Title link takes you to an interesting article in the New York Times on the Yamaha Tenori-On, the theremin, and Buchla. Regarding the Tenori-On: "It's a digital instrument in a new form," said Toshio Iwai, a 43-year-old interactive artist and University of Tokyo professor who created the device. "It plays light as well as sound." ... "The aim of this project is to create a musical instrument for nonmusicians," Mr. Iwai said. "I'm not a musician, but I had a dream to play an instrument on the stage." This is later countered with, "The potential in such an interactive system is finite," Dr. Winkler said of the tenori-on. "It's a cool thing for kids to play with, but I don't know any musician who would want to be stuck with this guy's music."
i really really want one of these things... but i would much rather prefer it to be a MIDI controller instead of a sound source.. the buttons measure angle, velocity and respond in different programmable ways and display light and animations - the videos of it in action are a billion times more interesting than any description
ReplyDeleteunfortunately it looks as tho the only route to mass production would be as a toy of some sort - which would most likely obviate MIDI functionality or programmability
who knows tho... maybe it will get someone else thinking and then we will have an even better product to look forward too ... (just indulging in a little wishful thinking there.. hehe - as Iwai is a fairly one-of-a-kind artist)
BTW - i can guarantee you that "Dr. Winkler" isnt listening to Autechre or any other electronic music or probably any music created in the past 3 decades... listen to his "golden wisdom" here:
Nor does Dr. Winkler think that such instruments will soon replace traditional acoustic instruments. "I don't think you can ever replace a flute or cello," he said. "Sometimes, people believe their weird instrument is going to be the one people are going to play. But they're usually wrong."
good thing Dr. Moog didnt have that kind of perspective