A city can evoke so many sensory impressions: the welcoming sight of New York’s Statue of Liberty, the delicate taste of thinly sliced sashimi in Tokyo, and the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked croissants at a pâtisserie in Paris. When it comes to Detroit, perhaps the most salient impression the Motor City has left on the world is sonic: from its rich musical legacy to the clatter of its factories, there’s little doubt that the engine that drives this metropolis runs on auditory fuel.
That’s the premise behind a project that composer Tod Machover is working on in collaboration with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Over the coming year, Machover and the DSO are asking the public to make audio submissions and conceptual contributions based on what they believe “Detroit sounds like” to be used as raw materials in the composition of a new collaborative work entitled Symphony in D, which will premiere at Orchestra Hall on November 16, 2015.
The project, which is made possible by a $315,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, represents the first American venture in the series. Machover has previously completed similar collaborative symphonies in Toronto, Canada; Edinburgh, Scotland; Perth, Australia, and is currently working on a symphony for the Lucerne Festival 2015 in Switzerland, where he will be Composer-in-Residence.
Dennis Scholl, Vice President of Arts for Knight Foundation, first heard Machover’s symphony in Scotland and knew right away he wanted to bring this work to Detroit for many reasons. In a press conference yesterday, Scholl remarked that he’s long considered Detroit “the Berlin of the US,” and he also noted the DSO’s track record in community engagement and digital innovations — such as its webcast series — which make it the perfect partner for this collaborative venture.
Composer Tod Machover was also in attendance during the press conference to share some of his background as the Professor of Music and Media at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has developed technology that can collect and combine sounds and translate them into music. With the assistance of the DSO and his Opera of the Future team, Machover will use this technology to take the public’s contributions to help shape Symphony in D.
Two of the programs that will be used include the Constellation app and Hyperscore. The former, which was used in previous incarnations of the city symphony series, is a web-based app that allows anyone to hear the latest sounds collected and to combine them into personalized mixes. Hyperscore will let young people compose their own audio portraits of the city by drawing with lines and colors, which Machover can transform into orchestral impressions via hyperscore.com.
In addition, another mobile app is in development specifically for Symphony in D that will allow any sound to be recorded and then geographically “tagged” via mobile device, creating an evolving “sound map” of the city. During the year leading up to the work’s premiere, Machover will also visit schools and community centers to hold workshops and engage the public — perhaps over a coney dog or two. “I look forward to working with Detroiters from all backgrounds to create a collective musical portrait of this exciting moment in the city’s history, when everything is being rethought and anything is possible.”
Residents may start making submissions right now. Instructions on how to submit and additional information is available here.