by
NARR: [sound of keyboard underneath] Nathan Bowen sits hunched forward in an office chair, plucking at his computer keyboard. His cheeks reflect the cool white light of his Macintosh monitor. With his boyish haircut and tall frame he looks more like strapping farm boy than an agent of the avant-garde. But people who hear his music might think the avant-garde is what he's all about.
SOT (:01) [Bring up 1, 2, 3 are all important]
// Fade up music and keep under at "hear his music" //
NARR: Is this even music?
SOT (:01) [Bring up 1, 2, 3 are all important, then crossfade into Talleggio]
Bowen thinks so. He actually did start out as a classical composer. Microsoft founder Bill Gates commissioned him to write the theme song for his home theater.
SOT (:02) [Bring up Talleggio)
But Bowen turned to technology to explore new musical forms. He's working toward his PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. He hopes technology can help him fight a trend he's observing in the composition world. Empty theaters for new works.
SOT (:07) There's this acceptance almost that really this music isn't for the general public or for mass consumption.
NARR: It was a lesson Bowen learned firsthand. At one of his first New York concerts, he showed up at the auditorium with a Macintosh laptop and played this.
SOT (:02 ) Underground #1
NARR: Bowen thought his audience would dig the sound adventure. They didn't.
[Fade music and OUT]
ACT 01 Time (:10) I wasn't able to really communicate stuff to them so they would say that was . . . good. That was interesting. Oh! I've never heard anything like that. And they always want to be always well wishing.
NARR: But Bowen realized they weren't engaged. He decided to develop an interactive concert. By transforming his listeners into doers, he hoped they'd get into the groove. He went back to technology again. Cellphones, he thought. Everybody is fluent in cellphones. He composed a piece that was supposed to go like this: Performers walk individually in geometric patterns throughout the auditorium. Bowen sits up front with his laptop, typing out text messages. Headlines about things like war or natural disaster. The performers would read the headlines aloud as soon as they received them on their phones. Audience members would be encouraged to call the musicians for a bit of casual conversation during the performance. Bowen says he's trying to answer profound questions about the conflicting messages that the cell phone is capable of sending…and receiving.
ACT 02 Time (:10) How do you reconcile something that is supposed to be lighthearted and for leisure with these things that are very very serious issues that require your mind to think about this seriously and is this OK?
NARR: The idea was interesting, but Bowen admits the execution was poor. Cell phone reception was bad. Some text messages didn't reach the performers. An audience member tried to call him, but he'd lent his phone to one of the performers. So he's now back to the drawing board, namely his computer. Bowen theorizes it'll be more reliable in a concert venue where timing is everything. For his next concert, he wants audiences to bring their own music, like the sample Bowen's using to test his new system: Memphis Soul Stew.
SOT: Memphis Soul Stew fade up under last TRAX.
NARR: He'll load the audience picks into a computer system. With a keyboard and mouse, an audience member will choose the playlist, and another audience member will control tempo and
pitch. But is this going to do the job? Will people actually come?
ACT 03: I do like the idea of collaboration and community so that is what I strive for. But I don't know if this is going to be a successful venture one way or the other.
NARR: But Bowen's willing to try. He says he hopes to conjure up a world where people no longer walk alone in the glow of their own ipods. Instead he'll bring them together to explore the boundaries of sound.
This is Michelle Stockman, Columbia Radio News