-
Dan Tepfer’s player piano is his composing partner
‘How can I be free in this particular cage?’From synthesizers replacing real instruments in the studio to the rise of musical compositions written entirely by AI, it’s not surprising that many professional musicians have been resistant to the ascendent role of technology in the music industry. However, the French-American jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer has developed a creative way of leveraging the rise of musical machines using what he calls ‘improvisational algorithms’.On his digital player piano, his notes are sent through a computer, which then automatically plays back notes that correspond to commands he’s written. And although the idea of predetermined ‘rules’ might on its surface seem to cut against the spirit of musical improvisation, Tepfer finds that they actually fuel his playing, leading him down paths he wouldn’t otherwise find. This video from NPR’s Jazz Night in America series details how Tepfer mines new musical ideas from his improvisational algorithms, which culminated in his album Natural Machines (2019) and a series of performances with visuals generated from the compositions. Read more about Dan Tepfer at NPR’s website.By Aeon VideoWatch at Aeon
More like this (3)
-
Banned in the USSR: how forbidden music made its way to Soviet streets on X-rays | Aeon Videos
For two decades following the Second World War, music in the Soviet Union was tightly restricted...
-
Before Chomsky, there was Lippmann: the First World War and ‘manufactured consent’ | Aeon Videos
While the 'manufacture of consent' is an idea now mostly associated with Noam Chomsky, the phrase...
-
Who is ‘looting’ and who is ‘finding food’? How image gatekeepers shape the news | Aeon Videos
In August 2005, Alysia Burton Steele was just two months into her job as a photo...
