The functional performer system
Goffredo M. Haus, Alberto Stiglitz · Interface · 1993
Music performance traditionally consists in sequences of events (notes and chords, for example) as the basic objects. In this paper we show how music can be performed at a more abstract level in which the basic music object is a pattern of musical text (i.e. a chunk of a score). We have designed, implemented and experimented FP (Functional Performer), a software tool that allows the real‐time processing of music patterns by means of music functions (e.g. tonal and modal transposition, mirror inversion, juxtaposition, superimposition, time shrinking, and so on); functions are activated by the ASCII keyboard keys and are either deterministic or non‐deterministic. Patterns obtained by functions may be arguments for other functions during the current performance. Music is generated as MIDI data and real‐time executed by MIDI devices controlled by FP.