La particolarità di questo brano di David Jaffe risiede nel fatto che si tratta di un concerto per pianoforte in cui la parte del solista è eseguita da un percussionista (Andrew Schloss) che controlla un pianoforte midi (il disklavier) per mezzo del Radio Drum (in figura).

Si tratta di un dispositivo i cui battenti inviano a quattro sensori disposti agli angoli della tavola, la loro posizione in termini di X, Y e Z.
Questi dati vengono utilizzati per calcolare il punto di impatto e la forza, ma vengono inviati sempre, non solo quando i battenti toccano la superficie. Ne consegue che un apposito software può anche utilizzare il movimento dei battenti in aria per ricavarne dei dati che vengono poi trasformati in note midi inviate al disklavier.
Si tratta quindi di una interfaccia che rileva il movimento, non di una semplice percussione digitalizzata.

Il brano è scritto per pianoforte e ensemble strumentale (mandolin, guitar, harp, harpsichord, bass, harmonium and 2 percussionists). Ecco alcuni estratti tratti dal solito Art of the States.

David Jaffe - The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (excerpts)

Varie note sul brano sul sito di Jaffe.

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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.

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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.

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