In Monday’s (11/12) Guardian (London), Patrick Kingsley notes Tod Machover’s desire to change the orchestra’s elitist image. “A composer and inventor, Machover is currently writing a symphony about the city of Toronto in collaboration with not just the city’s orchestra, but also its 2.6 million residents. ‘It’s beyond crowd-sourcing,’ he says over afternoon cake. ‘I think of it as massive collaboration. Crowdsourcing is a one-way ask for something very specific. Collaboration is something that goes back and forth, and turns into something truly open.’ Machover already has a loose backbone of the piece—but the rest is up for grabs. He might give two of the piece’s main chords to schoolchildren, and ask them to come up with melodies that link them. For the last few months, residents have sent him recordings of their favourite city sounds, which he then turns into music at public workshops around the city. He also uploads recently imagined sequences, and invites all-comers to improve them—often on Hyperscore, a composing programme that simplifies music notation.” Through his collaboration with the Toronto Symphony, Machover wants “to democratise classical music, while still making something that is creatively excellent.”
Posted November 14, 2012
