their sound is either transformed using a MIDI controller, or sent through untouched, to stereo speakers. Coomposer Max Tfirm developed the original Max patch in consultation with me, with some additional changes by Alex Christie. The piece can be thought of as a dialogue, where the actors may be in sync or not; may try to convince one another, interrupt one another, or even talk over one another. Ultimately, they agree. The premiere performance is linked below. This version is for 2 amplified zipper players and 2 MIDI controllers and was premiered by the University of Virginia New Music Ensemble with Danielle Zevitz and Tianyu Zhang as zipper players, and Alex Christie and Travis Thatcher on MIDI controllers. The duration is 8:00, a minute longer than your requested duration; the structure was built around this time frame.

Citation:

Judith Shatin, and Maxwell Tfirn. 2020. Zipper Music. Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6350604

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime20-music-Shatin,
 abstract = {Zipper Music is scored for 2 amplified zipper players with interactive electronics performed by a MIDI controller operator. It forms part of my Quotidian Music series, embodying the musicality afforded by everyday sounds, and performable by 'everyday' people, without requiring traditional musical training. Each zipper has a distinctive timbre, depending on material and length, as well as the fabric to which it is sewn. The zipper players are amplified and the sound of each is sent to a laptop. Next, their sound is either transformed using a MIDI controller, or sent through untouched, to stereo speakers. Coomposer Max Tfirm developed the original Max patch in consultation with me, with some additional changes by Alex Christie. The piece can be thought of as a dialogue, where the actors may be in sync or not; may try to convince one another, interrupt one another, or even talk over one another. Ultimately, they agree. The premiere performance is linked below. This version is for 2 amplified zipper players and 2 MIDI controllers and was premiered by the University of Virginia New Music Ensemble with Danielle Zevitz and Tianyu Zhang as zipper players, and Alex Christie and Travis Thatcher on MIDI controllers. The duration is 8:00, a minute longer than your requested duration; the structure was built around this time frame.},
 address = {Birmingham, UK},
 author = {Shatin, Judith and Tfirn, Maxwell},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.6350604},
 editor = {Wright, Joe and Feng, Jian},
 month = {July},
 pages = {8-9},
 publisher = {Royal Birmingham Conservatoire},
 title = {Zipper Music},
 url = {http://w ww.nime.org/proceedings/2020/nime2020_music03.pdf},
 year = {2020}
}