Related Other Works
T o y S y m p h o n y
Tod Machover
The Music Toys developed by Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab for Toy Symphony are very sophisticated instruments designed simply to be played by any person with the desire to make music, with the specific needs and capabilities of young people in mind. There is no skill prerequisite-only the willingness to participate. There are three principal instruments used in the work for general audiences, and a fourth instrument for a more sophisticated musician. Through the use of Music Toys, children and adults alike can shape and modify musical lines with expressive gesture and delicate touch (Beatbugs, Shapers); use special software to draw lines that turn into musical compositions (HyperScore); and also learn about the Hyperviolin, the latest in a series of enhanced expert performance instruments devised by the team. Each toy has a very specific musical and pedagogical function.
"Toy Symphony"
is an international music performance and education project that empowers children
and adults alike, giving realization to modes of musical creativity and expression
through the use of new concepts and technologies It
is a concert that is the climax of weeks of process in each city where it is
performed, and the process is revolutionary: It teaches very young children
that music is not just something to listen to, but also something to play and
even create yourself. The means for doing this are new "music toys"
invented in MIT's Media Lab - the beatbug, a percussion instrument developed
by Gil Weinberg and Roberto Aimi; the shaper, which controls other musical parameters
such as speed, volume, phrasing, and color (developed by Aimi, Tristan Jehan,
Maggie Orth, and Hugo Solis); and Hyper score, a computer program that makes
it possible to compose music by moving colors and graphic elements around a
screen (Mary Farbood and Egon Pasztor designed it).
SPARKLER by Tod Machover
Play Performance (1.7MB MP3)
M A T R I X
Multipurpose Array of Tactile Rods for Interactive eXpression
Dan Overholt
The MATRIX is a new musical instrument that gives users a 3-dimensional tactile interface to control sound with their hand(s). It can be used as either a stand alone instrument or in conjunction with a traditional musical keyboard or microphone. The MATRIX generates musical output by mapping a performer's expressive gestures to a variety of sonic parameters. It acts as an input device that directly manipulates the parameters of a synthesis engine (eg. additive, granular, wave-terrain...), or an effect alogrithm (eg. delay, reverb, filter-banks...) in response to the changing shape of the interactive surface. In this way, the MATRIX provides a very intuitive method of manipulating sound with an amount of control that has never before been implemented in real-time.
One mapping uses
the individual rods of the MATRIX to directly control the digital waveform of
a sound, thereby "sonically sculpting" the timbre of the sound. An
example of this technique is shown below in the excerpt from one of my compositions
titled Dactylonomy. It is a duet for MIDI keyboard and MATRIX, and utilizes
a custom synthesis technique that is actually a cross between Wave-terrain and
Scanned synthesis (see "New Musical Mappings for the MATRIX" for more
information). The video below shows the last 1:30 of the piece, which premiered
August 17th, 2002 at the Woodstockhausen Electronic Music Festival in Santa
Cruz, California.