Editor’s note: In addition to following tech developments, our author is a musical composer (Juilliard-trained). He has provided a musical composition for you to listen to while reading this column. This piece is called “Rise Prelude Piano Version.”
The Tanglewood Music Center, a bastion of classical music founded in 1940, continues to shape the cultural landscape of the Berkshires. A 2017 study revealed its profound influence, estimating an economic impact of approximately $103 million in Western Massachusetts.
Orchestras have existed since the 1600s, and pianos date from 1700. If you don’t think these represent technologies, think again. Modern pianos have over 1,200 parts, including over 200 strings, and the complexity of all the musicians in an orchestra performing together in sync and tune is miraculous to behold. Several hundred years later, we now have the Tanglewood Learning Institute, TLI, where I attended a concert and was handed a loaner iPad tablet with the scores of the string quartets performed that day. With this small iPad in my lap, watching the score and turning the pages with my fingertip was incredible. Of course, I had to give it back at the end of the performance.
Two years ago, when an orchestral piece I composed was being performed, more than half of the 80 musicians used tablets instead of printed scores, tapping wireless foot pedals to assist in page-turning. Pretty much every musician I know can record themselves using everything from phones to tablets to computers (and yes, some even still use paper). But, they no longer have the music on tape; they have memory chips.
Many residents of the Berkshires are passionate about music, a key reason for their presence here. The fact that traditional classical musicians are embracing technology indicates that their audiences are doing the same. Our audience members are not just musically literate but also tech-savvy. From the days of dial-up modems to the current era of fiber optic cables, we have been part of this technological journey, contributing to the evolution of the classical music scene.
We now have hot and cold running music available through multiple streaming services and plenty of live performances. Most of us have also figured out how to function as our own tech-support people, since the services of technical support people are not only expensive but so hard to find.
This is not surprising, as the Berkshires are located only two hours west of the Route 128 Beltway where the computer industry, which has evolved to become the economic engine that drives the entire world, was founded and where technology companies are still being founded. Tech shows up here early in its development. We Berkshirites can be proud, and perhaps a little afraid, of our pioneering spirit and our early adoption of technology.
By the way, musicians are not the only ones deeply involved in using technology. Writers and photographers are also involved.
The intersection of music and technology is supported and inspired by an unbelievable number of influential institutions all within two or three hours of the Berkshires, including MIT, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, Bose Corporation, among others. Many of my friends and I are alumni of these places. We even have multiple recording studios in the Berkshires. Don’t be surprised that many local people are both engineers and musicians, for math and music go together. If there were to be a bridge between art and science, it would surely be music, the most mathematically representable art form. Music theory is all about math and physics. Unsurprisingly, musicians are pretty good at programming computers, too.
Now, a new technical-cultural interaction is upon us. The application of artificial intelligence to creating art is just beginning. If you are an artist, musician, or writer, you can use these technical tools to support your creative process. I am not saying that artificial intelligence will replace human creativity. Computers need to be guided by humans. They have no taste. They cannot tell what is true or false or beautiful or ugly. It is hard to know if they ever will.
In the Berkshires, we have talent, skills and resources. Think what might happen when you take a culturally aware population with a high density of creative outliers who are not afraid of technology and begin to use it intelligently and artistically. We can assume some exciting things will come from Berkshire County. Just wait.
