bio:
In his compositions, Dan Tramte [b. 1985] embraces his digital-nativeness, acknowledging what it means to live in a media saturated post-internet wasteland. As such, his music resembles the experience of playing a video game, or scrolling through a social network feed.^1 For Tramte, mobile social media is in fact his primary platform for composition. 500+ videos on his Vine feed thoroughly documents nearly all of the constituent audio-visual composition materials in his [notated] work and installations from 2014 to 2017—works often featuring oddity-instruments such as DJ Hero controllers, morse code straight keys, GoPro cameras, and mobile devices. Persistent in his efforts to find and cultivate his voice, Tramte values building enduring relationships with performers. He collaborates with musicians/ensembles Nico Couck (two solo works and Ine Vanoeveren duo), Noa Even (solo work and Patchwork duo), Weston Olencki (solo work and Wild Rumpus), Morehshin Allahyari (two audio/visual collaborations), InterSpheres Trio, and Keith Kirchoff, working on multiple projects with each performer/group.
In his research, which he refers to as Technical Ludomusicology, Tramte examines video game music by building his own apparatuses to facilitate mediated analysis and showcase design models for composition. For his dissertation he built an a/v media player optimized for theoretical analysis of video games, whereas users may modify video playback rates/seek-points in real-time to both experience the media [as a game in itself] and digest theorists’ subtitle-style textual analysis at desired rates.^2 At the 2016 North American Conference on Video Game Music, he presented a paper on single-seed procedurally generated video games (like No Man’s Sky and Desert Golfing) and demonstrated a piece he wrote at IRCAM modeling this technique called Fever Dream. He is currently focussed on game development of audio-only creative sandbox games.
As a YouTuber, Tramte volunteers much of his remaining free time every week at his standing desk contacting composers for materials, producing recording+score videos, and uploading/sharing them online. Having founded the 501c3 nonprofit organization “Score Follower” (YouTube channels Score Follower, Incipitsify, and Mediated Scores), he is responsible for the most widely used legal new music audio+score resources on the net.
Tramte earned a Ph.D. in Music from the University of North Texas, a MM in composition at Bowling Green State University, and a BM in performance also at BGSU. Although he rarely performs anymore, he continues to master various party tricks such as multi-order polyrhythms, or singing the alphabet backwards while solving a rubik’s cube. Currently, he is a teaching fellow at Harvard University, where he teaches courses on music theory and the physics of sound.
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^1 Indeed, between the short looping videos of prepared/deconstructed instruments and his personal photos, Tramte’s Instagram account likely serves as a preferred telling of his musical biography.
^2 These time modifications do not cause alterations in the pitch-level of the audio, even at extreme rates such as 0%, thus affording theorists the ability to write extensive prose on, for example, a single moment of visual media while the audio continues to sound, frozen in that moment. Tramte presented this project at AMS/SMT 2014.
In his research, which he refers to as Technical Ludomusicology, Tramte examines video game music by building his own apparatuses to facilitate mediated analysis and showcase design models for composition. For his dissertation he built an a/v media player optimized for theoretical analysis of video games, whereas users may modify video playback rates/seek-points in real-time to both experience the media [as a game in itself] and digest theorists’ subtitle-style textual analysis at desired rates.^2 At the 2016 North American Conference on Video Game Music, he presented a paper on single-seed procedurally generated video games (like No Man’s Sky and Desert Golfing) and demonstrated a piece he wrote at IRCAM modeling this technique called Fever Dream. He is currently focussed on game development of audio-only creative sandbox games.
As a YouTuber, Tramte volunteers much of his remaining free time every week at his standing desk contacting composers for materials, producing recording+score videos, and uploading/sharing them online. Having founded the 501c3 nonprofit organization “Score Follower” (YouTube channels Score Follower, Incipitsify, and Mediated Scores), he is responsible for the most widely used legal new music audio+score resources on the net.
Tramte earned a Ph.D. in Music from the University of North Texas, a MM in composition at Bowling Green State University, and a BM in performance also at BGSU. Although he rarely performs anymore, he continues to master various party tricks such as multi-order polyrhythms, or singing the alphabet backwards while solving a rubik’s cube. Currently, he is a teaching fellow at Harvard University, where he teaches courses on music theory and the physics of sound.
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^1 Indeed, between the short looping videos of prepared/deconstructed instruments and his personal photos, Tramte’s Instagram account likely serves as a preferred telling of his musical biography.
^2 These time modifications do not cause alterations in the pitch-level of the audio, even at extreme rates such as 0%, thus affording theorists the ability to write extensive prose on, for example, a single moment of visual media while the audio continues to sound, frozen in that moment. Tramte presented this project at AMS/SMT 2014.
Interviews
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On Score Follower:
Interview Moritz Eggert in Badblog NMZ • Part 1 • Part 2 Interview with Tim Rutherford-Johnson |