In C APP

In C App during a session

Inspiration

In C is a famous minimal music piece created by Terry Riley in 1964 which can be played by professional and amateur players, without a director, always different and free. It is one of the monuments of contemporary music. The piece consists of 53 patterns which are played according some simple ingenious rules and due to this it can be played live online by players from all over the planet. This real time live experience is unique.

The In C App was first developed in 2014 and was used in festivals, workshops and music schools.

Now, during the lockdown it offers one of the very few ways to play LIVE music together with other people than your family members.

This inspired us to do a special concert (which will be broadcasted on the 28th April at 22:00 by the Belgian classical music service Klara) and to apply for help via the #euvsvirus hackathon to reach more music enthusiasts all over the world.

More info on www.incapp.net.

What it does

On the top of every hour the In C App starts a session in which about 15 players can participate. They join anonymously, follow some simple rules, and create unique new music across countries and continents. Many more than 15 people can listen, of course.

Although In C is just one musical piece, the experience of playing live together with musicians everywhere is inspiring and liberating in these difficult times.

The app is also of great value for music education, involving skills like reading a score, follow timing, interacting with others and listening.

How I built it

A web based application gathers the input of the players. A Java application generates the music in a very precise manner. The sound of the Java application is streamed.

Challenges I ran into

Sometimes there are too few players. But we solved this by introducing smart 'bots' who play along. Sometimes there are too many players. But we have no time and/or funding to scale up the app. The app has a simple chat-function which is handy, but hard to manage. Replacing this chat-function with an existing chat-platform for a creative context would be nice.