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The Hyperscore Challenge

Welcome! We invite you to write music using Hyperscore. This web application allows you to compose music by drawing dots and lines on the screen. With Hyperscore, you can create music in any style, as simple or complicated as you want. The challenge is to complete your piece and share it online or at an in-person performance on June 21, 2024, which is Make Music Day, a global celebration of music-making.

Below is our timeline of announcements, but you can start at any time. Just be sure to plan well ahead if you want to involve others to help arrange and perform your piece on June 21.

Get started

Recruit students to join the Challenge team! Use these:

Everyone participating in the challenge will receive a free Hyperscore account for the duration of the challenge. If you want to lead a team, fill out the form below. A team can be just you, or you plus others. Only the leader should submit the form. We will send you an email with instructions to set up your Hyperscore account and join the Hyperscore Composing challenge. Once you have your group leader account, you can invite your team members through the Hyperscore team dashboard. 

Children age 13 and younger will receive instructions to get their parent/guardian’s consent at the time they create their account.

Prompt reveal

This year, we are selecting short silent films and clips from video games for the composing challenge. Keep an eye out for the prompt reveal in the first week of November. Many people find a prompt to be helpful. But using the prompt is not required. We don’t want to get in the way of your creativity!

Get practice and advice

Attend our free monthly Office Hours to learn Hyperscore tricks and get answers to your questions. It meets over Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. ET (adjust for your time zone). Sign up here to get the link and monthly alerts.

You can exercise your musical imagination at our Second Saturday composing workshops, a zero-pressure, safe and fun Zoom meeting where we collaborate on composing a new piece in just one hour. It meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. ET. Sign up here for the link and monthly alerts.

Hear your piece performed live!

It’s amazing to hear musicians perform music you created. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Music composed with Hyperscore can be downloaded as an audio (mp3) or MIDI file. 
  2. The MIDI file can be uploaded to software that takes MIDI input (such as GarageBand, Sibelius, SoundTrap, Soundation, NoteFlight, Ableton Live) and converts it into standard notation. 
  3. You will need to arrange the score for the ensemble that will be performing it. If you don’t know how to do this, you could ask a music teacher for help.
  4. OR, you can download an MP3 audio file and play it as a digital soundtrack.

We encourage you to find collaborators in your area. It could be a music teacher, a friend who plays in a band, college students majoring in music… If you can’t find a way to have your piece played by musicians, you can share the digital version. We will post your composition on the Hyperscore YouTube and Soundcloud channels. Details will be announced as we get closer to June 20, 2024.

Support us!

We are a nonprofit organization. Your generosity makes the Hyperscore Challenge possible and enriches lives by enabling individuals of all ages and backgrounds to engage with music as active listeners, learners, creators, and connectors.

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A space for creating music

By June Kinoshita, Executive Director

This past month, Tod Machover and I were invited to give a workshop to introduce Hyperscore and music composition at Projectory, in Seoul, Korea. Projectory is a center established by NC Cultural Foundation for the purpose of providing a space for children to give free play to their creativity without interference from adults. While South Korea’s public education system is regarded as among the best in the world, critics say it is too test-driven and brutally competitive. At Projectory, members are free to direct their own activities in any way they choose. They work with “crew members,” young adult mentors who are trained to support the children without prescribing what they should do.

In our workshop, Tod introduced the idea of composing as a form of personal expression and story-telling that could be about “anything you want.” Using a large projection screen, I then showed the basic features of Hyperscore.

The kids were then off to the races! They worked in groups of 2 or 3 brainstorming with paper and crayons to come up with topics ranging from baseball to fighting cats. They then shared laptops to compose their first-ever original tunes. We were all delighted by the results and later heard that the children are eager to keep composing. We’re excited to see if Hyperscore will take root and spread in Korea.

Here’s “RBR,” composed by Projectory members.

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BIENESTAR SÓNICO a través de HYPERSCORE

Imagina…Escucha…Compone…Sana

Invitamos a los jóvenes de Bilbao (cualquier persona menor de 18 años) a crear nueva música que inspire, a “escuchar un mundo” donde el bienestar se nutre, se comparte y está disponible para todos. Estas composiciones, creadas con el software Hyperscore desarrollado en el MIT Media Lab, utilizan gestos visuales para crear contribuciones musicales únicas. Los participantes pueden tener algo de experiencia musical, pero no se requieren habilidades musicales en absoluto: solo necesita poder seleccionar entre varias opciones de dibujo en la pantalla y pensar creativamente. ¡SOIS TODOS BIENVENIDOS!

La aplicación web Hyperscore se puede utilizar en el colegio o en casa, en cualquier momento y en cualquier lugar. El trabajo creativo se apoyará en línea a través de tutorías y comunicación con los diseñadores de Hyperscore en Boston, EE. UU., así como con mentores de proyectos locales en Bilbao.

Cualquier persona interesada en unirse a este proyecto está invitada a unirse a una llamada el 25 de abril a las 6:30 p.m. Esta será una oportunidad para escuchar más sobre el proyecto y aprender a usar Hyperscore. Para registrarse en esta sesión, debe enviar un correo electrónico a Guillermo Zavala o llamar al 606 27 57 45. Guillermo enviará un enlace de zoom antes de la llamada.

Las composiciones enviadas antes del 14 de mayo de 2022 serán consideradas para su presentación durante el Wellbeing Summit en Bilbao del 31 de mayo al 3 de junio de 2022. Todas las entregas formarán parte del punto de partida de BILBAO SYMPHONY, compuesta por Tod Machover, e interpretada en Bilbao en 2024.

Este programa es parte de THE WELLBEING PROJECT. ¡Únete a nosotros para explorar cómo podría sonar una “comunidad de bienestar” usando una de las mejores plataformas de software de música del mundo!


Sonic Wellbeing through Hyperscore

Imagine…Listen…Compose…Heal

We invite young people in Bilbao (anyone under 18) to create inspiring new music, to “hear a world” where wellbeing is nurtured, shared and available to all. These compositions – created using Hyperscore software developed at the MIT Media Lab – use digital visual gestures to create unique musical contributions. Participants could have some musical experience, but absolutely no musical skills are required – you just need to draw, to listen, and to think creatively. EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

The Hyperscore web application can be used in school or at home, anytime and anywhere. Creative work will be supported online through mentoring and communication with the Hyperscore designers in Boston, USA as well as local project mentors in Bilbao. 

We will be scheduling a Zoom meeting on April 25, 18:30 pm local time for anyone who is interested in participating. This will be a chance to hear more about the project and learn to use Hyperscore. To register for this session, send an email to Guillermo Zavala or call/text 606 27 57 45. Guillermo will send a zoom link before the call.

Compositions submitted by May 14, 2022, will be considered for presentation during the Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao from May 31-June 3, 2022. All submissions will form part of the starting point for a BILBAO SYMPHONY, composed by Tod Machover, and performed in Bilbao in 2024. 

This project is part of the WELLBEING PROJECT – please join us to explore what a “community of wellbeing” might sound like using one of the world’s coolest music software platforms! 

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From the Vaults: Hyperscore on Scientific American Frontiers 2003

We are so lucky to have Chief Technology Officer Peter Torpey on the hunt for archived videos, files and articles on the history of Hyperscore. Peter discovered a video of M.I.T. Media Lab student designers Egon Pasztor and Mary Farbood sharing an early version of Hyperscore on Scientific American Frontiers with host Alan Alda in 2003. Mr. Alda seems absolutely delighted with the presentation on the technology. We also hope you’ll be delighted by the joy in this video–thanks Peter!

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Kids build a musical bridge with Hyperscore

From our archives. This story about the 2012 “A to A: A World in Harmony” concert in Yerevan, Armenia, is a testament to the power of Hyperscore to foster powerful collaborations.

The opulent Armenian Opera Theater in the heart of Armenia’s capital Yerevan will reverberate with some truly fresh sounds on the evening of February 25, 2012, as two of Armenia’s elite musical ensembles dig into new pieces composed entirely by children from Armenia and the United States. The concert features the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and DOGMA, one of the country’s most popular rock bands. The event is co-sponsored by the LUYS Education Foundation and the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan to celebrate the embassy’s 20th anniversary.

Despite the composers’ youth – they range in age from 8 to 14 – their work is rich and rewarding to hear, thanks to the boost their musical imaginations received from Hyperscore, a music-creation software developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab by a team led by renowned composer Tod Machover. Hyperscore puts unprecedented composing power into the hands of people who long to express themselves musically, regardless of their formal training. More than that, Hyperscore turns out to be an exceptional tool for collaborative creativity. One of the pieces receiving its world premiere at the Yerevan event was jointly composed by children in Boston and Armenia.

Musical composition is usually imagined to spring from the minds of geniuses toiling in splendid isolation. But for the youngsters visiting the Media Lab earlier this month, the composing process was more like a cyber paintball game. Color-coded splashes of melodies and beats popped up on a large flat-screen monitor as a half-dozen students from the Armenian Sisters’ Academy in Lexington, MA, traded ideas over a Skype connection with their counterparts in a classroom 8,700 kilometers away in Yerevan.

Under Machover’s deft direction, the students launched into creating their new piece by humming melodies and tapping out rhythms, which were notated using Hyperscore. The screen quickly filled up with melodic ideas, or ‘motifs’, and a percussion sequence. The kids then started assembling their composition. “Do you want the piece to start with a big explosion, or something quieter?” Machover asked. Something quiet, the kids agreed. A motif was selected and “drawn” onto the digital canvas. A second pensive motif was introduced, and then it was time to bring in some livelier motifs to wake things up.

“How do you tell a story through music? How could we keep this moving, keep it building?” Machover urged. The kids started piling on layers, made a motif swing high and swoop low, tried out various harmonic configurations… and they were out of time. In one hour, they had put together the first minute of their piece. After a few more sessions, they completed a short but complex and fascinating work which they titled “Frenzy of Friendship”, ready to be orchestrated and sent to the Armenian Phil for its world premiere.

“We usually think of music as belonging to a special elite who have unique powers to create it and share it,” Machover says. “Hearing these exciting new pieces by young people renews my conviction that anyone can create original, valuable music given the right tools, environment and encouragement, and that through music we can build friendships, share individual visions, and enhance life’s meaning.”

To Jacqueline Karaaslanian, Executive Director of the LUYS Education Foundation, this is a perfect example of harnessing technology to spur creativity and collaboration. The foundation was established by Armenia’s President Serjh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan to transform the nation by raising the quality of education and infusing the country’s youth with a “can do” attitude.

“Hyperscore wakes up the genius within children and instills in them a desire to better understand a whole universe of worlds they had not previously imagined or considered,” Karaaslanian explains. “When children know that their elders and professionals will play their music, they are empowered. This process is beyond encouraging words; it validates children as thinkers and creators.” And that, she says, is vital for any nation that expects to thrive in our rapidly changing and interconnected world.

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#ProjectWeLove

Thank you to Kickstarter for giving New Harmony Line this designation “which is our way of highlighting brilliant examples of creativity”! For more information on the Kickstarter Campaign that Executive Director June Kinoshita launched October 18th, visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hypescore/hyperscore-a-new-way-to-compose-music

New Harmony Line is a #ProjectWeLove

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Composing in Lucerne

In 2015, Tod Machover and the M.I.T. Media Lab Opera of the Future team went to Lucerne, Switzerland, to develop a symphonic portrait of the historic city. “A Symphony for Lucerne” was premiered by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in September, 2015. In this video, Machover is coaching students at a school who are composing original pieces using Hyperscore. The students worked collaboratively with each other and created a variety of wonderful pieces that expressed their energy, feelings about their city, and sense of humor.

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A Toronto documentary

We just discovered that the terrific documentary, “Urban Symphony,” which follows the development of A Toronto Symphony, is available to watch on YouTube. This was the very first of Tod Machover’s City Symphony projects and we get to see how the composer and his team at the M.I.T. Media Lab collected sounds of the city and collaborated with school children, varied communities in Toronto, and the musicians of the Toronto Symphony to create this kaleidoscopic sonic portrait of the city.

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Beta Model Pilot Fall 2021

New Harmony Line will be piloting the Beta Model of the Web-based version of Hyperscore in the Fall of 2021 with music, technology and special education teachers, a Girl’s Choir leader and her directors, two Strings teachers, a 6th-grade teacher who has her students write musical accompaniments to their poems and a speech pathologist. Director of Technology, Peter Torpey, has updated the workspace, added new tools and features and made Hyperscore an even more user-friendly interface for anyone with access to the internet who wants to create music! Modules for using Hyperscore and teaching the Elements of Music (Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, Dynamics, Form and Tone Color) have been designed for use by the Pilot Participants. Contact Director of Education, Cecilia (Cece) Roudabush, for training, questions or pilot support:

cecilia.roudabush@newharmonyline.org

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A Hyperscore compendium

Hyperscore 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!

Empower kids to tell their stories through music.

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