These notes are hints to the people who will be controlling the video screens that accompany FANTASIA APOCALYPTICA. The piece has 22 "movements", corresponding to the 22 chapters in the book of Revelation. Each projector is controlled independently, in different ways (described below). There's a brief pause between chapters, while the organist changes preset registrations and the three video wizards change from displaying one file to displaying the next. The notes below are oriented to Macintosh OS X. If you have another computer or operating system, you can probably get by; but I can only wish you good luck, because I have no experience with other brands of software and hardware. Actually I wish you good luck in any case. During the inaugural performance in Sweden, we were able to use a "media server", which meant that all three computers were connected to another master computer via Ethernet cables. We three, controlling the computers, all stood in the rear of the audience, with tables to hold our scores and our computers, and with adequate lighting so that we could see what we were doing. The main computer sent its signal upstairs to a powerful (and expensive) projector up in the projection booth; that projector, capable of high resolution [HDTV], produced images on three screens at the front of the auditorium. The big advantage of a media server is its ability to crop the images that appear on our computer screens. Thus we didn't have to worry about hiding the menu bars, or other artifacts like a desktop, etc. Without a media server, one can use three separate projectors at three separate screens. But that probably requires a lot more setup time; and it might be difficult to avoid showing unwanted images at the edges of the screen). The media server used in the premiere performance was the Hippotizer, from Green Hippo. It was running software version 4.3.0, which implements the NDI [Network Device Interface] technology. We needed to install the NewTek NDI toolkit on each Mac; part of this toolkit needs Mac OS X vesion 10.9 or later, so I was unable to use the old computer that I had brought to Sweden. ---------- screen 1 : Duane Bibby's illustrations Download the file http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fant-bibby.tar Doubleclick on "fant-bibby.tar"; then MAC OS X should change that file into a folder called "fant-bibby". Copy that folder to your desktop, and change its name to "screen1". Your new folder screen1 should contain the files ch01.pdf ch02.pdf .... and so on, through ch22.pdf index.html thumbnails.pdf The purpose of video track 1 is to display the still images that Duane Bibby was commissioned to prepare for this project. The images for Chapter 1 appear in ch01.pdf, and the images for Chapter 2 are in ch02.pdf, etc., with one image per page. If you click on "screen1/index.html" you can take a look at all twelve of these PDF files, in order to browse what's there and get oriented. Each of these images is keyed to a chapter and verse of Revelation. But those verse numbers can't be seen in the PDF file itself; they appear only in miniature on the file screen1/thumbnails.pdf. There, for example, the first image in chapter 1 has the title "REVELATION"; this image appears in the upper left corner of the thumbnails file, and the caption "01.01.psd" appears below it. That means "use this image starting at chapter 1 verse 1 in the score". I've prepared a special score, which has all these little thumbnails pasted in at the appropriate places. I'll loan you that score, for use during the premiere concerts. [However, if my specially prepared score is unavailable for some reason, you can make one yourself by printing the thumbnails, cutting them out, and pasting them in with gluestick. The thumbnails are http://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/bibby-thumbnails.pdf and the file http://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/revelation-images tells where to paste them into the score.]] The best way to display the images during the concert is with Adobe Acrobat. Open, for example, the file screen1/ch01.pdf. Say command-L to go into fullscreen mode. That will show the title image. The next image (which is 01.05.psd in the thumbnail file) should be displayed when the organist is just beginning to play chapter 1 verse 5 (which is bar 22 in the score). To display it, simply press the "downarrow" key; Acrobat Reader then advances to the next image. You'll never need to press "uparrow", unless you've made a mistake and need to back up. Warning: Acrobat Reader does a dumb thing in Fullscreen mode unless you set the Preferences correctly. Believe it or not, in the "Full Screen" tab of Acrobat's Preferences file, you need to check the box that says Ignore all transitions Otherwise Acrobat will advance to a new page every five seconds!! Each chapter ends with a special image, which is the artist's signature, "DRB". For example, the image after 01.20.psd has the caption "01.99.psd". This image should be displayed just at the moment the organist has finished the chapter and taken his or her hands off the keyboard. For smooth transition between chapters, it's best to have all chapters ready to go, in advance and in the proper order. On recent Macs it's possible to do this by using the Finder to display the contents of the screen1 folder in such a way that all 22 PDF files appear in the proper order from ch01 to ch22. [At least one of the viewing modes provided by the Finder should do this.] Then click on ch01.pdf, shift-click on ch22.pdf, and double-click on the whole groupd of 22 selected files. Cross your fingers, and Acrobat Reader should be open with the files in 22 separate tabs, making it easy to get from one to the next, in order. Caution: Sometimes more than a minute goes by with no action from you, and the computer will dim or blank its screen (in order to save energy). That's good practice normally; but we DON'T want it during the concert! Therefore, go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and be sure that "display sleep" is 10 minutes or more. Also uncheck "Automatically reduce brightness". The thumbnails are small, but the images are usually sufficiently distinct that you can tell from its thumbnail if you're showing the right one. Exceptions are the seven images in chapters 2 and 3, which are identical except for the name that's shown on a picture of a church. I've written those names into my special score, because they are too small to read on the thumbnails. Also, chapter 16 has eight images that are very much alike. They all show seven "bowls". They differ only because a different bowl is "pouring", while other bowls are empty because they've already been poured out. On these thumbnails I've circled the bowl that is supposed to be pouring. In chapter 7 there's a place where you are supposed to go very quickly through a whole bunch of images. The important thing here is to land on the correct final image, which is the one that displays palm trees instead of a marching tribe. All in all, it's a bit tricky, but nowhere near as complex as what the percussion players in an orchestra have to cope with all the time. ---------- screen 2 : the Greek and English text of Revelation Download the file http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fantasy-java.tgz (On my MAC, it shows up as "fantasy-java.tar" in the Downloads folder, with "tgz" changed to "tar"; the operating system has uncompressed the file.) Doubleclick on "fantasy-java.tar", and MAC OS X should change that file into a folder called "Fantasy-java". Copy that folder to your desktop, and change its name to "screen2". The folder screen2 should contain the files LithosPro-Regular.otf [an important font, see below] ch1.html ch2.html ..... and so on thru ch22.html css [an important subdirectory] js [another important subdirectory] Video track 2 is controlled by a Web browser using javascript code that I wrote specifically for this composition. I tested it with Safari, to which the following notes apply. (It should work with other browsers, but one never knows.) Using the Finder, you can go into the screen2 folder and click on "ch1.html". This should launch Safari. You should now figure out the best size of the window that is displayed, because that is what will be projected. We do NOT want FullScreen mode... unless you can somehow change your computer screen to the size of the projected screen. Here are some hints for avoid screen clutter, if you're not able to use a media server: First, to get rid of the Dock, go to System Preferences > Dock and put it at the Right; also check "Automatically hide and show the Dock". To get rid of the menu bar, go to System Preference > General and say "Automatically hide and show the menu bar". [On an older Mac, I couldn't do this. I downloaded the demo version of Menu Eclipse 2 from Xybernic.com.] To get rid of Safari's toolbar and stuff, under View say Hide Favorites Bar, Hide Tab Bar, Hide Status Bar, Hide Toolbar. ("Hide Tab Bar" is gray if you've got multiple tabs open; delete the tabs you don't want.) Apple took away "Hide Toolbar" in recent versions. Boo. To get around this, sort of, go to View > Customize Toolbar; hold down Command; drag everything out of the toolbar that you don't want to see; click Done. [End of hints for avoiding screen clutter.] OK, now you've got Safari showing the opening screen of "ch1.html". It says "Chapter 1: Introduction". Press the downarrow key. You should see GREEK text at the top, English at the bottom. The English part says "The Revelation to John / Chapter 1", followed by copyright info. Press downarrow again. You now see the Greek and English versions of "01:01", namely chapter 1 verse 1. It's best if there is room for five lines of English text. Command-minus will make the text smaller. Press downarrow again. That takes you to verse 2. Press uparrow if you need to go back to verse 1. Type e.g. "13" and then "return" if you need to go back or forward to verse 13. Warning: This Javascript-controlled routine is very touchy: It will do strange things if you press keys too quickly. Be gentle with it. If you see bad stuff instead of verse 8, type "8" and "return", and cross your fingers; that should get you going again. Type "0" and "return" to get to the copyright info that precedes verse 1. You can't go back to the view that precedes the copyright page (except by clicking on "ch1.html" again and starting over). Chapter 1 has 20 verses. When you press downarrow after verse 20 has been displayed, you'll get a blank screen (except for beige and lightblue strips where Greek and English text were previously shown). That is the desired way to end a chapter. You'll want to have Chapter 2 all ready to go, when you're done with Chapter 1; and Chapter 3 after that, etc. You can open all 22 files in separate tabs, as described under screen1 above. Then control-tab will move from each file to its successor. Before beginning, do control-tab 22 times to make sure that you've got everything loaded in the right order. WARNING: In order to display the correct Greek font, you must install the font LithosPro that's included in the screen2 folder, and you must also make sure that the Javascript engine can find it. Line 4 of file screen2/css/fantasy.css currently says src: url(file:///Library/Fonts/LithosPro-Regular.otf); you must change it to a URL where the font resides. For example, during the premiere performance I was using a borrowed Mac, and I changed "Library" to "Users/StudioAcusticum/Library" on line 4. While running this, have a copy of the score handy. Change the display a fraction of a second before the organist gets to the verse that's marked on the score. Change to the blank end-of-chapter screen when the organist has finished the chapter. With most chapters, we'll want to get to verse 1 as soon as the audience has had a decent time to see the copyright info that follows the informal chapter title. The organist will typically not yet have started to play that chapter. But with chapter 1, there's an organ intro that comes BEFORE you move to verse 01:01. Another exception is in chapter 20, where verses 20:04 and 20:05 have been changed to 20:04a and 20:04b. (The original verse 20:04 is too long to fit onscreen all at once.) Here you should switch to verse 20:04b at measure 26 (by pressing downarrow as usual); verse 20:05 begins at measure 28 in the music, but you do NOT press downarrow there (because the text of 20:05 has been combined with 20:04b). Press downarrow again when it's time for 20:06. ---------- screen 3 : The organ score Download the file http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fant-videoscore.tar Doubleclick on "fant-videoscore.tar" and MAC OS X should change that file into a folder called "fant-videoscore". Copy that folder to your desktop, and change its name to "screen3". That folder screen3 should contain the files ch01.pdf ch02.pdf .... and so on, through ch22.pdf (but of course these files are quite different from the files in the screen1 folder that have the same name). The purpose of Video track 3 is to display what the organist is playing, using a specially prepared score that has only a few bars per line but many many lines. Each chapter is just one single page; yet that page is extremely tall. The idea is to scroll through it, one line at a line, as the organist finishes a line. I think Adobe Acrobat Reader is best for this display, although Preview can also be coerced to work. The following description is for Acrobat Reader. To get familiar with the process, ask Acrobat Reader to open the file "screen3/ch01.pdf". You should see "Chapter 1: Introduction" and a bit of music. Adjust the window size so that you see two "systems" (two lines of manual+manual+pedal staves). The idea is to scroll down to the second system as soon as the organist finishes the first system. The nicest way to scroll down on my computer is to use the Hand Tool. At the end of a chapter, you'll reach a stage where only one system shows, and the page is blank below that. No need to scroll down any more then! But at the end of chapter 22 (the very last chapter), it's more cool to scroll down once more, making the screen empty when the piece has concluded. Ideally nothing else shows on your screen except the music. But here are hints if you don't have a media server to crop the image: To hide the menu bar at the top of the page, Shift-Command-M will take it away or bring it back. To hide the toolbar, View > Toolbars > Hide Toolbar (or on the most recent versions, View -> Show/Hide > Toolbar Items > [Hide whatever you can]). Adobe has been messing this up for awhile, and all I can suggest is fiddling until you get it. For smooth transition between chapters, it's best to have all 22 files on separate tabs, in the correct order, as described for screen1 above. [One could try Preview instead of Acrobat. But it doesn't have the hand tool. The main problem with Preview is having to zoom zoom zoom when first opening the file, because Preview is not used to pages that are extremely tall and narrow.] Notice that the people who control screens 1 and 2 will need to follow their own copy of the organist's score. But when controlling screen 3, you can easily read the score as you're scrolling through it. ------ Fantasia Apocalyptica ends with a pattern of "amens" that ascends to notes that are basically inaudible to the human ear. Therefore the audience really has no good clue about exactly when the piece is over. Somebody running the videos should therefore be the first to initiate the applause. [Indeed, I must confess that I myself was the first person who actually applauded this piece, at the premiere.] ------- For warmup practicing, I suggest downloading the audio file http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fantasy-overduin-123-170604.mp3 which contains a recording of chapters 1, 2, and 3 that Jan Overduin made on 4 June 2017. ------- Final note: Some sort of emergency signal should probably be arranged so that the organist will be alerted to stop between chapters in case an unforeseen computer problem arises. At the inaugural concert we arranged to do this by having lights flash in a way that the organist would understand as a "distress signal". Fortunately that wasn't necessary; but we were glad to have this backup protection in case error recovery had been needed. ------- Post-Final note, for hackers: When Fantasia Apocalyptica was performed in Brno (October 2019), the expert screen controllers Vit Novotny and Tomas Szaniszlo created a helpful Makefile http://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/Brno-Makefile to download and modify the various files they needed.