Why does every society seem to want to make music when it often seems like kind of a frill. Tod Machover More Quotes by Tod Machover More Quotes From Tod Machover I never liked opera growing up. I always liked chamber music or solo music even more than orchestral music. Tod Machover chamber-musicoperagrowing-up I started thinking, my gosh, all this sophisticated software for measuring how Yo-Yo plays, and how he moves and this technique of the bow, I should be able to use similar techniques for measuring the way anybody moves, and so somebody who is not a professional or a trained musician, I should be able to make a musical environment for them. Tod Machover playmovingthinking The barn where I work, it's only 15 minutes or so from Harvard square, so It's very close to the center of Boston, but it happens to be a total oasis. It's completely quiet in there. Tod Machover oasisbostonsquares One of the things I like most of all is being in my study, in my barn, with absolutely no sound anywhere thinking about something. It's extremely important to me. Tod Machover importantsoundthinking I think it's maybe because Sergeant Pepper's came out when I was about 13 or 14 and that was a pretty impressionable age, and it was such a kind of radical period. But that period of the Beatles really had a big influence on me and I think are directly related to hyperinstruments. Tod Machover peppersagethinking The Beatles realized that what they were making in the studio could never be performed. And they had already given up on performing because there were too many screaming fans and they were playing in larger and larger venues so they couldn't even hear what they were playing, it just wasn't any fun any more. Tod Machover givenfansfun I love the cello, I love the physical sense of an instrument that's about the size of your body that vibrates enough that even if you play an open string, you feel it. Tod Machover sizebodyplay I think a double bass for me would be too much effort. But the cello, you're really engaged and the sound is kind of right here. So, it feels like being merged, married to an instrument. Tod Machover double-basseffortthinking I think that one of the things about music is it's supposed to be spontaneous, it's supposed to be real human beings bouncing off of each other whether its from the stage or to the audience, or jamming with friends. Tod Machover spontaneousrealthinking Any Beatles song is perfect. It gets to you right away. Tod Machover perfectsong I think from age 13, 14, 15, I thought, yes, this rich studio produced music is the future, but it can't be the future to go run away into the recording studio. How can we take that kind of complexity and richness and make it possible for people to touch it and play it live. That's what hyperinstruments are. Tod Machover playrunningthinking I think the seed was planted when I was a teenager, and it took me until I got out of Juilliard. At Juilliard I was just learning to be a composer, but I was also learning how to manipulate computers. Tod Machover juilliardteenagerthinking There were a lot of things happen in the mid-'80's that all of a sudden made it possible to do a lot of very quick interactive music. Tod Machover interactivemadehappens I love silence. And one of the paradoxes about the way I live and also about my work is that definitely one of the reasons I went into music, and especially into composing is that I love setting up an environment where I can be by myself for long periods of time and have everything as quiet as possible, either to think about sound, or to think about ideas, or just to focus on things that are important to me. Tod Machover longideasthinking 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 voice - so I do consider it an opera. Tod Machover voicejourneybrainway
