Tag Archives: electronic music

March 8, 2013

City to light up for “A Toronto Symphony”

By BlogMeister
Vikram K. Mulligan photo

Vikram K. Mulligan photo

The Opera of the Future team has been sleepless in Toronto, frantically finishing the audio and visuals that will accompany the world premiere of “A Toronto Symphony” whilst squeezing in rehearsals in between New Creations Festival performances. Tickets are available here.

The spectacle will spill out beyond the confines of Roy Thomson Hall to take over the landmark CN Tower! Music blogger John Terauds broke the news in this story: News flash: CN Tower to make Toronto Symphony Orchestra début on Saturday night:

The finished piece is clocking in at nearly 30 minutes, which means that there will be thousands of people unaware of the concert gawping at the city’s tallest landmark wondering what the heck is going on.

“We were given all the controls, even the one to make it brighter,” said Machover, with more than a hint of glee.

Here’s the official press release. The performance will be live streamed via TSO.CA, starting around 9:00PM EST this Saturday, March 9.

Here is what the press has been saying:

NEW! Toronto Life - The Argument: Musical visionary Tod Machover crowd-sourced a symphony for Toronto—now other cities want one too - “The Toronto experiment demonstrates that our most precious creative resource is not necessarily crowds of eager, iPhone-wielding amateurs, but rather a few utopian-minded geniuses like Machover who believe there are better and more fun ways to make music than sitting alone in a room.”

Toronto NOW - Tod Machover: What does Toronto sound like anyway? - “It’s not just about technology, but figuring out how the symphony can evolve into the 21st century,” he says. “The relationship between the public and artist, how we participate – I think all of that is going to change.” 

Toronto Star - Toronto gets the symphony treatment - “Tod was really different. Mozart and Beethoven are not as crazy as Tod,” says the violinist from Oakville, who notes city sounds are entirely different than those of the suburbs. “Toronto is living, it doesn’t die, doesn’t sleep,” says Choi, 18. “It is filled with colours. There is a story on every street.”

Musical Toronto - A Toronto Symphony composer Tod Machover keeps adding interaction weeks before premiere ”A Toronto Symphony is a great exercise in harnessing the latest digital and social media tools for something that is normally a small, esoteric part of our larger culture. It is a great way to remind anyone of any age that creativity is not the domain of uniquely gifted individuals.”

Canadian Jewish News - New symphony features the sounds of Toronto - “Our city needs a symphony of our own, and it was due to Tod’s vision and the thousands of collaborators in Toronto, [that we could] create a music composition that will make us all proud,” said TSO music director Peter Oundjian, who will conduct the new composition.

Boosey & Hawkes has posted the score for A Toronto Symphony online.

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March 2, 2013

Rehearsal Pics – “Jeux Deux”

By BlogMeister

The Toronto Symphony’s New Creations Festival opens today!

With Machover as guest-curator, the 2013 New Creations Festival takes a suitably technology-driven perspective, exploring the evolution of music from past to future with a selection of boundary-bending works which bring the past to the present and redefines the instruments of an orchestra. The Festival opens with the Canadian première of Arcadiac, where Canadian composer Nicole Lizée’s work will have the orchestra perform live accompaniment to vintage arcade games of the 1970s and 1980s, followed by Machover’s Jeux Deux, an interweaving of hyperpiano, orchestra, interactive software and live graphics (Mar 2, 2013). The Festival’s opening programme closes with guest conductor Carolyn Kuan leading the Canadian première of the Mason Bates’s symphony-scale piece Alternative Energy, which depicts the past, present, and future of energy using field recordings and acoustic orchestra.

Here’s Tod Machover yesterday onstage at Roy Thomson Hall with “hyper pianist” Michael Chertock rehearsing “Jeux Deux”, composed for the Boston Pops in 2005. Chertock performed in the world premiere (watch video clip).

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February 26, 2013

Instrumentation for “A Toronto Symphony”

By BlogMeister

In case you are wondering why Tod didn’t emerge from his barn-studio for the past two months, he was busy orchestrating “A Toronto Symphony.” In this new SoundNotion interview, Tod explains his work process, along with sundry other hot topics from the Media Lab and Opera of the Future. (The interview was recorded over Skype, and you can see bits of the barn in the background.)

A symphony orchestra work has a whole lot of parts! Just to give you an idea, here’s the list of instruments (not including strings) for the piece:

Toronto-Instruments

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July 9, 2012

Hyperscore in Action: A-to-A Project

By BlogMeister

One of the core ideas in Hyperscore, the composing software developed by Tod Machover’s team at the M.I.T. Media Lab, is that music is built from “motifs” – small melodies and rhythm patterns – which are assembled into larger musical structures. In this video, Tod coaches a groups of children in Armenia and the U.S. as they work together to create a new piece of music. The kids created a variety of motifs, humming them or wielding the mouse to draw them in Hyperscore. Here we see them start to construct a composition which eventually will be performed by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at a gala celebration. (For more information, read From the U.S. to Armenia, Kids Build a Musical Bridge.)

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May 23, 2012

Gramophone Reviews Tod Machover’s latest CD

By BlogMeister

The venerable Gramophone, which bills itself ”The world’s unrivalled authority on classical music since 1923,” just came out with an excellent review of Tod Machover’s most recent CD, “…but not simpler…”

The review notes that Machover’s technological innovations, such as Hyperinstruments and Hyperorchestra, “have crucial and winning impacts on the expressive possibilities of Machover’s music, as can be heard on this absorbing disc.” About the title work, written for string quartet, the review says “Lovely themes emerge from seeming disorder and the narrative is a tantalising blend of tranquility and turmoil.” “Sparkler” and “Jeux Deux” the two large orchestral pieces that bookend the CD, are “blockbusters”.

Enjoy this excerpt from the ending of “Jeux Deux”!

Read the full article here.

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May 9, 2012

Excavated Gem – Scientific American Frontiers plays with “Toy Symphony”

By BlogMeister

Some music enthusiast ripped this footage from an episode of Scientific American Frontiers (around 2002) and posted it on YouTube. Host Alan Alda narrates (and sings!), while violinist Joshua Bell jams on a hyperviolin developed for Tod Machover’s Toy Symphony project. Enjoy!

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May 7, 2012

Performer’s Guide to “Jeux Deux”

By BlogMeister

A one-stop-shop for performing organizations interested in Tod Machover’s “Jeux Deux”, a work for orchestra, Yamaha Disklavier and electronics.

Machover utilizes his “hyperpiano” concept, in which the grand piano, played with consummate sensitivity by Paul Chertock, interacts with the Yamaha Disklavier in a way that augments, transforms and splinters the music, sometimes releasing a volley of pre-composed notes in greater profusion and rapidity than a live pianist could possibly play them. The result is an absolutely stunning experience for performer and listener alike.
- Phil Muse

In Jeux Deux, a wild and disarming tribute to Debussy’s last orchestral work, the soloist plays a Hyperpiano – a Yamaha Disklavier Grand – which outdoes Liszt, thanks to software that takes the solo part beyond the realm of mortal possibility. – Gramophone

LISTEN – Excerpts

To request a CD or MP3 of full tracks please email junekino@media.mit.edu for a download code. The CD is available for purchase from Bridge Records and Amazon.com.

Jeux Deux (excerpt 1)

Jeux Deux (excerpt 2)

 

Jeux Deux (excerpt 3)

Additional video of live performances, audio excepts, photos, composer’s remarks and links are available at Tod Machover’s official website.

VIDEO

The CD was partially funded through Kickstarter. The project video provides some fun background information, excerpts and documentary footage of the world premiere performance of ‘Jeux Deux”.

THE SCORE: ‘Jeux Deux’ (Boosey & Hawkes 2005)

PERFORMING ENSEMBLE REQUIREMENTS

“Jeux Deux” is scored for the standard orchestra formation, Continue reading

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April 10, 2012

WBUR Visionaries (Video)

By BlogMeister

WBUR (90.9FM) launched its “Visionaries” series today with a feature about Tod Machover. The program airs one more time today, at 5:50PM EST, and should be available later on as a podcast. The transcript of the story is available online, together with this new video showing some of the projects at the MIT Media Lab’s Opera of the Future group. Don’t miss the wonderful footage of Dan Ellsey, a 37-year-old man with cerebral palsy, whose inner composer was set free by Hyperscore software. Watch the unfettered joy on his face as he listens to a song he composed.

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April 10, 2012

Reviews: “…but not simpler…”

By BlogMeister
We set up this page to index reviews of Tod Machover’s CD “…but not simpler…”. Please let us know if you come across others. Thank you!
Machover CD an “absolutely stunning experience” - “Machover’s exquisite attention to line and form is most evident in the trio of splendid short works for string quartet…” In “Jeux Deux“, “Machover utilizes his “hyperpiano” concept, in which the grand piano, played with consummate sensitivity by Paul Chertock, interacts with the Yamaha Disklavier in a way that augments, transforms and splinters the music, sometimes releasing a volley of pre-composed notes in greater profusion and rapidity than a live pianist could possibly play them. The result is an absolutely stunning experience for performer and listener alike.”
Gramophone – Review of the CD “…but not simpler…” - “Among the inventions that take sound to previously unexplored terrain are his Hyperinstruments and Hyperorchestra, which promote sonic variety and boost virtuosity. Rather than gimmicks, these advances have crucial and winning impacts on the expressive possibilities in Machover’s music, as can be heard on this absorbing disc. Unless you’ve heard this composer’s music before, you’ve never experienced anything like these pieces.”
AllMusic.com – Review of Tod Machover’s …but not simpler… – “…Machover never loses sight of the emotional side of music that engages the listener naturally, viscerally…For anyone who is tempted to dismiss all modern music as “strange” or inaccessible, this album will prove him or her wrong. Machover seems to have struck the right balance between conceptual art and music at its purest level of feeling.”
New Music Connoisseur - Andrew Violette review “…but not simpler…” (PDF) - “Sparkler (2007) sparkles. There’s a wealth of color-drenched details: virtuosic wind passages juxtaposed with high string sonorities and untuned metallic percussion…” “.. .but not simpler (2005) is a stringent 15 minute work for string quartet. lt stylistically veers toward the Peter Maxwell Davies Naxos Quartets. But Machover’s writing is more gesturally nuanced and harmonically colorful…” “What impresses are those non-glamorous, essential and not easily acquired skills which are rarely discussed in The New York Times but which Mr. Machover possesses in abundance: skills such as the ability to create resonant sonorities; a seasoned sense of the long line and the long form; a knowing use of economy of means; and a firm grip on Fux counterpoint.”
Fanfare – Feature Reviews by David DeBoor Canfield (scroll down) – “The recent works on the Bridge CD seem to me to veer into masterpiece territory, achieving a synthesis and fluency of styles that yield a remarkably personal voice.”

Audiophile Audition - TOD MACHOVER: ‘…but not simpler…’ & other works – Bridge Records - “I knew just enough about the work of Tod Machover to have a generally positive opinion and to think that I knew his “style” with its heavy reliance on electronics (as one writer declared him to be “America’s most wired composer.”) However, I am grateful for hearing this album and learning more about the very complex but fascinating nature of his work. ”

NPR Weekend Edition: From Hyperpianos To Harmonious Handel: New Classical Albums “MIT futurologist Tod Machover rethinks traditional instruments, coming up with new things like the hyperpiano; Pianist Michael Chertock gives it a go in an explosive excerpt [of "Jeux Deux"].”

Sequenza21 - Tod Machover: …but not simpler… “The string quartet portion of the disc is very well handled. Two interludes, one based on Bach and the other on Byrd, are fixed media pieces meant to sound like an augmented string quartet. The textures to both of these pieces is interesting and each interlude matches up well with the following acoustic piece. The timbre of the instruments does have an edge to it that denies a purely acoustic origin. Instead of the thickening texture emerging as a surprise, an unexpected moment of “I thought I was listening to just four people,” that virtual instrument sound serves as an aural obligation for the work to build into something that the performers alone could not create.
When Machover is entirely acoustic, the pieces work quite well. The 3 Hyper-Dim-Sums are charming miniatures for string quartet, played with vigor and nuance by the iO Quartet. …but not simpler… transitions beautifully from the Byrd interlude and continues to be colorful and engaging. Machover certainly knows color and he uses all means of string sounds in this floating 14 minute movement.”

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February 29, 2012

Audiophile Audition reviews “…but not simpler…”

By BlogMeister

TOD MACHOVER: ‘…but not simpler…’ & other works – Bridge Records - by Daniel Coombs

“…I knew just enough about the work of Tod Machover to have a generally positive opinion and to think that I knew his “style” with its heavy reliance on electronics (as one writer declared him to be “America’s most wired composer.”) However, I am grateful for hearing this album and learning more about the very complex but fascinating nature of his work.  This is still heady stuff. I suspect that the uninitiated listener might enjoy Sparkler or Jeux Deux. The string quartets may require a few listenings. I recommend this – and any of Tod Machover’s music – to anyone wanting to expand their horizons a bit and try something new; just not simpler.”

Read the entire review.

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