Watch Sergi Jorda talk about composing music on the computer and his famous invention the ReacTable
A discussion of computer music, including an interview with Sergi Jordà, who helped...
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Transcript
NARRATOR: Sergi Jordà is a musician. But unlike many of his colleagues, Sergi doesn't have to lug around a cumbersome instrument. He composes computer music and works as a professor at the University of Barcelona, writing his opuses in bits and bytes rather than traditional notes.
SERGI JORDÀ: "If I go to a concert I bring my laptop. And now I think it has reached a point where it's truly an instrument in the sense that I don't have to prepare anything I just go there and plug and see what happens with other people."
NARRATOR: Professor Jordà wants everyone to be able to compose masterpieces. And he's even developed a special type of software that allows people to do just that. Its interface is designed to be intuitive, meaning you don't have to be a computer whiz or techie to compose with it.
JORDÀ: "I've always been making some kind of noisy music and I believe that the way people appreciate things is making them. So I wanted to build an instrument that would allow people to express themselves but always through a kind of noisy setup."
NARRATOR: In fact, Jordà wasn't much of a musician until he started fiddling with the computer.
JORDÀ: "Now it's easy to discover. Now no one remembers when they discovered a computer but I do remember. It was in '83 and I saw a computer and I started programming and I just fell in love with that."
NARRATOR: Jordà's most renowned digital music instrument is the so-called ReacTable. To make music with it, all you have to do is start moving the objects on it. The motion is analyzed by a camera and the converted into sounds by the PC.
SERGI JORDÀ: "If I go to a concert I bring my laptop. And now I think it has reached a point where it's truly an instrument in the sense that I don't have to prepare anything I just go there and plug and see what happens with other people."
NARRATOR: Professor Jordà wants everyone to be able to compose masterpieces. And he's even developed a special type of software that allows people to do just that. Its interface is designed to be intuitive, meaning you don't have to be a computer whiz or techie to compose with it.
JORDÀ: "I've always been making some kind of noisy music and I believe that the way people appreciate things is making them. So I wanted to build an instrument that would allow people to express themselves but always through a kind of noisy setup."
NARRATOR: In fact, Jordà wasn't much of a musician until he started fiddling with the computer.
JORDÀ: "Now it's easy to discover. Now no one remembers when they discovered a computer but I do remember. It was in '83 and I saw a computer and I started programming and I just fell in love with that."
NARRATOR: Jordà's most renowned digital music instrument is the so-called ReacTable. To make music with it, all you have to do is start moving the objects on it. The motion is analyzed by a camera and the converted into sounds by the PC.