Live Coding in Music Theater—A Comprehensive Technique? The Case of Dumrul and the Grim Reaper

The author analyzes the play Dumrul and the Grim Reaper as a case study to explore the possibilities of live coding in the context of music theater. The live coding method, which focuses on a single main application window, allows one to effectively execute several distributed tasks simultaneously, such as music composition, sound design, sound effects, and musical performance in real-time without losing track of the theatrical text’s flow. In terms of the compositional approach, live coding will be proposed as a holistic sound and music creation technique that centers on using textual systems to depict elaborate forms of artistic expression.