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Music Students Program A Robot Orchestra |
Learning how to program computers isn't typically a requirement for music students, but a professor at the California Institute for the Arts says it should be. Thanks to Ajay Kapur of CalArts, music students are learning how to program and build robots.
Kapur offers a class in which students become part of the Karmetic Machine Orchestra, an ongoing project of his. But when this orchestra warms up, it isn't the typical scene. Instead of telling the musicians to tune to A, Kapur tells them to "tune into the client." A series of boings, pings and reverberating notes follows, and then the orchestra begins.
Watching the Karmetic Machine Orchestra is like getting a peek at the inner workings of a factory through a sheet of glass. It churns. Gears turn. Wired mallets beat drum heads. Some of the musicians sit at laptops looking like workers as they rhythmically press buttons.
Robots That Improvise
The robots aren't built to resemble humans. They're made of screws, wires and found objects. For example, there's a "string bot" made of aluminum boxes, skateboard wheels and guitar picks. Student Jim Murphy's robot has a motor that spins quickly and plucks a string with guitar pick. He can adjust the speed of the motor with his laptop and change the pitch, or even make it sound like a slide guitar.
Programming machines to make music isn't new; it's been around as long as player pianos have existed. But these robots are different: They've been programmed to improvise. That means that Murphy and the other musicians are never certain how a robot will respond.
"You feel like you're playing with another human," Murphy says. "Instead of simply manipulating a tool, it feels like you are sitting there playing with something that has its own quirks. It has almost its own personality. Each robot has a different feel to it."
When Murphy talks about playing his robot, he almost sounds like a conductor. He says it's amazing to control an machine that sounds like an entire orchestra of percussive sounds. There are conventional instruments in the orchestra — a sitar, a bass, a piano — but even they are interconnected to the matrix of robots.
Software By Musicians
The programs that bring spontaneity to these robots were all written by the students. At a time when so much music is created with computers, Kapur says musicians should all know how to program. He says it gives them more control.
"Only knowing how to use, like, a software package that comes out from a certain company completely limits you," he says. "And this is the only way that you can really think about this media and this art. Learning to program and build all these things yourself, you can make up whatever you want."
But humans, not robots, should be making music, says Jaron Lanier, the musician, composer and computer scientist who popularized the term "virtual reality." Lanier says that, while it's interesting to have robots play music, it's a silly idea in the long run.
"I think it's kind of making a mistake in the sense that making robots play music is kind of missing the point," Lanier says. "It's sort of like having a robot have sex for you so you don't have to."
Musician John Woods-Wahl says robots aren't replacing humans, but that he thinks of them as instruments that can make sounds humans can't. Tyler Yamin has been working on a robot to play in a Gamelan, an Indonesian musical ensemble that includes gongs, flutes and metal drums.
"Normally, one person would play two or three pots at a time with two sticks," he says. "But instead of having a robot with two arms, I'm going to have a robot with seven arms."
A Science-Fiction Spectacle
Robots that pluck strings and bang drums are also a lot more interesting to watch than most electronic music. Kapur says he's never really compelled by the usual electronic show, in which someone stands behind a laptop hooked up to some speakers. An audience at a Karmetic Machine Orchestra performance, however, gets a close-up of the moving parts live on giant screens; the experience is more like watching a science-fiction movie.
Ultimately, Kapur says he's not trying to teach his students to be programmers — he's trying to help them become artists.
"We're not MIT and we're not like a technical university," he says. "We are a music school. Our job is to make good music that people want to listen to." |
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The Brain and Modern Classical Music |
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Why do so few people like modern classical music and all its serialism, atonality and dense polyrhythms? Our brains are to blame.
So says Philip Ball in his review of David Stubbs' "Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen." Ball writes in Prospect magazine that philistinism isn't to blame for thinking that the Pierre Boulez or Milton Babbitt is a tad unpleasant. It's how our brains are made. For the full article: http://blogs.courant.com/bill_weir/2009/10/the-brain-and-modern-classical.html |
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Distant Worlds: Music of FINAL FANTASY |
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 Distant Worlds: The Men Behind the Music
Nobuo Uematsu's music was heard around the world long before he became famous.
The 26-year-old musician -- who grew up in Japan listening to Elton John, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson -- was hosting friends at his home when one of them mentioned a part-time job opening at a small video game company. Uematsu applied for the job and got it.
Soon after, he was scoring the soundtrack for what would be the company‘s breakout title -- a role-playing game called Final Fantasy.
The rest is history.
“I certainly didn’t write any of these pieces with the ambition they’d be performed in concert halls,” said Uematsu, now 50. “I never imagined I’d be doing this, and that every time people would be asking, ‘encore, encore.’”
The “Distant Worlds: Music of FINAL FANTASY” concert tour, which is swinging through Seattle, Wash. this weekend, is a compilation of Uematsu’s work throughout the Final Fantasy series. Under the direction of Uematsu and Grammy award-winning conductor Arnie Roth, the iconic music of the Final Fantasy series is brought to life by a full symphony orchestra.
As a young boy, Uematsu discovered his passion for music while playing around on his older sister’s piano. Although he fantasized about becoming a pro wrestler, he always knew he wanted a career in music.
He landed his first paid gig when he composed a radio jingle for an amusement park in north-central Japan. After that, Uematsu mainly focused on his small rock band -- he played the keyboard -- before landing his job with Square.
Now he’s a member of The Black Mages, a rock-style band that performs electrifying versions of hit Final Fantasy tracks. He’s constantly touring with Distant Worlds, which recently wrapped up overseas performances in Singapore and Taipei.
On top of that, Uematsu is halfway finished with composing the music for Final Fantasy XIV, the second massively multiplayer online game of the franchise. Final Fantasy IX was the last installment of the series to be scored entirely by Uematsu.
“It’s tough, it can be tough; there’s a lot of material to get through,” Uematsu said of his ongoing work with FFXIV. “You’ve really got to make a wide variety of patterns in the music to try to open up the score. One of the things that is an issue is obviously one person working by themselves can be limited in what they can do, so what I’m trying to do is produce a good range of music.”
Roth, the Distant Worlds conductor, has become close friends with Uematsu during the Distant Worlds series. The two work together on a daily basis to convert Uematsu’s pieces into various symphonic arrangements. Roth has written so many arrangements of Uematsu’s work that the concert series may begin returning to cities with entirely different music lineups.
Although Roth isn’t a gamer, he’s largely responsible for the birth of Distant Worlds.
The idea for the concert series was planted in Roth’s head by a colleague who had performed a Final Fantasy music concert at the 2002 E3 convention in Los Angeles. The show sold out quickly. However, the show’s venue was rather small, and skeptics wondered the show would have sold out had E3 not been happening. Roth’s friend talked to several conductors; none of them took his idea seriously.
“There’s a great prejudging, or assumptions made, with the old school presenters,” Roth said. “They all look at that and say, ‘what do you mean a concert of all video game music? That’s the knee jerk reaction. Many times, it’s that knee-jerk reaction that immediately halts a project.”
Roth took a chance on the idea. He planned an all-Final Fantasy concert called “Dear Friends” in Chicago, where he is the musical director and principal conductor of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra. Just to be safe, he stipulated that the show would only be held if a certain number of tickets could be sold.
The show sold out.
Roth was floored by the audience’s reverent enthusiasm. In rock concerts, people are usually dancing, stomping and singing along. Classical music fans are usually silent, but it’s oddly common for people to shuffle their programs at the wrong moments or head for the restrooms at breaks in the music. During that first show, everyone was quiet and still.
“These fans are maybe some of the best fans, better than classical fans,” Roth said. “They know the music so well, and they come here to listen to the live music. You can hear a pin drop during the performances, which is just a beautiful thing.”
An unnoticed exception, Roth later learned, was a man who proposed to his girlfriend while his orchestra played “Aerith’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VII. “I understand how important it is for people,” Roth said. “Significant moments of their lives took place in the context of this playing in the background.”
Uematsu wrote most of those tunes in his home office. His many inspirations include 1970s-era rockers, the Renaissance period of central Europe, movies such as “The Godfather” and classical music composers. He said he tries to craft his melodies in a way that anyone can relate to them. He is grateful to Roth for helping him improve his music.
“He kind of tends to see music as just one entity rather than pigeonholing it into things like classical, or game music, or rock music,” Uematsu said. “He tends to just have a much more holistic approach to music, which has been really great.”
In some ways, Uematsu never stopped playing on his older sister’s piano. He is incredibly passionate about his work, yet he rarely feels as if he’s had to study to improve.
He’s got the Black Mages and Distant Worlds. A single song can take a few days to write -- “One-Winged Angel” took nearly two weeks -- and a game can take up to eight months to score. That means he’ll have his hands full with Final Fantasy XIV.
Uematsu still has lots of music to be made. Only now, people know who he is.
“Through this series, I’ve really had a lot of personal freedom to what I wanted to do with my life,” he said. “You don’t get that much in life, to do what you want and to pursue your goals like that. That has definitely been the most rewarding thing about working with the series.”
Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy will be playing three shows in Seattle from July 9-11 and one more in San Francisco on July 18. Visit http://www.ffdistantworlds.com for show information. |
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The Golden Rain Percussion Ensemble - May 4th |
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DCWS' Nightnotes Series presents:
The Golden Rain
Percussion Ensemble
In a performance on Friday, May 8, Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings' popular Nightnotes series adds world music to its repertoire with the Golden Rain Percussion Ensemble. Held in the intimate setting of Hagopian World of Rugs in downtown Birmingham, the concert will begin at 8:30 p.m., preceded by a complimentary reception for ticket holders at 8:00. A Detroit-based group, the Golden Rain Percussion Ensemble was formed in 1977 with the intent of introducing percussion chamber music to the public. Since its inception, the ensemble has performed for audiences of all ages in practically every conceivable musical setting. The scope of the group's experience includes concerts, master classes, residencies and lecture-demonstrations. For their Nightnotes debut, Golden Rain will showcase their versatility in a program representing a variety of musical traditions. From Mexico to Ghana to Brazil and back home to the U.S.A., ensemble members Keith Claeys, Terry Breese, Dan Maslanka, and David Taylor will lead the audience on a worldwide tour of percussion music. Concertgoers will enjoy selections such as Mexican folksongs La Tortuga and El Chocolo, several ragtime pieces by xylophone virtuoso George Hamilton Green, and much more! Discounted advance tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students, and can be purchased online at www.detroitchamberwinds.org or by calling 248-559-2095. Tickets will also be available at the door for an additional $5 per ticket. Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings is an ensemble made up primarily of musicians from the Detroit Symphony and Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestras. In addition to the Nightnotes concerts, DCWS presents an annual, nine-concert subscription series. For more information, please call 248-559-2095 or visit www.detroitchamberwinds.org.
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The Institute of European Studies in Vienna has named Nancy Van de Vate as Composer-in-Residence. Founded 60 years ago, IES is featuring Van de Vate and her work in this year’s celebration of its contributions to the lives of students from all over the world, and particularly from the United States.