WebernUhrWerk 3.0

WebernUhrWerk (translated: Webern's Clockwork) was composed as an open-air sound installation for the 60th anniversary of Webern's death which took place on 15 September 2005 on the market place at Mittersill. A loudspeaker placed into the open roof window of the city hall was connected to the audio output of this program. Every quarter of an hour, a short musical phrase with a Carillon sound was generated on the fly which could be heard all over the city - like the sounds of bells ringing every 15 minutes.

This action will be continued every year on September 15th. If you want to share the memory of Webern with us, you can join us by starting the WebernUhrWerk program and play its sound output over a loudspeaker system - at home, during a public event or even in open space.

The piece is based on a Max patch that automatically composes dodecaphonic Carillon music based on the twelve-tone row of Anton Webern's last composition - commemorating his sudden and unexpected death on 15 Sep 1945 as he was accidentially shot dead by an American GI. The program simulates a Carillon which plays a short musical phrase every 15 minutes which never repeats itself.

For each quarter of an hour, four individual compositional models have been created. Although their outlines are defined, infinite variants are obtained by utilizing random procedures and aleatoric methods for constructing the rhythmic structure.

WebernUhrWerk is written in MaxMSP using my Real Time Composition Library (RTC-lib), a collection of compositional algorithms and tools which I have been developing since 1992. The programming structure of "WebernUhrWerk" is completely transparent - if you double-click one of the grey boxes, its hidden content would show in a new window.

This project was started in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of Webern's death. On July 21st, 2015, a new version was released as a free standalone app with authentic sound samples from the Belfry Carillon in Ghent, Belgium.