28
Jun
Here is the video of a good execution of Cage’s 4'33", orchestral version. The director wiping off his sweat between 1st and 2nd movement is a moment of great humour.
Problem: how to evaluate a 4'33" execution :-P?
Tags: cageI have nothing to say
and I am saying it
and that is poetry
as I needed it
— John Cage
23
Jun
As already announced (see the post about Audiopad) the musical interfaces based on touch-sensitive systems are about to start conquering the market.
Now the japanese media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha Corporation present Tenori-On (sound on your palm). It consists on a 16×16 matrix of light emitting switches. When you push a switch for a short time the associated sound is played and a ripple of light spread out from that switch. If the switch is held down longer the sound is played in loop and the dot of light remains on.
Currently Tenori-On is under development and not for sale. IMHO the system really needs a lot of development. Judging from the currently available videos (see below), my opinion, as a professional electronic music composer,is that Tenori-On is only a little more than a simple musical toy.
As far as I know, the system is build on ITRON, an open real time operating system. I only hope that the system software is really open, because a 256 button matrix with light could be programmed in a more interesting way.
Look at the video (thanks to YouTube). More videos on this page.
18
Jun
There are many “in memoriam” tributes on the web. On YouTube you can see the arté video of the Poème Symphonique pour 100 Metronomes.
Tags: ligeti17
Jun
Seems to be a place where geographers finally remember composers. In the Alexander Island (71°00′S 70°00′W, part of Antarctica) you can find the Shostakovich, Beethoven and Monteverdi Peninsulas, the Mendelssohn Inlet, the Brahms Inlet and the Verdi Inlet. The Bach Ice Shelf, Rossini Point and Berlioz Point are a bit away.
Many other sites in this island have composers names.
Click here to see a bigger map
14
Jun
I don’t like to carry bad news. Two days ago the composer György Ligeti (age 83) is dead in Vienna.
IMHO his most important and innovatives works are the compositions of sixties, starting with Apparitions (1959) to the Double Concerto for Oboe and Flauto 1972), through works like the Requiem, the Cello Concert, Lux Aeterna, Lontano, Ramifications, the Chamber Concerto, Melodien.
In this works Ligeti completely abandons the traditional melody, harmony and rhythm to create a musical flow made by clusters, chords and sound masses that seem to be still but live by an inner micropolyphony. A sound texture on which rhythm, harmony and micro melodies are melted to create an ever changing timbre, using traditional instruments to create sounds that resembles electronic textures.
Other Ligeti’s works are important in the music history, but the emotions that I feel when I first listened this music in the ‘70 (I was about 20) are the things that I really like to remember.
12
Jun
Mi pare che in Italia esista una legge che proibisce di scaricare e peggio ancora di porre in condivisione files protetti dal “diritto d’autore”.
Che dire allora di un ministro dell’attuale governo che sul suo sito permette di scaricare un mp3, per di più di una ex cantante che ora come ora è una delle più strenue a difendere il “diritto d’autore”?
No tag for this post.11
Jun
Audiopad has been developed by two MIT graduate students (James Patten and Ben Recht). It is one of the most interesting and futuristic musical controller ever seen in action.
Audiopad itself has its sound sample library and can play music and apply digital processing at the same time but can also control a real time synthesis software like MAX/MSP running on external computer or even a set of MIDI synthesizers.
Basically Audiopad is composed by a tabletop surface (a sort of big horizontal screen) on which different symbols and musical data are displayed. On the tabletop there are objects the performer can move. Audiopad generate music looking at the motion of that objects and their position with respect to the displayed symbols.
Depending on the software, the symbols type and their meaning can be different and so is the interaction with objects. Example: symbols can represent instruments and an object can be a melody. Moving the object on a symbol means that the performer assign that melody to that instrument. Another object can be a microphone, so moving the microphone near/far a melody or instrument raise/lower it’s volume.
Moreover the tabletop display is not static but can change when the performer moves the object on certain symbols opening new ways to the performer action.
Audiopad is very different from traditional computer interaction (the desk, monitor, keyboard and mouse model). The best way to understand it’s nature is seeing in action. You can find a good video here (quicktime mov format), other videos and info on Patten’s page.
Unfortunately Audiopad is not currently for sale. The only musical interface that moves in that direction is Lemur (we’ll speak about later), but it’s only a programming touch-screen, a single step with respect to Audiopad complexity.
9
Jun
Searching for robot dogs after the Aibo’s end of production I found some nice toys.
The first is called iDog by Sega Toys (the name don’t sound new, reminds something…). It seems more an MP3 gadget than a real dog. According to the video I saw (see link at the end of post), it moves only head, ears and tail, but it follows the music with blinkin leds on the head.
This little robot react to music. More, it has a speaker inside and a little 3.5mm jack connection so you can plug it into a MP3 or CD players and of course the iPod. If you turn the music off the iDog complais and barks (could be a little annoying). About $50.
More interesting is the i-Cybie (by Silverlit from Honk-Kong) that is a real robot pet similar to Aibo (less powerful but cheaper: official price is $199, can buy for less).
It can respond to sound, touch, voice commands and its own remote control but don’t let that fool you i-Cybie has a fun repertoire of tricks it can perform, including telling you when his batteries are running low & also has a walk up charger to power itself .
i-Cybie moves and has many sensor:
Last, i-Cybie can interact with other i-Cybie’s using it’s built-in IR communicator, as long as the other dog is within 3 feet of him. I ask what kind of info they can exchange. My conspiracy oriented mind can imagine many interesting situations.
Ok. I’m searching for other pet robots. Stay tuned.
Links:
iDog (eDog in Europe) video.
i-Cybie official site and fan site.
8
Jun
According to Google translator, these signs mean “learning the Chinese”. I advise you to begin. You can find booklets for a few dollars. In these last days I have been shocked by 2 numbers:
7
Jun
Yesterday, tuesday, was the date of the Beast: 06/06/06. I found while writing the date of a lesson in school.
However nothing happened.
Apparently…
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