Klarinet Archive - Posting 000531.txt from 2005/03

From: Anne Bell <bell@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Conducting without a baton
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:03:43 -0500

Mmmmm. some of the limitations are no longer applicable. With a
microphone hooked to each instrumentalist the machine could tell who was
too loud/soft, fast/slow, etc.... and adjust accordingly. Smartmusic and
other music tutor programs already do much of this and can be set to
completely ignore the players counting, completely follow it or
compromise somewhere in between.

Whatever you do- keep the "hand"- maybe something like turning the
display into a flashing caution sign......

Take Care,
Anne

Tony Pay wrote:
> It might be worth posting here something I wrote a few years ago, about the
> possibility of constructing a 'conducting machine'.
...................
> Blueprint for a Conducting Machine
...............
> Possibilities and inherent limitations
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
.................
> The primary purpose of a conducting machine would be to assist players
> in the task of playing together, by representing for them visually the
> metre against which they have to play. However I think it is important
> to realise clearly from the start both what such a machine might be able
> to do, and what it would not be able to do.
>
> A human conductor enters into a relationship with his players and the
> music that a machine is unlikely to be able to emulate in the forseeable
> future. Even from a technical point of view, he is able to beat ahead
> or behind the players in order to speed them up or slow them down; and
> he is able to make other gestures to change or modulate what he
> perceives them to be doing. The machine, lacking a representation of
> what the players are doing, would be unable to respond to them in this
> way. Though a more interactive relationship might be achievable in a
> simple situation (if only one player were involved, for example) in such
> a simple situation the machine wouldn't really be necessary. It might
> of course turn out to be interesting to develop such a limited
> relationship. But in any case, the possibility will not be considered
> further here.

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