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Project

PRIME aims at
  1. the development of an exhaustive sound catalogue for the Paetzold recorder, which means a complete analysis and description of the characteristics of all the instrument’s sounds. This sound catalogue will be made available as a simple-to-use, interactive multimedia database which should mainly be helpful for composers. It will offer not only audio samples and corresponding analyses, but also a notation for all the flute’s special effects.

  2. the conception and implementation of digital processing methods which enhance the specific features of the Paetzold recorders and which can be used for the realisation of new patches, i.e. computer programs available for the composition and performance of new pieces. This will lead to a live electronics related library.

  3. the support for the composition and the creation of new pieces which exploit all the sound possibilities of the Paetzold recorder through the use of ad-hoc digital processing methods and patches for live electronics.
 
Method
 
From the engineering point of view: 

a) Use of existing tools for the analysis and classification of sounds

b) Recording and appropriate treatment of the Paetzold recorder’s sound (Matlab)
 
c) Research of the most interesting algorithms for the numerical post-treatment of the Paetzold recorder’s sound and creation of demonstration patches for interpreters and composers
 
From the musical point of view:
 
a) Recording of samples: Prof. Antonio Politano (and his students) plays the Paetzold recorders during dedicated recording sessions in order to get – musically speaking - the best possible samples for the successive iterations of the catalogue.
 
b) Testing of the successive versions of the sound catalogue by composers, recorder students and Prof. Politano. The open issues and problems arising as well as the new ideas and solutions developed through mutual exchange and collaborative work will then help to further improve the sound catalogue.
 
c) Technical assistance during rehearsals, for concerts and for the recording of the new pieces.
 
d) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The results of the project will be valorised through 
  • publications in national and international journals
  • Internet portal on which interpreters and composers find the sound catalogue as well as project related material and results
  • radio broadcasts on the research project and recording of concerts by RSR/Espace2
  • workshop for composers and interpreters around the Paetzold recorder at CdL
  • creation of pieces written for the project by Prof. Antonio Politano and his class
  • CD production
  • concerts in Switzerland and concert tour in Europepresentation of the recorder and concerts in the scope of contemporary music festivals
 
Importance of PRIME for HEMU
 
For the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) it’s of outmost importance that any research project directed by one or other of its professors integrates students and has returns on the teaching. In the case of PRIME, the link between the research project and the teaching is what has been defined as “support for the commission and creation of new pieces which use and valorize the whole sound palette of the Paetzold recorder”.
... and for contemporary music
 
Musical research should be a “laboratory of the future” stimulating and supporting contemporary music by making a new tonal language available to composers. PRIME will give composers detailed information about the sound possibilities and specific notation of a so far little known instrument. PRIME will stimulate and enlarge the dialogue between composers and interpreters. And, finally, through PRIME, the repertoire for recorders and live electronics will be enlarged .
 
 
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