![\"Klais](\"http:\/\/waynesiegel.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Klais-organ_wide.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMusic for robot-controlled pipe organ and weather satellite Siegel then designed a computer program that uses generative music algorithms to \u201ccompose\u201d organ music: a kind of composer robot. The compositional rules are set by the composer, but the generative algorithms continuously and endlessly generate and transform the work without human intervention. Data from a weather satellite is fed directly into the computer program and used to control the algorithms. Essentially, the weather is conducting the music while the computer is composing it. \u201cEveryone Talks about the Weather\u201d is a site-specific installation with no beginning or end. The audience is invited to enter and leave the hall at any time.<\/p>\n Everyone Talks about the Weather<\/strong> Program note<\/strong> by Wayne Siegel<\/p>\n Everyone Talks about the Weather is a site-specific installation with no beginning or end. The audience is invited to enter and leave the hall at any time between 11:00 AM and 11:00 PM to experience how the composition (and the weather) develop in the course of 12 hours. At 11:00 PM I will drop by to turn off my computer and the organ, closing the Aarhus Festival in accordance with the festival theme: \u201cSigns of Life – in a New Reality.\u201d Watch a video with an excerpt from a performance in Aalborg, Denmark in 2015.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The huge pipe organ recently constructed and installed in the Symphony Hall of the Concert Hall Aarhus was built by Klais Orgelbau in Bonn and contains over 3,000 pipes. The instrument employs direct electric action, allowing the organ to be controlled digitally from two identical organ consoles in two locations: one fixed console situated near the pipes themselves, and another movable console, designed for placement on the stage. Wayne Siegel, composer and professor of electronic music at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, has \u201chacked\u201d the Klais organ\u2019s computer system, allowing an external computer to control this enormous instrument without the intervention of a human performer.<\/p>\n
\nA 12-hour concert for robot-controlled pipe organ and weather satellite
\nSunday, September 8th, 11:00 AM \u2013 11:00 PM
\nSymphony Hall, The Concert Hall Aarhus<\/p>\n
\nThe Klais organ in Aarhus Symphony Hall<\/strong>
\nThe pipe organ recently constructed and installed in the Aarhus Symphony Hall was built by Klais Orgelbau in Bonn and contains over 3,000 pipes.\u00a0 Before its completion, I received a commission to compose a work for the new organ with symphony orchestra. This organ concerto was premiered in 2012 by the Aarhus Symphony with Ulrik Spang-Hanssen as soloist. The Klais organ is somewhat unique in that it has two identical consoles or keyboards: one stationary console above the stage near the pipes and another mobile console that can be moved around on the stage. I discovered that the two consoles are connected via a built-in computer system.
\nMusic for robot-controlled pipe organ and weather satellite<\/strong>
\nAfter a successful premiere of my organ concerto I decided to \u201dhack\u201d the organ\u2019s computer system and connect it to my own computer. With some help from Klais Orgelbau in Bonn, professor Ulrik Spnag-Hanssen and my son, Gabriel (who is a computer scientist), I managed to get my computer to play the huge musical instrument directly\u2026 without an organist!
\nI then developed a composer robot: a computer program that generates organ music according to musical rules, or algorithms, that I have defined in the program. With assistance from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), my computer was then linked to Metostat-10, a stationary weather satellite above Europe. Changes in cloud formations and wind conditions in Northern Europe affect the music while it is being created live when the program is activated. Essentially, the weather is conducting the music while the computer is composing it.
\nI would like to thank the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Professor Ulrik Spang-Hanssen, DMI, Jesper Theilgaard, Klais Orgelbau and Gabriel Siegel.<\/p>\n