Orchestral music played in real time, like an organ

[chest]

Found this link another forum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKorq7dE4gM

[Enrique]

Pretty amazing.... Jealousy sets in in 3... 2... 1. :D

[nikolas]

A human sequencer! :D:D

I THINK I've seen her at younger age, again hailed as a hero, etc,etc. Maybe it's the 1% that escapes the faith of "children prodigy".

[Jeff Hayat]

How the heck is she changing instruments - I assume with her feet, but how many feet does she have under there??? :D

[Bart Klepka]

Well played. Well played indeed.

[Daryl]

How the heck is she changing instruments - I assume with her feet, but how many feet does she have under there??? :D

You should go and watch the keyboard players in a show sometimes. There are those productions that have a mapping system where you pedal and it changes patches. The patch changes can be very complex. For example playing one note might trigger a whole orchestra chord, and another note might trigger a bass drum/cymbal hit. It can also be done by note patters, so the computer recognises a series of notes and changes the patch.

The only thing to watch for is that the same note doesn't always do the same thing, unlike a keyswitch. I remember a triangle roll being set off by accident and then hunting through the piece trying to find the off note. Of course by then the mapping was totally in the wrong place for the rest of the score. What fun. :D

D

[chest]

How the heck is she changing instruments - I assume with her feet, but how many feet does she have under there??? :D
I didn't actually see how she was doing the instrumental changes, either, but I think she must have been using a "registration sequencer" - operated by a thumb piston or a toe piston - to step through a preset sequence of instrumental settings (like snapshots of the whole console).

I wonder what the instrument was - a strange electronic organ, equipped with orchestral sounds? - or could the console have been just a controller for virtual instruments? The pedal board was just a short straight one (18 short pedals), not a (33-note) "radiating and concave" organ pedal board. I didn't see whether she ever used both feet on it; she seemed to be using the right foot a lot to control an expression-type pedal, with the left foot sometimes having to jump around the pedalboard, not aided by the right foot.

I've never seen anything like that before.

But after recovering from the jaw-dropping experience of seeing anyone actually doing that, I'm beginning to wonder .... well, why? Very satisfying, I'm sure, for a performer to rise to the challange of arranging the piece for the instrument, and actually becoming able to perform it. And, for the audience, stunning to watch - but is the experience too much of the spectacle of watching and perceiving that just one person is doing all that, rather than focussing on the music? I'm very glad I've seen it; I'd like to see her doing other pieces; I wish I could do something a fraction as complicated; but if I just wanted to hear that music, would I want it to be that performance?

Anyone know anything about her? I Googled her name (Qi Zhang) and read that she was "an award-winning international organist". Then I tried Googling her name together with well-knonw organ composer's names (a few, one at a time), and didn't find anything. I also found this: "graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor's in Electronic Organ. She is currently a Master of Music student at University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, studying organ performance with Professor Cherry Rhodes."

[peter5992]

Holy smokes - she is good.

[interpolate]

Yamaha makes that keyboard (or should I say syntheisiser) it's quite expressive and leap in technology.

[interpolate]

_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UszvHEI2VQE)
* (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16oaGSltUPE)

[paulwr]

as amazing as it is, I have to say I'd prefer an orchestra concert performing the piece. I'd love to just stand there and witness her performance for the novelty, but not particularly the musicality. Guess I'm with Chest on this one.

Could someone else be triggering the program changes? If she is somehow triggering them, it really is all the more amazing, to be sure. Maybe for a rush job I could pay her to perform my midi parts!

-Paul

[peter5992]

But after recovering from the jaw-dropping experience of seeing anyone actually doing that, I'm beginning to wonder .... well, why?



Well, that is easy. She could be a modernday version of the old school piano accompaniment of silent scores (think back of the very first music to go with films - early 20th century - some guy banging away on a piano while a B&W movie runs).

Wouldn't it be totally cool to see her live accompaying eg Lord of the Rings?

[ewkarl7777]

I clicked on "more info" and learned that...

"This exhilarating performance from TEDx USC features the Yamaha Electone Stagea, a rare, imported instrument specially programmed by Qi herself."

It's also mentioned in the comments.

As for why? Because she can. She's a very talented keyboard/organist and is having some fun.

[interpolate]

The program changes happen when you use pedals underneath.

[JaapVisser]

Wow.... (what a keyboard and what a player :D)

[chest]

As for why? Because she can. She's a very talented keyboard/organist and is having some fun.
I wouldn't quarrel with that as a reason for doing it. I expect there's a bit of the "Because she can" in anyone who learns a classical piece without anything external making them. That and "because she wants to" or "because she has to" (in the sense of being driven to do something), or "because she finds satisfaction in continually improving".

But the performer's motivation is a separate thing from the listener's. When I asked "why?", what I had in mind was what the audience's interest was, how that meshed with the performer's motivation, and how much of either the performer's or the audience's involvement was truly towards musical ends.

Imagine a scenario like this: (a) the performer likes developing the skills to higher and higher levels, mastering the performance of particular pieces, and getting the admiration of audiences for the skills; while (b) the audience sits in awe of the performer's skills, and enjoys the spectacle. That could happen without any musical motivation on either side: like a performance by jugglers or a magician.

Ask yourself:

1) If you could choose between hearing an orchestra playing the piece once, and seeing this stunning solo performance once, which would you choose, and why?

2) If you chose the solo performance, would that be mainly for the spectacle?

3) If you could attend several performances in the next two years, how many of them would be orchestral and how many the solo?

4) If you could have just one CD of the piece, would you choose an orchestral performance or the solo?

[paulwr]

orchestra in every case since music appeals to me more than spectacle. If this were a 'one piece' thing in a small hall at a music trade show, I'd check it out. But I wouldn't want to make an evening of it.

-Paul

[peter5992]

Well, I'd prefer a live orchestra for sure, but think about the economics for a second - hiring and paying 60 live players is outside the budget for most theaters / festivals. Having a few players or maybe just one (Qi) is a lower cost and fun alternative.

[chest]

Well, I'd prefer a live orchestra for sure, but think about the economics for a second - hiring and paying 60 live players is outside the budget for most theaters / festivals. Having a few players or maybe just one (Qi) is a lower cost and fun alternative.
Yes, that's an interesting angle. If I understand correctly, there are already performances where a few keyboard players play orchestral parts in lieu of an expensive orchestra (eg one of them playing string parts, etc); and you seem to be seeing this kind of solo performance in a similar light.

But, if the objective is to achieve a complex performance in a way that involves very few live musicians, how much of a real live performance element is actually needed? To accompany singers on stage, I imagine something as rigid as a backing tape would rarely be sufficient; but perhaps it's not necessary to have the flexibility of a totally human performance? (I'm assuming the musical element of the stage show revolves around the same pieces in every performance.) For instance, if there was one performer who accompanied a solo singer, responding with all the required nuances and flexibly, then, perhaps, it would be sufficient if the other instrumental parts had been sequenced - and synchronised somehow to the accompanist's live playing, perhaps also with dynamics adjusted if the accompanists dynamics had been? And the accompanist's part wouldn't necessarily have to be hard to play - though I suppose there'd have to be a fast enough "note rate" to make synchchronising technically feasible (assuming the synchronising is to be somehow automated, in part, at least, and not entirely under the manual control of the accompanist). I imagine there'd be far more musicians who could both do the necessary sequencing and play live with the singers than there are individuals who could pull off the kind of performance seen in the video.

The video was remarkable. But I wonder whether, at some point, for someone, the striving for improved performance skills might cross a line rather like when a person who starts going to a gym to keep fit changes his objective to looking like Arnold Shwartzeneggar.

[Vincent Bergbahn]

she's good, but the samples suck. Way too synth sounding, the uncanny valley of music!

[composeralex]

Wow, that was awesome!

I wonder if she's single ...

[chest]

I wonder if she's single
No, I think theat there must be at least three of her, but that she has telepathic abilities to make us see only one (even via video). I also suspect that she's an alien from a distant star. If we could see her (them) as she (they) really is (are) there'd be three multi-tentacled squid-like creatures on the organ bench.

Also, there'd be another, lowly, life form that's been bred over millenia to derive its main satisfaction in life from turning the music pages: unfortunately, if left to itself, it won't turn the page until it's heard the last note being played - so one of the three squid-like creatures has to hold something similar to a cattle prod, and give the page turner a high-voltage electric shock when the page has to be turned. As time goes by, the page turner requires higher and higher voltages before it will react, until, eventually, the voltage is so high that the creature bursts into flames - usually before it can turn the page the whole way. For that reason, beneath the organ bench, there'll always be a young, fully-trained, but as yet unused page turner with a fire extinguisher in one tentacle and with another tentacle ready-licked, to ensure that it can take over the page turn half way through, before going on to use the fire extinguisher. Fortunately, when they lick their tentacles, they stay moist for seventeen earth years, so there's no harm done by the fact that they'll never stop eating, and their mouths are constantly full of cheese-burger. Yes, obesity is a problem - ugly fat bastards is what they are, if the truth be known; and they never lose the smell of cheeseburger, even when all that's left of them is a pile of black ashes. The government has several times tried to stop them eating cheeseburgers, but each time the efforts caused 0.3% of them to turn canibal, with consequence too horrible to describe here. Eventually, the performers can no longer stand the smell of cheese-burger, and have to be hypnotised to make them believe they're actually smelling the far more pleasant aroma of dog-dirt. Unfortunately, the hypnotising can have the side-effect of reducing the performers' ability to maintain the illusion that they are not aliens: once the audience has seen the performers for what they truly are, there's no option but to either kill the entire audience or to use a little flashy thing to erase their recent memories. For that reason I strongly recommend never going to one of Qi Zhang's concerts. ("Qi Zhang" is in fact an anagram of "Zqhinga": that probably won't mean much to humans, but in her own alien, distant-star language, it means, roughly, "highly-skilled musical chameleon who likes the smell of dog-dirt".)

[peter5992]

No, I think theat there must be at least three of her, but that she has telepathic abilities to make us see only one (even via video). I also suspect that she's an alien from a distant star. If we could see her (them) as she (they) really is (are) there'd be three multi-tentacled squid-like creatures on the organ bench.

Also, there'd be another, lowly, life form that's been bred over millenia to derive its main satisfaction in life from turning the music pages: unfortunately, if left to itself, it won't turn the page until it's heard the last note being played - so one of the three squid-like creatures has to hold something similar to a cattle prod, and give the page turner a high-voltage electric shock when the page has to be turned. As time goes by, the page turner requires higher and higher voltages before it will react, until, eventually, the voltage is so high that the creature bursts into flames - usually before it can turn the page the whole way. For that reason, beneath the organ bench, there'll always be a young, fully-trained, but as yet unused page turner with a fire extinguisher in one tentacle and with another tentacle ready-licked, to ensure that it can take over the page turn half way through, before going on to use the fire extinguisher. Fortunately, when they lick their tentacles, they stay moist for seventeen earth years, so there's no harm done by the fact that they'll never stop eating, and their mouths are constantly full of cheese-burger. Yes, obesity is a problem - ugly fat bastards is what they are, if the truth be known; and they never lose the smell of cheeseburger, even when all that's left of them is a pile of black ashes. The government has several times tried to stop them eating cheeseburgers, but each time the efforts caused 0.3% of them to turn canibal, with consequence too horrible to describe here. Eventually, the performers can no longer stand the smell of cheese-burger, and have to be hypnotised to make them believe they're actually smelling the far more pleasant aroma of dog-dirt. Unfortunately, the hypnotising can have the side-effect of reducing the performers' ability to maintain the illusion that they are not aliens: once the audience has seen the performers for what they truly are, there's no option but to either kill the entire audience or to use a little flashy thing to erase their recent memories. For that reason I strongly recommend never going to one of Qi Zhang's concerts. ("Qi Zhang" is in fact an anagram of "Zqhinga": that probably won't mean much to humans, but in her own alien, distant-star language, it means, roughly, "highly-skilled musical chameleon who likes the smell of dog-dirt".)

:confused:

[chest]

Peter - surely you're not suggesting that what I wrote there wasn't totally realistic, credible and undeniably true? :D

[MrAlex]

You lost me at cheeseburger, but I lol'd.. Madness. Gotta love it :)

[Benedict Nichols]

No, I think theat there must be at least three of her, but that she has telepathic abilities to make us see only one (even via video). I also suspect that she's an alien from a distant star. If we could see her (them) as she (they) really is (are) there'd be three multi-tentacled squid-like creatures on the organ bench.

Also, there'd be another, lowly, life form that's been bred over millenia to derive its main satisfaction in life from turning the music pages: unfortunately, if left to itself, it won't turn the page until it's heard the last note being played - so one of the three squid-like creatures has to hold something similar to a cattle prod, and give the page turner a high-voltage electric shock when the page has to be turned. As time goes by, the page turner requires higher and higher voltages before it will react, until, eventually, the voltage is so high that the creature bursts into flames - usually before it can turn the page the whole way. For that reason, beneath the organ bench, there'll always be a young, fully-trained, but as yet unused page turner with a fire extinguisher in one tentacle and with another tentacle ready-licked, to ensure that it can take over the page turn half way through, before going on to use the fire extinguisher. Fortunately, when they lick their tentacles, they stay moist for seventeen earth years, so there's no harm done by the fact that they'll never stop eating, and their mouths are constantly full of cheese-burger. Yes, obesity is a problem - ugly fat bastards is what they are, if the truth be known; and they never lose the smell of cheeseburger, even when all that's left of them is a pile of black ashes. The government has several times tried to stop them eating cheeseburgers, but each time the efforts caused 0.3% of them to turn canibal, with consequence too horrible to describe here. Eventually, the performers can no longer stand the smell of cheese-burger, and have to be hypnotised to make them believe they're actually smelling the far more pleasant aroma of dog-dirt. Unfortunately, the hypnotising can have the side-effect of reducing the performers' ability to maintain the illusion that they are not aliens: once the audience has seen the performers for what they truly are, there's no option but to either kill the entire audience or to use a little flashy thing to erase their recent memories. For that reason I strongly recommend never going to one of Qi Zhang's concerts. ("Qi Zhang" is in fact an anagram of "Zqhinga": that probably won't mean much to humans, but in her own alien, distant-star language, it means, roughly, "highly-skilled musical chameleon who likes the smell of dog-dirt".)

That is undeniably one of the funniest and most appropriate replies to a shallow comment I have read in a long time. I take my hat off to you sir.

[peter5992]

Peter - surely you're not suggesting that what I wrote there wasn't totally realistic, credible and undeniably true? :D

Well, let's just say that you lost me after the first paragraph. ;)

ps call me shallow, but she is attractive allright.

[Lostin Space]

No, I think theat there must be at least three of her, but that she has telepathic abilities to make us see only one (even via video). I also suspect that she's an alien from a distant star. If we could see her (them) as she (they) really is (are) there'd be three multi-tentacled squid-like creatures on the organ bench.

Also, there'd be another, lowly, life form that's been bred over millenia to derive its main satisfaction in life from turning the music pages: unfortunately, if left to itself, it won't turn the page until it's heard the last note being played - so one of the three squid-like creatures has to hold something similar to a cattle prod, and give the page turner a high-voltage electric shock when the page has to be turned. As time goes by, the page turner requires higher and higher voltages before it will react, until, eventually, the voltage is so high that the creature bursts into flames - usually before it can turn the page the whole way. For that reason, beneath the organ bench, there'll always be a young, fully-trained, but as yet unused page turner with a fire extinguisher in one tentacle and with another tentacle ready-licked, to ensure that it can take over the page turn half way through, before going on to use the fire extinguisher. Fortunately, when they lick their tentacles, they stay moist for seventeen earth years, so there's no harm done by the fact that they'll never stop eating, and their mouths are constantly full of cheese-burger. Yes, obesity is a problem - ugly fat bastards is what they are, if the truth be known; and they never lose the smell of cheeseburger, even when all that's left of them is a pile of black ashes. The government has several times tried to stop them eating cheeseburgers, but each time the efforts caused 0.3% of them to turn canibal, with consequence too horrible to describe here. Eventually, the performers can no longer stand the smell of cheese-burger, and have to be hypnotised to make them believe they're actually smelling the far more pleasant aroma of dog-dirt. Unfortunately, the hypnotising can have the side-effect of reducing the performers' ability to maintain the illusion that they are not aliens: once the audience has seen the performers for what they truly are, there's no option but to either kill the entire audience or to use a little flashy thing to erase their recent memories. For that reason I strongly recommend never going to one of Qi Zhang's concerts. ("Qi Zhang" is in fact an anagram of "Zqhinga": that probably won't mean much to humans, but in her own alien, distant-star language, it means, roughly, "highly-skilled musical chameleon who likes the smell of dog-dirt".)

At first - disturbing. Then, after a few lines - more disturbing.
But suddenly, around the time when the audience got to know who the performers for what they truly are, I got this crawling desire to color your text with some scary ass music. Of course, by that time the movie was around the credits :D

[kstevege]

as amazing as it is, I have to say I'd prefer an orchestra concert performing the piece. I'd love to just stand there and witness her performance for the novelty, but not particularly the musicality. Guess I'm with Chest on this one.

Could someone else be triggering the program changes? If she is somehow triggering them, it really is all the more amazing, to be sure. Maybe for a rush job I could pay her to perform my midi parts!

-Paul

its about expression - this the closest a human being can ever get to emulating the real time performance of an orchestra second to a conductor. She essentially IS orchestra expressing herself AS an orchestra in real time. Very powerful. What separates her from us is the real time aspect here. I guess conductors share a similar experience but they are directing their performance whereas she is actually playing it. It must be a very powerful experience for her.

[Jeff Hayat]

_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UszvHEI2VQE)
* (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16oaGSltUPE)


WOW - that was great too - especially for the age!