Augmenting an improvised practice on the viola da gamba

This thesis examines my improvisatory practice on the viola da gamba and its augmentation with mixed-music computer systems. It comprises creative work and an extended written commentary and discussion. My creative work is presented in two albums of music – solo viola da gamba improvisation, and viola da gamba and mixed-music computer systems – and supplementary recorded material. The written commentary looks in depth at the presented creative work. I use the first, solo album to examine my improvisatory practice. To explore augmenting this practice with systems, I look in detail at my performances with gruntCount by Martin Parker, Laminate by myself and derivations by Ben Carey. Examples of these performances are presented in the second album. Scrutiny of these three systems leads to extended discussion of the following topics: 1. Taxonomy: What are these systems? What are the characteristics they display? Do these systems fit into a standard classification scheme? 2. Ontology: Do performances with these systems instantiate musical works? What are the criteria that would help us to decide? How much of my practice is therefore underpinned by musical works? 3. Copyright: Who is responsible for the musical output with these systems? Who is a legal/musical author in such performances? To conclude, I compare my improvisatory practice with and without systems and identify learnings arising from this research.