Mari Kimura: D’Alembert Caprice (2022) for violin with MUGIC® sensor
Premiered at the Other Minds festival (October 23, 2022)
D’Alembert Caprice is my latest work on using the motion sensor MUGIC® for the violin. The violin bowing consists essentially of ‘functional’ movements we need to make to create certain sounds. However, we need to also make certain movements in order to prepare for certain bowing strokes. There are also movements that are created following the bowing strokes, by necessity or by inertia. It’s these non-functional ‘inertia’ movements that interest me: I like to translate them to audible musical expressions. D’Alembert Caprice is named after Jean le Rond d’Alembert, a French physicist/musicologist who is known for “D'Alembert's principle of inertial forces.” The MUGIC® sensor detects both the characteristics of the bowing strokes and also the movements made before/after the strokes. The data from the MUGIC® sensor then shape electronic sounds and effects that I programmed the computer to create interactively in real-time. Musically, I am inspired by such inertial forces that affect our lives: some of our actions are intentional, but some other are made by chance, or even inherited from previous generations. These actions or reactions made on our own or otherwise have consequences, or ‘inertial’ movements, that we might or might not have control over, which could lead to happiness or tragedy. The world’s current instability on many levels makes me want to be more aware of these unseen forces. MUGIC® (Music/User Gesture Interface Control) is a small, versatile, and affordable prototype motion sensor that enables users to reflect movements to control virtually anything in software. MUGIC® has been used by musicians, dancers, artists, actors, and in universities around the world. After several years of development, in September 2020, I commercialized MUGIC®. During the current Covid crisis, professors, students and artists are using MUGIC® to develop collaborative and creative projects. UC Irvine where I teach, our PhD students use MUGIC® in their thesis, performance, and compositions, performing and presenting in international festivals and conferences. MUGIC® is available for purchase at https://mugicmotion.com/