Real-Time Control of Greek Chant Synthesis

This paper we report on an interdisciplinary project for modeling Greek chant with real-time vocal synthesis. Building on previous research, we employ a hybrid musical instrument: Phonodeon (Georgaki et al. 2005), consisting of a MIDI-accordeon coupled to a real-time algorithmic interaction and vocal synthesis engine. The synthesis is based on data provided by the AOIDOS program developed in the Department of the Computer science of the University of Athens, investigating Greek liturgical chant compared to bel canto singing. Phonodeon controls expressive vocal synthesis models based on formant synthesis and concatenated filtered samples. Its bellows serve as hardware control device that is physically analogous to the human breathing mechanism [georgaki, 1998a], while the buttons of the right hand can serve multiple functions. On the level of pitch structure, thi