Music and interactive design by Norbert Herber

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(written in May, 2004)

For the music of interactive art and media, static repetition is the equivalent of death by slow, painful torture.
When I started composing for interactivity it was immediately apparent that one of the medium's greatest challenges would be the unpredictability of time. Time posed questions such as "when will someone click to make their first choice?" or "if someone chooses option Y before option X, how long will they spend in that section?"

These questions of time didn't deal with the order of events as much as they did with the duration of time between events. If I was to compose music that could underscore someone's experience in an interactive environment, the duration of time from event to event was vitally important. If someone spent 3 minutes reading a prologue and then clicked through to Scene 1, I had to have 3 minutes of prologue music to accommodate these choices. But what if the next person spent 3.5 minutes in the prologue?

Linear music, when looped, provides a quick and easy solution: It plays. It plays again. It plays again. And again, and again, and again...will it stop? Ostinato or vamp grooves can be wonderful, but when they are repeated with no variation they tire the ears quickly. Loops solve the problem of unpredictable duration but at the cost of musicality. If loops are to be used in an interactive context they should be changed frequently or composed so that their repetition is veiled.

There are very few answers to this "problem." One interesting solution that has been a preoccupation of my work is to compose ever-changing, organic musical structures. This means composing pieces that are in flux throughout their performance. Their "score" is a set of rules that outlines a system of musical behavior; the composer surrenders control to potentiality and chance.

Following are two pieces created in January—March of 2004. Each uses a compositional approach to create music that develops organically and is flexible enough to change and adapt to the demands of interactivity.

Molly Z Illustration
Molly Z is an illustrator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. I used her artwork to create a temporary web site interface. There is no "real" content here. Rather, you can click the fingers of the character and move to the titles of various sections. As you navigate, hear how your choices affect the music.

The piece is composed of three layers: percussion, color tones, and transitions. The percussion track plays a series of phrases in ever-changing permutations. As you navigate from section to section of the interface, hear how the rhythms change tempo and feel.

The color tones use techniques based on Brian Eno's "Music for Airports," where a variety of notes or passages are repeated a different intervals. Repetitions do occur, but in different combinations. This creates variations to the harmonic make-up of the piece.

The transition layer signals change and serves to join one musical section with the next.

Tonal Cluster Interface
In this piece, "tonal cluster" refers to the arrangement of harmonic material. The notes you hear in this piece are cued using the same techniques as the color tones in the Molly Z Illustration piece (see above). The difference is that here, as you click from one section to the next, notes within the cluster change and create a new harmonic scheme.

This piece is still a work in progress. It's an interesting step forward I believe because it allows for audience input: The music develops around selections made in the interface and its inherent, organic qualities. Not only can the music grow on its own accord, but its growth can be shaped. This lends the performance an ever-changing variety that can accurately underscore audience choices in an interactive environment.