Van Stiefel Composer, Guitarist, and Educator

Symposium on Laptop Ensembles

April marks the third performance of "Jargo's Table" (written for the 2010 TEDx Phoenixville) at the first Symposium on Laptop Ensembles and Orchestras (SLEO) at LSU.

Jargo's Table (for four laptops on a local network) is a "compositional space" in which each (laptop) player is responsible for determining a singular compositional parameter for all four machines. One machine chooses "Texture," or which machine, or pairs, will play ordered or unordered pitch sequences (called "Colors," as in isorhythmic motet). A second machine chooses the actual pitch content from an array of given sets. A third instrument chooses from a small palette of timbres for single machine, pairs, or all machines in combination. The fourth chooses from palettes of duration sequences, and/or a multipliers for the "unit-pulse", and/or delay values(control rate) for the onset of the rhythmic sequences on a given machine (so that, for instance: if the "Texture" player chooses an "ordered" melody for all instruments and the "Rhythm" player delays one or more machines, a canonic textures will result).

As it is, Jargo's Table is a "chamber piece" for four "composer/improvisors;" however, a large ensemble version could be implemented if presenters are comfortable turning groups of stations stations into "bots." Jargo's Table is named after a cherry table, hand-made for my family by my grandfather--which seemed like the perfect metaphor for the piece: a structure for celebrating (and exploring) the interdependence of constituent elements.