Puppen
for four Gamelyde
by Dan Senn
Klinik
2014
11- 22 minutes duration
Puppen Klinik (2014) was composed for Echofluxx 14 and the Puppenklinik Gallery at the Trafačka Arena live using Gamelydes 1- 4 and was generated using Sibelius notation software accessing pre-recorded samples of the 52 Gamelyde instruments of the composer.

The Puppenklinik exhibition was a collaborative project with visual artist Diana Winklerova from Prague. Trafačka is a communist era power plant in Prague 6, a large power sub-station now used by Czech artists for alternative projects and events. The gallery area, once filled with massive transformers and cables, consists of empty concrete honey combs and platforms in which artists are pushed to configure their art. Next to these is a path, as given in the drawing; a long 50 foot path on where Diana created a kind of paper stream, with graphic swirls , stones and openings. Here and there, within the stream, lydes were placed and patrons, stepping from stone to stone, were invited to play these in accompaniment to the pre-record  sounds coming from the honey combs along the wall.

The ceilings in the Puppenklinik are about  35 feet high and the acoustics unusual and beautiful making this an exquisite interactive sound environment.

Puppen Klinik Installation

(concept drawing by Diana Winklerova)

The score for this installation piece is a fully notated and may be played by live percussionists. It may also be recontextualized for live performance, as has been the case several times already.

The duration of the piece is variable as new sound tracks may be produced to meet required time limitations using the original Sibelius software. The Puppenklinik Gallery installation used a 22 minute cylcle, for example, and a recent performance version uses an a 11 minute duration. But the piece work well expanded out for much longer durations too.

Puppen Klinik, the piece, uses a closed compositional system meaning that once the system was designed and set in motion it was not varied or interfered with. Simply put, the sytem uses a series of 13 by 13 matrixes (the Gamelydes consist of 13 instruments) controlling all parameters of the pieces.

The graphic banner above is made from the waveform of the entire piece.

Click play and scroll down through score.