HyperScore
© 2003 MIT Media Lab
Researchers (Mary Farbood and Egon Pasztor) at the MIT media lab have been working on techniques to let children compose music through drawing, which can then be transcribed into sheet music and played by a full symphony. The following copy is from the promotional web site, as of May, 2003. How can a computer help a human being to compose music, especially if the person has no prior musical training? This problem can be viewed from different perspectives—from developing the musical algorithms that the computer uses to automate the compositional process to designing the right interface for humans to interact with the machine. Hyperscore is a software tool that attempts to address both of these issues. Hyperscore is a graphical composition environment that interprets the gestures of the strokes and lines the user draws in an intuitive way. The user can pen musical ideas, store them for later use, and create new pieces—all in one expansive canvas. The strokes in the drawing are mapped to structural elements in the music, allowing the user to interweave and shape musical voices and define harmonic progressions visually. Hyperscore is a central element in workshops and live performances for the Toy Symphony project.
Internet Site
Teaches: music, creativity