New Harmony LineHyperscore has been used by children around the world to compose original pieces. Their compositions have been performed by musicians, from rock bands to major orchestras. Check out this collection of some of our “greatest hits,” each one a wonderful expression of each child’s spirit. We can’t wait to release the new version of Hyperscore for the Web!
We have exciting updates about the future of New Harmony Line and Hyperscore. Until now, Hyperscore has been compatible only with the Windows operating system. Over the past year, we have been hard at work developing a platform-independent web-based application. Our new version of Hyperscore is on its way and we can’t wait to share it with you soon.
This summer, we will be holding training sessions for teachers who would like to learn about using Hyperscore for the Web in their classrooms. If you are interested in signing up, please contact us.
If you would like to support our mission to put this powerful music composition technology into the hands of school kids, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Hyperscore for the Web will also be available to the general public, with sales revenue going to support our educational mission.
We are grateful for the enduring engagement from educators, youth groups, orchestras, and universities, and cannot wait to bring more people together. We are excited to expand our community of people who enjoy composing, want to share their creations, and connect over a love of music.
Thank you for joining us.
– June Kinoshita, Executive Director
A Toronto Symphony is the first of composer Tod Machover’s City Symphonies. It was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who premiered the piece in March 2013. With this project, Machover – who is Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music & Media at the MIT Media Lab – “rethought the symphony as a community event” (Musical America), a portrait of a place created for and by the people who live there.
As Machover described when he launched the project publicly in 2012, the goal was to create a sonic portrait of Toronto by “listening” to the city in order to discover its special features, by inviting all Torontonians to collect and submit their favorite sounds of the city and also to create original musical compositions using the Media Lab’s Hyperscore software, and then to engage in online and in-person workshops and activities to help shape the composition itself. The result produced a model which Machover and his team have brought to cities around the world. The MIT Symphony Orchestra (MITSO), led by Evan Ziporyn, programmed A Toronto Symphony for a concert that was to have taken place on March 13, 2020.
For this occasion, Machover revised the composition and also invited the student players of MITSO to collaborate with him to create a new section of the piece, now called “MIT Interprets Toronto”, a new twist on the City Symphony model. Another surprise was in store for the project when it was announced that MIT had to shut down – and students needed to leave campus – on March 13th, the very day of the concert, which needed – of course – to be cancelled. However, the MITSO players voted to come in for what would have been the dress rehearsal on the evening of March 12th, to play together for one last time before dispersing, and to record the music for the concert.
This video is of that March 12th recording, filmed by Peter Torpey, Paula Aguilera and Jonathan Williams. Torpey – who created the original visuals for the Toronto premiere – combined live footage of MITSO with collected visuals from Toronto, and added evocative new material as well. The video of Toronto’s CN Tower in the Toronto Dances finale is live footage from the 2013 premiere, when Machover, Torpey and team synchronized the tower’s LED lighting to the orchestral performance which was broadcast by the CBC.
Of this video performance, Tod Machover says: “Although we were not able to give the public performance of A Toronto Symphony as planned, it is especially meaningful to have this documentation of the piece that represents months of devoted work by MITSO and Evan Ziporyn. I am delighted that these young musicians were able to perform this difficult music so well. I’m also pleased that the piece ’transposed’ smoothly from Toronto to Cambridge (complete with a new section), and that orchestral music, electronics, “found” sounds, and multilayered visuals are combined just as I originally imagined them.”
Reporter Andrea Shea delves into the creation of Tod Machover’s newest symphonic work, “Philadelphia Voices.”
From the famous Mummers’ New Year’s Day Parade to the sizzling of celebrated cheesesteaks, acclaimed U.S composer and inventor Tod Machover has been collecting sounds for his latest piece ‘Philadelphia Voices,’ a composition inspired by the heritage, sights and sounds of Philadelphia, the city known as the birthplace of American democracy.
Then in his barn studio, next to his Boston home, he manipulates these hours and hours of recording, crafting them into the music and soundscape for the piece. We also have behind the scenes access as the composition receives its premiere performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and local choirs.
Listen HERE.
We have fixed the download issue. You should now be able to purchase Hyperscore V4.5. Please note that there may be compatibility issues with Windows 10. If you would like to run Hyperscore on Windows 10, please contact Support to request a demo copy so you can test it before purchasing.
We are experiencing technical issues with the Hyperscore download site. Please bear with us while we address the problem. We apologize sincerely for any inconvenience.
Check out the wonderful compositions by young people in Lucerne, composed with Hyperscore. Many of the pieces were introduced to the public yesterday by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and have been incorporated into Tod Machover’s “A Symphony for Lucerne,” which receives its world premiere tomorrow, Saturday, September 5, at the KKL main hall. Tickets here.
Here is one of the compositions, “Stuttering Stammering Spluttering Susan,” by Leander Perrez from Musikschule Luzern in Lucerne. More pieces are posted on the project website. Scroll down here.
Check out this new video about the Hyperscore workshops we are doing in Lucerne as part of the EINE SINFONIE FUER LUZERN project that premieres at this summer’s LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Amazing young people from around the city are working on original compositions that reflect aspects of Lucerne. These will be transcribed for instruments (some transcriptions by the students themselves, a first!), and featured in their own “40-minute Concert” and also incorporated into my Symphony. Check out the clip to see how the process works, and to see how great these young people are…..and how exciting and fresh their music is. Recorded at Jugendmusikschule, Luzern.
Tod Machover writes: “As part of our Symphony for Perth project, we have invited young people from throughout Greater Perth, in Western Australia, to create original compositions using our Hyperscore software, expressing some aspect of life – and sound – in Perth. Students from elementary through high school, and from the CBD to Narrogin, worked on their pieces from October through mid-December (brought together by Jemma Gurney, the amazing Education Coordinator at the Perth Festival). I was lucky enough to visit eight different schools when I was in Perth this fall, and got to hear all this music as it was developing. Great experience! Final compositions were sent to me a couple of weeks ago, and I have been listening to them ever since to decide how to incorporate as many of these brilliant, vivid musical visions as possible into the final Symphony.
Saturday evening saw the successful debut of Tod Machover’s “A Toronto Symphony”, described aptly by conductor Peter Oundjian as “the most collaborative piece of music that has ever been written.” Nearly a year in the making, the new work was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony for its New Creations Festival. Scored for a full symphony orchestra, the half-hour-long piece involved thousands of citizens of Toronto who contributed acoustic sample and original compositions. Hundreds of school children composed original music using Hyperscore.
Check out this BBC News video about the project here: Tod Machover: composer’s social media symphony for Toronto.