Tod Machover

He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1971 and received a BM and MM from the Juilliard School in New York where he studied with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions (1973–1978). He also started his Doctoral studies at Juilliard before being invited as Composer-in-Residence to Pierre Boulez's new Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in 1978.

In the fall of 1978, Tod Machover arrived at IRCAM in Paris, and was introduced to Giuseppe di Giugno's digital synthesizer 4 series. Light was premiered at the Metz Festival in November 1979 using 4C, the brain-child of di Giugno's concept that "synthesizers should be made for musicians, not for the people that make them." (Electric Sound, p. 181). In 1981 he composed Fusione Fugace for solo performance on a real-time digital synthesizer, called the 4X machine. At IRCAM 1986 and 1987 he was motivated to score for keyboard and percussion duet with emphasis on extending their performance into many complex sound layers. He composed Valis, again using di Giugno's 4X system to process voices. This desire to enhance the human performance foreshadowed his concept of the hyperinstrument (term coined in 1986). At MIT's Media Lab, he developed methods for taking many more sophisticated measurements of the instrument as well as the performer's expression. He focused on augmenting keyboard instruments, percussion, strings, even the act of conducting, with the goal of developing and implementing new technology in order to expand the function of the musical instruments and their performers. He propelled forward-thinking research in the field of musical performance and interaction using new musical and technological resources. Originally concentrated to the enhancement of virtuosic performance, research has expanded in a direction of building sophisticated interactive musical instruments for non-professional musicians, children, and the general public. He premiered 'Brain Opera' in 1996, an interactive music experience with hyper instruments that aimed at making every human being into a musician.^[1]

 

Basically an electric violin, audio output provides raw material for real-time timbre analysis and synthesis techniques. Coupled with an enhanced bow (see Hyperbow), measured properties of both the audio output of the instrument and the bowing gesture of the player create data which controls aspects of the resulting amplified sound.

In addition to bow pressure and string contact, wrist measurements and left-hand fingering-position indicators create measurements which are evaluated and processed in response to the performance.

Bowing parameters (speed, force, position) are measured and data is processed to create an interaction between performance properties and audio output. Different types or styles of bowing create complex calculations which are conducive to the performance and manipulation of larger structures and compositional shapes.

MIDI data generated by performer on a Yamaha Disklavier is manipulated by various Max/MSP processes as accompaniment and augmentation of keyboard performance.

• Valis: an opera in two parts (1987) (OCLC 19489388) based on Philip K. Dick's novel VALIS
• Brain Opera (1996), an original, interactive musical experience that included contributions from both on-line participants and live audiences. It toured Europe, Asia, the United States and South America from 1996 to 1998 and was permanently installed at Vienna's House of Music in the spring of 2000. [1]
• Resurrection (1999 at Houston Grand Opera with Joyce DiDonato) (based on Leo Tolstoy's last novel) [2]
• Skellig (2008), an opera based on the novel of the same name by David Almond [3]
• Death and the Powers (2010), an opera with live electronics and robotics developed by the M.I.T. Media Lab. Libretto by Robert Pinsky Powers
• Schoenberg in Hollywood (2018), an opera with film and live electronics commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera. Libretto by Simon Robson

• Machover, Tod (October 2004). "Shaping Minds Musically" (PDF). BT Technology Journal. 22 (4): 171–179. doi:10.1023/B:BTTJ.0000047596.75297.ee. S2CID 8717715. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-07.

• Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (1995)
• DigiGlobe Prize in Interactive Media, Germany (1998)
• Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology and the Ray Kurzweil Award of Technology in Music, USA (2003)
• Charles Steinmetz Prize from IEEE and Union College, "USA" (2007)
• Pulitzer Prize in Music Finalist for "Death and the Powers" (2012) ^[3]
• Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Award for Arts Advocacy (2013)^[4]
• 2016 Composer of the Year, Musical America ^[5]

• Chadabe, Joel (1997). Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-303231-0.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tod Machover.

• Web page
• Faculty profile
• Research & Projects
• Opera of the Future Blog
• NewMusicBox
• Shaping Minds Musically
• Music-Making for All^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• CNN Video Documentary 1/07
• "My Cello" by Tod Machover in Sherry Turkle's book, Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, MIT Press 2007. ISBN 0-262-20168-2
• Tod Machover Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler radio show April 16, 2003
• Tod Machover at TED  
  • "Inventing instruments that unlock new music" (TED2008)
• Toy Story: An MIT Project Helps Musical Novices Express Themselves article in Andante (online magazine), September 5, 2002 (archived 2007)
• "Tod Machover (biography, works, resources)" (in French and English). IRCAM.