Networked Music Performance (NMP) is the essential guide to both playing music online and ensemble music through networks. Offering a range of case studies, from highly technical solutions to inclusive community projects, this book provides inspiration to musicians to try NMP whatever their level of technical expertise.
Drawing upon recent research to examine the background and history of the practice as well as specific practical approaches, technical and musical considerations are included for readers, as are ideas around accessibility and creativity. Accessibility is considered in the context of the opportunities that NMP gives to musicians working remotely, as well as some of the barriers to participation in NMP and how these can be overcome. Synchronous and asynchronous approaches to NMP are explored in detail, examining the technical and musical affordances and challenges of working remotely for musicians.
Networked Music Performance will appeal to music and music technology students as well as professional musicians and technicians who have started working online and wish to improve their practice. As NMP in the context of music education and community music are also explored, this book supplies educators and community leaders with knowledge and practical guidance on how to move their practice online.
Biography
Miriam Iorwerth is the Digital Development Manager at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Prior to this, she was a Lecturer in Music at the University of the Highlands and Islands, specialising in music technology and online music collaboration. She completed her PhD in 2019 on musicians' experiences of networked music performance and is a graduate of the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey. Before her career in academia, she worked in electronics, including at Halley Research Station in Antarctica.
"Today’s musician works online, yet we haven’t even begun to plumb the depths of creative collaboration over the Internet. Iorwerth's book illuminates why Networked Music Performance is an emerging force: culture and technology become more sophisticated when driven by both social necessity and obviously rich rewards of new musical and cultural opportunities."
Rebekah Wilson
"The thorough technical treatment in Miriam Iorwerth's book Networked Music Performance lays a groundwork for describing the present moment where it seems that whatever can go online will go online. It is not only about networks of the kind our devices are attached to but also the social aspects of music and music teaching, the human networks that emerged when going online was the only way to go. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, tools and practices for connected musical collaboration increased dramatically and this book takes stock of the moment, comprehensively."
Chris Chafe, Director, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University
