I've done a lot of operas. I've probably done more different kind of operas than anybody. Tod Machover More Quotes by Tod Machover More Quotes From Tod Machover My message is to forget about dichotomies. The Brain Opera is an opera, even if it does not tell a story in the usual way. It is a psychological journey with voices - so I do consider it an opera. Tod Machover voice journey brain Works of art should be stimulating. They should wake people up rather than acting like a sedative. Tod Machover acting people art My work on hyper instruments started with simple instruments, like the piano. Tod Machover instruments piano simple There's many reason music exists and we are beginning to no only understand that, but measure that. Tod Machover reason Nobody talks about music as having intrinsic meaning, how it engages the mind. Tod Machover mind The basic idea of a hyper instrument is where the technology is built right into the instrument so that the instrument knows how its being played - literally what the expression is, what the meaning is, what the direction of the music is. Tod Machover technology expression ideas it's important as a composer to sit in silence and imagine these complex musical worlds in your head, but it's also a wonderful experience to touch your music and to hear it and hear it in the room with you and to say, you can't have an entire orchestra there, but you'd kind of like to have the orchestra there. Tod Machover musical silence important Music seems to stimulate more parts of our mind than almost every other activity. It combines more parts of our minds. It synchronizes our minds. It allows people in groups to do a non-verbal immediate activity together. Tod Machover mind together people I like the idea of imagining a sound and feeling a sound and then having it come out through your body, through an instrument. That's an important way to make music. Tod Machover important feelings ideas I row for about 40-45 minutes every morning and put in my iPod and it's a huge range. That's when I listen to either things that I just love and know very well and just want to pay attention, it's also where I listen to things that are new that I want to get to know. Tod Machover ipods want morning I listen to new music by composers who are interesting to me. I listen to some; I don't know if I want to call it pop, but it's some interesting artist that gets my attention, I listen to in the mornings. Tod Machover artist morning interesting Strangely, the thing I listen to 75% of the time, when I'm exercising with my headphones on is English Tudor/Elizabethan music, so music from about 1450 to the early 1600's. Tod Machover headphones tudors exercise I love Bach, I love Beethoven, I love Mozart, I love the Beatles, I love you know, Stockhausen, I love many things. But for some reason I come back to Elizabethan music because it's a little bit like the Beatles. Tod Machover love-you littles love-is England has had a lot of really bad periods of music, but it's had several amazing periods where they've found an incredible balance, not just between music that's a rather complex and also pretty direct. Like the Beatles. Tod Machover incredibles balance england I'd studied piano first and switched over to cello when I was about seven. I played mostly chamber and solo classical music. I got really involved with rock music when I was a teenager. I wired up my cello. Tod Machover piano teenager rocks The English learned, in my view, how to use harmony much earlier than the French or the Italians, or the Germans. Tod Machover harmony use views I almost never these days sit down with a CD or my laptop and just listen to a piece with a score. I probably would do that while I'm exercising. Tod Machover cds pieces exercise I have a big barn that I converted to my music studio, so I go there early in the morning and the first thing I do is rowing. And that's when I listen to a lot of music. Tod Machover barns morning firsts I listen to a lot of music that teenagers are listening to because I'm around them. Tod Machover teenager listening I had grown up and gone to high school in New York, so I wanted to get out of the east coast. Tod Machover east new-york school
