For Jean-Claude: [re]Presenting Duet for One Pianist

In 1989, composer and researcher Jean-Claude Risset's series of interactive sketches for piano and Disklavier entitled Duet for One Pianist explored the performative possibilities made available to pianists through the augmentation of emotive human musical gesture with the precise reactive and computational capabilities afforded by computer-based musical systems. As computer and musical software systems have evolved, the Max software patches created by Risset and researcher Scott Van-Duyne at the MIT Media Lab have been updated and maintained to allow the pieces to be performed using contemporary hardware and software systems. In distinct contrast, Risset's original hand-notated musical score for the work representing performance notation for the human pianist alongside a varying level of detail representing the computer’s response, itself an integral part in the work remains the authoritative representation available to performers, researchers and archivists alike. This paper outlines ongoing efforts towards the augmentation of Risset's existing score through the production of a comprehensive multi-voiced notated score edition of Duet for One Pianist, as well as symbolic and data representations for each of the eight works derived from live performance data, and a complimentary and complete series of audio and visual recordings of Duet by pianist