Topic: FontanaMixer is a Mac OS generative sound environment based on "Fontana Mix"

[Software Santa]

FontanaMixer is a MacOS generative sound environment based on "Fontana Mix"

https://www.essl.at/works/fontana-mixer/download.html

FontanaMixer
generative sound environment after "Fontana Mix" by John Cage
© 2004-2020 by Karlheinz Essl


Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl's software implements the chance operations of John Cage's Fontana Mix - which originally involved the placement of transparent sheets over each other to determine the parameters and timing of each sound object - as a computerized chance algorithm. This program generates a realization of Cage's work on-the-fly, visualizing the random decisions of the algorithm as they are made by the software.

Essl's recreation of the Cage work not only transfers it from the analog to the digital domain. It also crucially delays the execution of the chance operations from the moment of composition to the moment of performance (on each listener's own computer). And each performance is unique not only because of the different results of these chance operations, but also because listener-collaborators control the performance by determining its duration and by selecting the source soundfiles to be used. (Jason Freeman)

in: Mediation Station - an unauthored music terminal
About
FontanaMixer is a generative sound environment based on John Cage's conceptual piece "Fontana Mix" (1958) which can be seen as a set of instructions for creating any number of compositions. The "score" supplies a number of transparent foils with dots, lines and graphs which have to be overlapped in random positions and placed over a page that contains 6 curved and intermingled lines. By measuring positions of crossing lines one will obtain 6 parameter values which are needed to determine a single sound event. The choice of the parameters is free:

10 transparent sheets with points, 10 drawings having six differentiated curved lines, a graph (having 100 units horizontally, 20 vertically) and a straightline, the two last on transparent material.

Place a sheet with points over a drawing with curves (in any position). Over these place the graph. Use the straight line to connect a point within the graph with one outside.

Measurements horizontally on the top and bottom lines of the graph with respect to the straight line give a 'time bracket' (time within which the event may take place).

Measurements vertically on the graph with respect to the intersections of the curved lines and the straight line may specify actions to be made. Thus in case of tape music, the thickest curved line may give sound sources. (...) Intersections of the other lines may specify machines for the alteration of original material. Amplitude, frequency, overtone structure may be changed, loops and specific durations introduced.
John Cage: Fontana Mix (1958) - Preface

Cage used this (graphical) random procedures to create music which is free of personal taste - a music which sounds just by its own, like nature: "It is therefore very useful if one has decided that sounds are to come into their own, rather than being exploited to express sentiments or ideas of order." (John Cage: History of Experimental Music in the United States; in: Silence, 1961).

In 2004, I received a commission by the festival WIEN MODERN for creating a new realization of this piece. After starting using the graphical procedures as they where described in the score, I realised that I would not come any further: It would have taken me months to finish the piece if I had measured thousands of parameter values. Instead of the graphical random generator that John Cage supplies with his piece, I used realtime random generators of my Realtime Composition Library in a computer program written in Max/MSP. By sticking to the concept of Cage I created a version which duration is not limited, but infinite, and which would always create new and unpredictable structures.

The structural core of FontanaMixer is a realtime granular synthesis engine that was originally developed for my realtime sound shredder REplay PLAYer which is distributed as shareware.

This sound generator creates new variants and hybrids of a given sound material, and is controlled by randomly obtained values for compositional parameters like phrase length, speed, grain duration, granular offset, transposition and reverb.


System Requirements

    Apple Macintosh computer
    macOS 10.6 or higher


License
FontanaMixer is a composition of Karlheinz Essl based on John Cage's concept piece Fontana Mix (1958). It is distributed as shareware and protected by copyright. As far as the entire content of the original distribution is not changed and no money is charged, this program may be spread freely and can also be included in CD-ROMS and Internet archives.

FontanaMixer is computer program by Karlheinz Essl which is released *as it is*. It is distributed as freeware and protected by copyright. As far as the entire content of the original distribution is not changed and no money is charged, this program may be spread freely and can also be included in CD-ROMs and Internet archives.

The work provided here for download is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work under the following conditions:

    Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
    Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
    No Derivative Works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.


Download
        FontanaMixer 4.0 (64-bit) for macOS 10.14 or higher new
released 20 May 2020
ZIP archive (30.2 MB)

        FontanaMixer 3.0 for macOS 10.10-10.13
released 2 Aug 2018
ZIP archive (31.1 MB)

        FontanaMixer 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.6 or higher
released 3 Feb 2012
ZIP archive (8.9 MB)

https://www.essl.at/works/flow/download.html