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How do our brains process music and video together? What makes a soundtrack to a piece of media fitting, or not? Depending on the angle one takes, these questions have innumerable answers – in some ways, they are the questions that any participant in the Hyperscore Challenge sets out to answer when they compose a piece to accompany a video clip.

Near the end of the January edition of our Second Saturdays Hyperscore composing workshop, we raised these questions ourselves. We played our composition simultaneously first with the prompt video that inspired our piece, before then comparing to how it sounded alongside other videos. Surprisingly, the music fit disparate clips very well, in ways that illuminated different sides of the composition each time. The audio and video mutually transformed each other and our perceptions of them just by playing at the same time. This fascinating effect highlights the exciting power of engaging with creative practice. Just by, for example, dropping in some notes and playing them back, you can evoke worlds and scenes that unfold and transform over time with subsequent listens. Using Hyperscore, getting started with this practice becomes all the more accessible.

In our January workshop, we started with inspiration from the Challenge prompt of undersea scenes, and built out several melodic and rhythmic themes that for us represented each “player” we saw. The kelp had its own percussive backdrop, and the silver school of fish was accompanied by overlapping plucking guitars. Like this, we arrived at one answer to what soundtrack might be fitting for the video we saw. Any other group of composers would surely arrive at a different answer – how thrilling! Perhaps to those people, our composition might bring different images to their minds, and so the process of creative inspiration continues…

Express your creative inspiration at our judgment free, no experience required composition workshops – register here! Watch our full workshop, as well as the full composition “Hyperschoool” created during our session, in the videos below.

We entered into our November Second Saturdays workshop with the aim of tackling a prompt that we had attempted once before – setting the words of a poem to rhythmic and melodic form in Hyperscore. New Harmony Line’s June Kinoshita brought a haiku by famed Japanese 17th-century poet, Matsuo Bashō. We hoped to evoke not only the literal syllabic form of each of the lines in our composition but also the meaning of each phrase, the feel and mood that it stirred in us when we read it. The poem, translated to English, reads:

In the autumn night
Breaking into the silence
Voices murmuring

Where to start?

The difficulty of setting words to music, how much time and creativity it takes, was evident to all of us before we even began – for one, we chose a haiku after having a previous session where we attempted the same process with a longer poem and found ourselves in over our heads! This time, to start, we took a short time to brainstorm descriptive words for the way the haiku made us feel, as a jumping off point for our composing process. Then, we started composing music to set to the words, going line by line.

A variety of challenges can rear their heads when setting existing poetry to music: the preexisting sonic qualities and rhythms of the words themselves may clash with melodic and rhythmic experimentation, while reproducing their spoken rhythm faithfully may produce an inconsistent metric feel that can be hard to unify into a coherent song structure. We bumped up against these dissonances ourselves several times while composing, and we decided to go in a spare, ambient choral-style direction where strict rhythmic coherence is less important.

The exciting thing about the style of open-ended composition we followed in this workshop is that anyone in our situation may have gone in an entirely different direction to address this dissonance, producing something uniquely wonderful according to their own tastes and judgments. Perhaps they wouldn’t have even addressed it, not even experiencing these tensions we ran into as problematic at all – that, too, would be perfectly valid! After all, a crucial aspect of music composition, especially the experimentation-first model championed by Hyperscore, is allowing oneself to first quiet the critical inner voice enough to allow a spirit of curiosity, play, and possibility to come forward. Putting aside presuppositions about what we think we like, what we think makes a good, bad, exciting, or boring piece of music, can help to open up surprising paths of spontaneous intuition.

The next time you sit down with Hyperscore, try asking yourself these questions, and actually give yourself the space to answer them thoughtfully: Do I like what I’m hearing? What feels exciting to me about this piece so far? Is there anything that called my attention in what I just listened to? What reaction did I have when I was listening to this? Is there any part of that reaction that I want to emphasize more? Do I still have the same goals for this piece as I did before I listened to this part, or have they shifted? Where do I want to go next with this? These questions can turn music composition into a choose-your-own-adventure of sorts, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Give it a shot!

Collaborative composition in Hyperscore

In this workshop, we really leaned into this compositional model, following the create, listen, react guidelines we talk about when we recommend ways for people to engage with composing in Hyperscore. Our experience setting Bashō’s haiku to music also highlighted the power of collaborative composition that many Hyperscore users might experience when working with their classmates or friends. We tried out many different iterations of the themes we developed through experimentation, and many placements of those themes in the Sketch window. Sometimes we disagreed or had ambivalent feelings about what we were hearing, and in that space of trial and error we ended up creating something that no one of us would have created individually.

In our piece, each line of the haiku stood on its own as a kind of choral intonation, repeated into the cavernous space of the sparse Sketch window. Then, as the layers of these melodies became more dense, they came into conversation with one another in an interplay of harmony and rhythmic tension. For the way we conceived of our composition, each line of the haiku was independent, and yet contributed to a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. Such was our resulting composition – as are many compositions that have their basis in repeated motifs!

Noticing what a composition evokes for you, and then working out what to do next with others, is a challenging, rewarding, and deeply human process. Hyperscore’s capacity to reduce the barriers to entry into this collaborative artistic process for students at any level of experience means that more people’s interpretations can contribute to the layers of a composition made in this way. Hyperscore provides an additional venue for people to encounter each other’s creative visions, and be mutually transformed in interactions that can be deeply meaningful for a person at any age. We want that experience to be accessible to everyone.

View the full workshop, as well as an isolated recording of the full composition, below, and register for our free Second Saturdays composition workshops to take part in the process!

Featured photo by Dimka Nevedimka via Pexels

Can algorithms and creativity mix? In our current technological landscape saturated with discourse about generative “AI”, it has become perhaps less intuitive that algorithms have long been a friend to human creativity. As opposed to the current trend of using AI software to metabolize and supplant the creations of human artists, algorithmic tools have a legacy of facilitating free creative expression. In fact, we can count Hyperscore among the products of this legacy. With Hyperscore, algorithms can translate moment-to-moment experimentation and play into sound with ease, while still allowing users to remain in the driver’s seat. In October’s Second Saturdays workshop, we took a look at principles of algorithm as they apply both to motive-based music composition and the nuts and bolts of Hyperscore itself.

The practice of using recurring motifs in music can be quite similar to the practice of calling a function in algorithmic calculation – both processes involve the recapitulation and development of a discrete idea (whether a musical theme or string of code) across a larger document (a musical composition, or a program). In our workshop, we zoomed in on the parallels of a program written in Scratch and a piece of music written in Hyperscore. Peter demonstrated this by writing “hot cross buns” in both programs, showing the way that Hyperscore uses the same building block approach as Scratch while streamlining the process, making it immediately accessible to anyone regardless of familiarity with either music or programming.

Hot Cross Buns written in Hyperscore (left) and in Scratch (right)

It was striking to see how similar building a program using algorithms is to building a song from component pieces in Hyperscore. A musician delving into programming, or a software engineer trying out music, may find more familiar territory than they would expect. Moreover, from whatever entry point, field, philosophy, or mindset around composition someone may encounter Hyperscore, they are sure to find spaces of resonance and support in their particular approach. Hyperscore is just that versatile.

Behind the curtain of Hyperscore

We progressed into a conversation that highlighted some of the musical and harmonic philosophies and choices that underpin Hyperscore’s programming. Much care, passion and effort has gone into making Hyperscore easy to use while still allowing for ample expression of subjective user taste and harmonic preference.

Peter showed us some of the code that goes into managing the melody and sketch windows, and we discussed the complexity of the code that handles the harmony modes and the Harmony Line. Creating this code required choices about what kinds of harmony might be considered “classical”, for deciding how “Classical Mode” or the Harmony Line modulates the notes a user puts into a motive. These settings do not invoke unequivocal rules from Western harmony, however – although they informed by Western musical traditions, they prioritize user choice above all.

Indeed, there is no prescriptive view within Hyperscore of what music “should” sound like or be. In classrooms and in workshops, we never frame the classical harmony mode, or any harmony mode, as better than any other way of composition. The harmony mode options are available as a tool if students prefer not to hear dissonance in their piece, so that anyone can create a consonant piece if they want to. However, this is not necessarily the “right” choice. The only “right” way to compose is the “right way for you”, and only you can determine that for yourself by using your ear and hearing what makes you excited, what resonates, what makes you go “ooh, I like that!”. As an example of this dynamic, our conversation turned toward the common practice for musicians to play “wrong notes” in compositions they are performing, because it sounds better to their ear. In many ways, their “mistakes” are just another interpretation, rather than an error to be corrected!

Similarly, there are no dogmatic compositional rules in Hyperscore despite the traditions that informed it. The subjective, original choices made uniquely by each user breathe life into the scaffolding that Hyperscore’s programming has built. Algorithms enable Hyperscore to exist as the barrier-breaking accessible program that it is, but it is the creativity of the human composers that use it that creates something magical.

Watch our full conversation below, and join us for future Second Saturday workshops.

Featured photo by Ylanite Koppens via Pexels

A Dusty Computer Opens Possibilities

For years, Casey Burd pulled out his old dusty dinosaur computer that had become an invaluable tool and the basis of integrated arts and music units in his classrooms at the Hawkswood School – a private school in Eatontown, NJ that serves students on the Autism spectrum and multiply disabled students. It had become so meaningful thanks to a program that he had downloaded onto it over 15 years ago – Hyperscore 4.

This year, that old computer finally gave out. Not wanting to lose a resource that had become so important for him and his students, Casey reached out to the New Harmony Line team. Luckily, he connected with us at a time that the revamped, web-based Hyperscore 5 is newly available, and for a much wider variety of devices. We are grateful that he joined us for August’s Office Hours to share the story of the incredibly versatile ways he has used Hyperscore over the years to create multifaceted opportunities for expression for his students.

The Power of Learning by Doing

Casey’s journey with Hyperscore originally began in the 2000s when colleague of his found it in an MIT publication. His school became enamored with the program after getting in touch with the old Hyperscore team and participating in a demo workshop. Despite having scant technology in the classroom at the time, Hawkswood began integrating it into their curriculum for supporting students’ expressive goals. In Casey’s words, “Hyperscore is a fantastic experiential tool, a true ‘learning by doing’ experience for our students whose skill sets are varied. In this way, it levels the playing field, offering a way for EVERY student to participate.” After 15 years in his classroom, among the many programs available, Hyperscore is “still the best one, especially for my needs, and my students’ needs”.

During the Office Hours meeting with Director of Education Cece Roudabush, Casey walks us in detail through his teaching processes. He and his colleagues integrate many axes of artistic expression, accessibility tools, and creative applications of Hyperscore to remove barriers to expression for far more students than traditional music pedagogy. They link art, music, and expression in myriad directions and configurations that maximize points of access and understanding for students.

For example, he has run Hyperscore on interactive Smartboards – an interface that allows for access to musical experimentation and expression in ways that other instruments that do not, particularly for students with limited mobility and range of motion. He uses Hyperscore in conjunction with a wide variety of accessibility tools and aids – such as switches, pointers, and large, highly visible color indicators – to enable each student to participate in ways that work for them. Casey also tends to use Hyperscore’s Classical harmony mode, which frees students to be as creative visually as they want while having all notes in the piece sound together consonantly. As many opportunities are given as possible for different ways of comprehending and learning what is taking place in the classroom and in the program, so that everyone can participate. Accessibility is not just a buzzword or an afterthought here – it is at the very center of the project. In this context that Casey and his colleagues have facilitated, any student is able to make music and express themselves in Hyperscore, thanks both to the accessibility tools in his classroom, and the ways that Hyperscore itself removes barriers to composing music.

One frequent project over the years that has brought together visual art and music through the intersection of Hyperscore is painting, as a classroom, murals inspired by the Hyperscore sketch window interface. Casey has directed this exercise most often as an introduction into the way that music looks in Hyperscore. He and his classrooms have even translated these murals directly into musical performance: each student is assigned or chooses a color and an instrument to play, and Casey slowly reveals the mural the class has painted, from left to right, from behind a large sheet of paper. As each colored line and dot is revealed, the student with the corresponding color plays their instrument for the time that the line or dot is still being revealed. This introduction into the notion of musical time moving left to right often makes the transition into using the Hyperscore software itself more intuitive for many students. Sometimes, they then translate the mural they painted into music written in Hyperscore itself.

Hyperscore’s use as an experiential tool, as opposed to strictly a compositional tool, is crucial in Casey’s classroom. Using communication devices to express preferences is part of the expressive goals of many of Casey’s students. Through the medium of Hyperscore, expressing preferences can be compelling and interesting – “What color do you like? What instrument do you like?”. and Casey believes that this expression through Hyperscore can support his students’ overall communication in different contexts as well. This pedagogy has many of the therapists that share the classroom space – working with students on their speech goals, expressive goals, and physical therapy goals – excited due to the effectiveness and potential at play in the space of artistic and musical expression.

Continuing with Hyperscore in years to come

We have been thrilled to speak with Casey and learn about the ways he has integrated Hyperscore into his pedagogy. Likewise, Casey has been thrilled to upgrade to the web-based Hyperscore 5. Having Hyperscore on his laptop is a game changer after using the same old computer for 15 years, and he expects that his students will love the visual theme customization after looking at the default theme in Hyperscore 4.3 for so long. These visual themes, and the wider range of instrument sets available in Hyperscore 5, grant even more crucial opportunities for students to express themselves and their preferences in the classroom. Bringing Hyperscore 5 to his students also means that they have the opportunity to experiment on their own devices outside of the classroom.

We join Casey in our excitement to see what expressive possibilities open up with Hyperscore in his classroom in the coming years. The ways Casey has integrated Hyperscore into his teaching are truly aligned with our ethos of access and removing barriers to musical expression for all. We hope his experience is an inspiration to other educators who hold these values dear!

Watch the full interview with Casey here: