Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510100023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It fingers like a clarinet, it looks a little like a soprano sax with a black finish - and it sounds like absolutely anything that strikes Mahin's fancy.
Computer technology first established a beachhead in fine-arts music back in the mid-'50s, says Mahin, who is the director of Radford University's Center for Music Technology. But it's only been a decade since computers began to be equal partners with humans in live performance. Mahin frequently performs on stage with computers, and his Yamaha (he prefers the rather generic-sounding name ``electronic wind instrument") is a key factor in the digital music equation.
"Before 1985, the computer was just too bulky to be considered an instrument in the concert hall. Any music was stored on tape, and the performer would play along with the tape," said Mahin.
"But once the computer became portable, it could be taken into the concert hall and we now have the possibility of controlling the performance as the performer. The computer is listening to me and following me, as opposed to the person leading the technology.
"The reversal of the role model is really important, because it represents a huge step forward in making music,'' he continued. ``Making that machine responsive enough to be a musical instrument that's expressive in its own way is a major advance.''
Mahin's new CD of his own compositions (``Time Chants" on the Capstone label) contains five pieces, on four of which Mahin himself is heard playing the Yamaha electronic wind instrument, which has a chameleon personality.
The realities of physics mean that the characteristics of most traditional instruments are relatively fixed. But not the Yamaha's. Mahin can adjust the instrument so that variables like how hard it's blown and mouthpiece pressure can mean whatever he wants them to mean.
"It has its own unique personality, and it drives clarinetists crazy, because they come to it and say, `This is gonna be like my clarinet,' but the wind resistance is different, the touch of the keys is different, and the sound itself is actually produced by a synthesizer, not the instrument," said Mahin.
With a good synthesizer, the electronic wind instrument can sound like a trumpet, a clarinet, a sax, a cello, a tuba - or it can make sounds that nobody has ever heard before. It's an experimenter's dream.
Performing on futuristic instruments like the Yamaha WX-11 is only one of the things that Mahin's students at Radford learn to do. The university just made it possible to get a bachelor of music degree with a concentration in music technology. Students in the 6-year-old center work to integrate all aspects of technology into music, including composing, performance, teaching and doing research.
Mahin says he was apprehensive about how his more traditional colleagues at Radford would greet the Center for Music Technology in 1989. He was relieved to find that his reception was generally "extremely enthusiastic," noting that the response largely depended on age.
He was surprised to discover that most older faculty welcomed digital technology into music with open arms, and the same thing applied to the youngest faculty members, who had grown up in a world dominated by computers.
"I've had the most trouble with faculty in the middle, the ones who've been in the field for 10 to 15 years and who didn't grow up with computer technology - I think they're mostly intimidated by it," said Mahin.
One reason traditionalist musicians are suspicious of such things as electronic wind instruments is that they appear to do away with the hard work that learning to play an instrument has always required - at first sight, anyway. A professional trumpeter might practice six hours a day for a year to add an extra half step to the upper end of his range - but Mahin can add three octaves instantly with a quick programming change. It seems, well, unfair.
An electronic wind instrument still requires daily practice, said Mahin.
"The diaphragm training, the tongueing training, the fingering coordination - they all require daily work. While the actual sound production is not so dependent on the player as with an acoustic instrument, it's a matter of concentrating on a totally different set of things - you have to develop a whole different knowledge base to play it well."
Mahin's new album appropriately takes full advantage of digital media. Play "Time Chants" on a standard CD player and you'll hear the music. Play it on a Mac computer with a CD ROM drive and you'll get two music videos into the bargain. One is an audiovisual presentation of the technology, and the other is about Mahin himself and the artist who created the visual part of the CD's program, Jennifer Spoon of Radford's art department.
Mahin will be a research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for Music and Technology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland from this January through May. Before leaving for Europe he'll concertize at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland in November.
To get the latest on Bruce Mahin's preforming career and new developments in the Center for Music Technology at Radford, check out the university's home page at http://www.runet.edu/, and click on the music department's icon.
by CNB