Description
Introduction
Integra – Fusing music and technology was a €3.1m project led by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and made possible by two large grants from the Culture 2000 and Culture 2007-2013 programmes of the European Union.
Bringing together new music ensembles, research centres and higher music education institutions from eight European countries and Canada, Integra promoted the wider dissemination of live electronic music and provided composers, performers, teachers and students with the tools to interact with technology in a more user-friendly and musically meaningful way. Integra achieved its aims through a wide range of activities along four main dimensions:
- Artistic: a series of commissions of new works, concerts and international events (Integra 2008 Festival and Integra 2008 Conference in Birmingham, and Integra 2011 Festival in Copenhagen).
- Scientific: the development of Integra Live, a new software for composing, performing, teaching and preserving live electronic music.
- Heritage: the modernisation of the electronics of many works from the live electronics repertoire, “migrating” many of them to Integra Live to ensure their sustainability.
- Education: a curriculum pilot to teach live electronic music technologies in conservatoires, training sessions for performers, public workshops and outreach initiatives.
Integra partners
Integra started in September 2005 and came to an end in February 2012. The project was a co-ordinated effort with several partners taking part in phase 1 (2005-2008), phase 2 (2008-2012), or both (*):
New music ensembles
Athelas Sinfonietta, Copenhagen, Denmark*
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), England, United Kingdom
BIT20 Ensemble, Bergen, Norway*
Ensemble Ars Nova, Malmö, Sweden*
Ensemble Court-circuit, Paris, France*
Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Spain
Research centres
Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland
CIRMMT, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal, Canada*
IEM, University of Music and the Performing Arts Graz, Austria*
La Kitchen, Paris, France
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania
Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University, Sweden*
Muzyka Centrum Art Society, Krakow, Poland
NOTAM, Oslo, Norway*
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, England, United Kingdom*
SARC (Sonic Arts Research Centre), Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
The Association of European Conservatoires (AEC) was an associated partner of Integra and supported its dissemination.
Integra commissions
Integra migrations
During six years of activity Integra “migrated”, in other words “modernised”, the electronics of more than thirty works by nineteen composers. These works depended on obsolete technologies for their performance, and the migrations of the electronics to the Integra Live software ensured their long term sustainability.
Integra papers
A selection of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers published during the Integra project period.
Bullock, J. and Frisk, H. (2011), ‘The Integra Framework for Rapid Modular Audio Application Development’, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, Huddersfield.
Rudi, J. and Bullock, J. (2011), ‘The Integra Project’, Proceedings of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Conference, Sforzando!, New York.
Bullock, J., Beattie, D. and Turner, J. (2011), ‘Integra Live : a New Graphical User Interface for Live Electronic Music’. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Oslo.
Bullock, J. and Frisk, H. (2009), ‘An Object-Oriented Model for the Representation of Temporal Data in the Integra Framework’, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, Montreal.
Bullock, J. and Coccioli, L. (2009), ‘Towards a Humane Graphical User Interface for Live Electronic Music’, Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pittsburgh.
Bullock, J., Frisk, H. and Coccioli, L. (2008) ‘Sustainability of Live Electronic Music in the Integra Project’, Proceedings of the Melecon IEEE Conference, Ajaccio.
Bullock, J. and Frisk, H. (2007), ‘libIntegra: A System for Software-Independent Multimedia Module Description and Storage’, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, Copenhagen.
Coccioli, L. (2006), ‘A Novel Approach to Music with Live Electronics’. Nordic Sounds, December 2006, 4: 6-9.
Bullock, J. and Coccioli, L. (2006), ‘Modernising Musical Works Involving Yamaha DX based Synthesis: a Case Study’. Organised Sound, 11, 3: 221-227.
Bullock, J. and Coccioli, L. (2005), ‘Modernising Live Electronics Technology in the Works of Jonathan Harvey’. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, Barcelona.
For more information you can download the final reports written at the end of each phase of the Integra project, and the external evaluators’ report, written by Gérard Assayag, Simon Emmerson and Sally-Jane Norman.
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