Binary Data, Volume 1 (PDF, Complete Collection)

The complete first volume of Binary Data (in PDF, digital download), containing the following pieces:

Binary Data I
Binary Data II
Binary Data III
Binary Data IV
Binary Data V
Binary Data VI
Binary Data VII
Binary Data VIII

About Binary Data and Pertinent Technical Aspects

Binary Data is a collection of works written with a specific aim. The music for each piece is completely determined by the following two sets of ‘data’: (1) a piano part and (2) one or more chosen specified time-displacements, here on referred to as delays. The overall musical work is then the result of the notated music together with a superimposed copy (or copies) of the same material, time-delayed by the specified amount(s) - a sort of canonic writing.

Moreover, and most crucially, the music has been written in way to be performed with a Yamaha Disklavier actuating real-time all of the delayed material - physically on the instrument. This has the covert implication that the works were written so that no (physical) overlaps between what the player has to perform and what is actuated on the instrument (the delayed music) will ever occur at any point.

A Disklavier allows both to receive in real-time what is being performed on it, and to play back whatever music is sent to it. The composer has thus developed a system that allows to have real-time physical delays. In terms of alternative performance possibilities, in the absence of a Disklavier, and the software needed to actuate the delays, the works can be played with digital delays (via audio signal processing) or, even, with multiple pianos.

Since a single part completely determines the overall music, scores for each piece are here provided in two ways:

(1) a part for solo piano together with the specification of the the delays to be applied to it;
(2) the fully written out music (i.e. its auditory result), which can be performed with multiple pianos and performers.

The name of the collection has been chosen to reflect two things. On one side, that the music is completely determined by a two-part data set - a piano part and the specified delays. Moreover, the name is meant to convey that technology has played a central role in the development of the works. Binary Data as a whole can in fact be regarded as having been uniquely inspired by the technical possibilities allowed by a Yamaha Disklavier.