Tod Machover (born November 24, 1953, in

Mount Vernon, New York Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, immediately to the north of the borough of the Bronx. As of the 2020 census, Mount Vernon had a population of 73,893, making it th ...

), is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and an innovator in the application of

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and Carl Machover, a

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

. He was named Director of Musical Research at IRCAM in 1980. Joining the faculty at the new Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT) in 1985, he became Professor of Music and Media and Director of the Experimental Media Facility. Currently Professor of Music and Media at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

, he is head of the Lab's Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group and has been co-director of the Things That Think (TTT) and Toys of Tomorrow (TOT) consortia since 1995. In 2006, he was named visiting professor of composition at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...

in London. He has composed significant works for

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologi ...

, Matt Haimovitz, the Ying Quartet, the

Boston Pops The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Sym ...

, the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

, Penn & Teller, and many others, as well as designed and implemented various interactive systems for performance by

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

and

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

. Machover gave a keynote lecture at NIME-02, the second international conference on

New Interfaces for Musical Expression New Interfaces for Musical Expression, also known as NIME, is an international conference dedicated to scientific research on the development of new technologies and their role in musical expression and artistic performance. History The confe ...

, which was held in 2002 at the former Media Lab Europe in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, and is a frequent lecturer worldwide. Machover is a Finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his oper
"Death and the Powers."

Education

He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1971 and received a BM and MM from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

where he studied with Elliott Carter and

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

(1973–1978). He also started his Doctoral studies at Juilliard before being invited as Composer-in-Residence to

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mo ...

's new Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...

) in 1978.

History

In the fall of 1978, Tod Machover arrived at

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

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 instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pian ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, 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.

Hyperinstruments

Hyperviolin

Basically an electric

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

, audio output provides raw material for real-time

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

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.

Hypercello

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.

Hyperbow

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.

Hyperpiano

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

data generated by performer on a Yamaha

Disklavier Disklavier is a brand of reproducing pianos manufactured by Yamaha Corporation. The first Disklavier was introduced in the United States in 1987. The typical Disklavier is a real acoustic piano outfitted with electronic sensors for recording and ...

is manipulated by various Max/MSP processes as accompaniment and augmentation of keyboard performance.

Stage works

* ''Valis: an opera in two parts'' (1987) (OCLC ) based on Philip K. Dick's novel ''

VALIS ''Valis'' (stylized as ''VALIS'') is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, intended to be the first book of a three-part series. The title is an acronym for ''Vast Active Living Intelligence System'', Dick's gnostic vis ...

'' * ''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

* ''Resurrection'' (1999 at

Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...

with Joyce DiDonato) (based on

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's last novel

* ''Skellig'' (2008), an opera based on the Skellig, novel of the same name by

David Almond David Almond (born 15 May 1951) is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim. He is one of thirty children's writers, and one of three from the UK, to win the bie ...

br>
* ''Death and the Powers'' (2010), an opera with live electronics and robotics developed by the M.I.T. Media Lab. Libretto by Robert Pinskybr>Powers
* ''Schoenberg in Hollywood'' (2018), an opera with film and live electronics commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera. Libretto by Simon Robson

Compositions

* ''Ye Gentle Birds'' (1979) for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880& ...

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middl ...

and wind ensemble * ''Fresh Spring'' (1977) for

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the ...

solo and large chamber ensemble * ''With Dadaji in Paradise'' (1977-'78, rev. 1983) for solo

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

* ''Two Songs'' (1978) for soprano and chamber ensemble * ''Concerto for Amplified Guitar'' (1978) for amplified acoustic

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

and large chamber ensemble * ''Deplacements'' (1979) for amplified guitar and computer-generated tape * ''Light'' (1979) for

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

and computer electronics * ''Soft Morning, City!'' for soprano,

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

, and computer-generated tape * ''Winter Variations'' (1981) for large chamber ensemble * ''String Quartet No. 1'' (1981) * ''Fusione Fugace'' (1981-'82) for keyboard, two specialized interfaces, and live 4X

digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digit ...

* ''Chansons d'Amour'' (1982) for solo

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* ''Electric Etudes'' (1983) for amplified cello, live and pre-recorded computer electronics * ''Spectres Parisiens'' (1983-'84) for

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...

, horn,

and computer electronics * ''Hidden Sparks'' (1984) for solo

* ''Famine'' (1985) for four amplified voices and computer-generated sounds * ''Desires'' (1985-'89) for

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

* ''Nature's Breath'' (1988-'89) for chamber orchestra * ''Towards the Center'' (1988-'89) for amplified flute,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

, violin, cello, electronic keyboard and percussion, with five hyperinstrument electronics * ''Flora'' (1989) for pre-recorded soprano and computer-generated sound * ''Bug Mudra'' (1989-'90) for two guitars (electric and amplified-acoustic), electronic percussion, conducting dataglove, and interactive computer electronics * ''Begin Again Again …'' (1991) for

and hypercell
Hyperstring Trilogy
* "Song of Penance" (1992) for hyperviola and chamber orchestr
Hyperstring Trilogy
* "Forever and Ever" (1993) for hyperviolin and orchestr
Hyperstring Trilogy
* ''Hyperstring Trilogy'' (1991-'93, rev. 1996-'97) for hypercello, hyperviola, hyperviolin and chamber orchestr
Hyperstring Trilogy
* ''Bounce'' (1992) for hyperkeyboards, Yamaha Disklavier Grand piano and interactive computer electronics * ''He's Our Dad'' (1997) for soprano, keyboard and computer-generated sound * ''Meteor Music'' (1998) interactive installatio
Meteorite Museum
* "Sparkler" (2001) for orchestra and interactive computer electronic

* "Toy Symphony" (2002/3) for hyperviolin Children's Chorus, Music Toys, and Orchestr
Toy Symphony
* "Mixed Messiah" (2004), a 6-minute remix of Handel's Messia

* "I Dreamt A Dream" (2004) for youth chorus, piano and electronic

* "Sea Soaring" (2005) for flute, electronics, and live audience interactio
Music Garden
* ''...but not simpler...'' (2005

* ''Jeux Deux'' (2005) for hyperpiano and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

br>Jeux Deux
* ''Another Life'' (2006) for nine instruments and electronics * "VinylCello" (2007) for amplified cello, DJ and live computer electronic

* "Spheres and Splinters" (2010) for hypercello, spatialized audio reproduction, and visual
Spheres and Splinters
* "Open up the House" (2013) for soprano and pian
National Opera Center America
* ''A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City'' (2013) for orchestra and electronics composed with the citizens of Toront
A Toronto Symphony
* ''Festival City'' (2013) for orchestra and electronics composed with the public for the

Edinburgh International Festival The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially european classical music, classical music) and ...

* ''Between the Desert and the Deep Blue Sea: A Symphony for Perth'' (2014) for orchestra and electronics composed with the public for the

Perth International Arts Festival Perth Festival, named Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) between 2000 and 2017, and sometimes referred to as the Festival of Perth, is Australia's longest-running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia. The program features ...

* ''Breathless'' (2014) for flute, orchestra and electronic
Bemidji Symphony Orchestra
* ''Time and Space'' (2015) for orchestra, inspired by the essays of

Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a lit ...

* ''A Symphony for Our Times'' (2015) for live piano and recorded orchestra and electronics, for the closing performance of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

Annual Meeting in 2015 * ''Restructures'' (2015) for two pianos and electronics, tribute to

premiered at the 2015

Lucerne Festival Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it curren ...

* ''Eine Sinfonie für Luzern'' (2015) for orchestra and electronics, created with the public for the 2015

* ''Fensadense'' (2015) for ten musicians and hyperinstruments with live electronics, premiered at the 2015

ra * "Symphony in D" (2015) for orchestra, voice, additional performers and electronics, premiered by the Detroit Symphony * "Philadelphia Voices" (2018) for four choirs, to be premiered by Westminster Choir College's Symphonic Choir at the Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall.

Journal articles

Awards

* 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 Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and e ...

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) * Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Award for Arts Advocacy (2013) * 2016 Composer of the Year, Musical America

References

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

2007.
Tod Machover Playlist
Appearance on WMBR's

' radio show April 16, 2003 * *
"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) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Machover, Tod 1953 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century classical composers Academics of the Royal Academy of Music American classical composers American male classical composers American opera composers Living people Male opera composers MIT Media Lab people 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians