David Byrne gives a TED talk
posted by Dave Allen, 1 Comment
I just got an email from David Byrne describing his TED talk:
My own talk (it wasn’t a musical performance) was based on the idea that the acoustic properties of the clubs, theaters and concert halls where our music might get performed determines to a large extent the kind of music we write. We semi unconsciously create music that will be appropriate to the places in which it will most likely be heard. Put that way it sounds obvious…but most people are surprised that creativity might be steered and molded by such mundane forces. I go further – it seems humans aren’t the only ones who do this, who adapt our music to sonic circumstances – birds do it too. I play lots of sound snippets as examples, with images of the venues accompanying them…
Enjoy.
David B
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April 10th, 2012 @ 9:53 am
At ca 5 minutes, that’s not Wagner’s opera house, it’s the Markgräfliches Opernhaus in Bayreuth. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1876) is what David’s thinking of, which indeed has many important spatial features relevant to the music.
BTW, I met David Byrne before the performance of my opera at BAM (A House in Bali, libretto) a couple of years ago. That was very cool.