Using music performance software with flexible control interfaces for live performance by severely disabled musicians

This paper first discusses the principles of music performance software which can map performer actions to musical output in a flexible manner. The use of the MIDIGrid and E-Scape software is described, with particular regard to work done by the Drake Music Project in facilitating music making by severely disabled performers using E-Scape. This enables musical material to be performed by a wide variety of movements, using such devices as trackball, ultrasonic beam and switches as a musical performance interface. The ideas of `conducting´ and `scrolling´ as modes of processing performer input to play prepared musical material are examined, and extended features provided by E-Scape are presented, together with musical examples