Michael Meets Mozart: Piano, Cello and Mashup Magic

What’s wrong with copyright law, or how neurological supremacy channels 100 cello revelations.

This week, a new study suggests musicians’ brains may be more developed than other people’s. And while I’m all for a healthy dose of skepticism in reacting to research headlines, terrific performances like this Michael Meets Mozart gem by pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson make it difficult to believe that just any old brain is capable of such creative enormity. Jon and Steve blending the piano with over 100 cello textures never thought possible and creating extraordinary sound effects with just the instruments featured in the video: piano, cello, mouth percussion and kick drum.

After the enthusiastic reception of their Taylor Swift / Coldplay mashup, Schmidt and Nelson set out to do a hip-hop/classical remix. But when they couldn’t get permission to use the two tracks they had in mind — this right here, by the way, is a powerful and tragic testament to the brokenness of today’s copyright law and the need to find new ways to foster remix culture — they decided to create an original tune instead, weaving together inspirations from a handful of known influences, including Michael Jackson, Mozart and U2. The result is nothing short of magic.

If this has you hungry for more virtuoso mesmerism, you won’t be disappointed by Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang’s duet at the Royal Albert Hall in London or this fantastic take on Beethoven reimagined as jazz.

via Wimp

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Partitura: Mesmerizing Music Visualization Software

What neurological phenomena have to do with software and the future of live performance experiences.

Music visualization deeply fascinates and inspires me, from how it’s manifested in outlier phenomena like synesthesia to how it’s codified in the visual language of music notation to how it’s leveraged in artistic expression. Partitura explores this topic from a software standpoint with spellbinding generative real-time graphics that visualize sound. A collaboration between London-based visual artist Quayola and music visualization artists Pedro Mari and Natan Sinigaglia, the software churns out endless, mesmerizing, ever-evolving abstract shapes that can respond both the structure of recorded music and manual gestural inputs.

Partitura aims to create a new system for translating sound into visual forms. Inspired by the studies of artists such as Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oscar Fischinger and Norman McLaren, the images generated by Partitura are based on a precise and coherent system of relationships between various types of geometries.” ~ Quayola

Partitura feels like a three-dimensional version of the wonderful Soy Tu Aire, equal parts fluid and vibrant, with incredible potential for live performances and multisensory ambient experiences.

via Create Digital Motion via ArtsTech News

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The Music of Philip Glass, Visualized in Fractals

What fractals have to do with classical music and the secret of Einstein’s genius.

I’m obsessed with synesthesia and the visual language of music, and love the work of Philip Glass, often considered the greatest living composer. Naturally, I’m head over heels with these spellbinding fractal visualizations by Russian artist Tatiana Plakhova, abstracting Glass’s music graphically.

Plakhova got a Master’s in social psychology before finding her calling in visual language — a living testament to my wholehearted belief in the creative potency of cross-disciplinary eloquence. (Einstein, for instance, famously attributed his greatest breakthroughs in physics to his violin breaks — he believed they helped parts of his brain connect in new ways.)

See the rest of Plakhova’s stunning work on her aptly titled site, Complexity Graphics.

via @kirstinbutler

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Sam + Friends: Vintage Muppets Explore Visual Thinking

What vintage Muppets have to do with synesthesia and visual thinking.

Fifty-six years ago today, Sam + Friends — the early live-action puppet TV show by Muppets creator Jim Henson and his eventual wife Jane — made its official debut. Its characters, all of whom Henson voiced himself, presaged not only modern icons like Kermit and The Muppets, but even some of today’s cultural archetypes. (One of Sam’s friends was named Harry the Hipster.)

This vintage kinescope from the show’s early days offers a rare look at the dawn of a cultural icon and explores visual thinking, particularly in music — something we’ve recently covered and have an ongoing fascination with.

For more on the story of Sam + Friends, see Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, as well as Chapter 2 of the altogether fantastic Kermit book, Before You Leap: A Frog’s Eye View of Life’s Greatest Lessons.

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