CORAIL(CORAL) is an interactive computer music environment for tenor or soprano saxophone. The program runs on a Macintosh computer using Max/MSP. The work exploits the possibilities of real-time pitch, gesture, and dynamic envelope tracking. The piece is designed for an instrumentalist equipped with a wireless microphone in order to enable free movement throughout a concert hall or in the open air during performance. Significant programming was accomplished by Manuel Poletti of IRCAM and Matthew Wright of CNMAT.IN a normal performance, the performer and the audience are completely immersed in a sonic ocean of high audio quality. Reverb effects, spatial placement and movement are generated by the computer and are based on commands and analysis of incoming performance data from the soloist. All the sounds heard are generated from the saxophone, most captured and transformed in real-time. There is no other person mixing or working with levels, nor adding extraneous materials.There is no pre-defined score for CORAIL(CORAL). There exists a set of "environments" that function collectively and can be called by the saxophonist at any time. Persistence inside any one environment causes the program to begin generating responses on its own. CORAIL is a highly-constrained improvisation. Each performance may have a different unfolding but the meta-compositional structure remains. The instrumentalist must memorize and internalize through rehearsal all the functions of the programming. 

  (The text that follows is adapted from a text by Beth E. Levy. The full text can be found in the liner notes of the Edmund Campion/SFCMP Outside Music CD, Albany Records Troy 1037)

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