Christopher Poovey
(b. 1993) is a composer and creative coder based in Dallas Texas who creates music and software which produce rich and colorful sound and encourages interactive structures. Christopher’s music has been played by members of Ensemble Mise-en, the University of North Texas Nova Ensemble, Indiana University’s New Music Ensemble, and Indiana University Brass Choir. Christopher’s pieces have been presented at conferences such as the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the International Computer Music Association, the New York City Electronic Music Festival, the Soul International Computer Music Festival, Inner SoundScapes, and the National Student Electronic Music Event. In addition to his reconditions, Christopher he has taken courses at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, at Princeton University in the Só Percussion Summer Institute, and has attended a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Christopher currently holds a master’s degree in music composition from University of North Texas as has a bachelor of music in composition at Indiana University. He is currently perusing a PhD in music composition from University of North Texas with a focus in computer music.
Hypoxia originally came about as a flute study I created as an attempt to use timbrel descriptors to drive processing in an interesting and intuitive fashion for a performer. Often in music with live electronics, pieces are guilty of using a high number of either pre-baked tracks or carefully manipulated automation which feign true interaction and often, as an unintended result, make performing electronic music very difficult for a performer. I, being quite guilty of the latter, often found my piece having an obscene rate of cues driving the live processing in my patches. Using tumbrel descriptors gets rid of a number of these issues as they can be used to create classifiers for different types of sound which can then either trigger events and manipulate effects. Originally the flute study was intended to be a compositional etude, but I enjoyed the sonic world it created, so I re-wrote the score and revised the electronic to create Hypoxia.
Note: despite the performance centric model of the electronics, the title Hypoxia refers to the sensation the flute player may or may not be experiencing while performing this piece.