ESP Chivaree

Last Wednesday, when editing The California Report for KBOO's Evening newscast, I finally got to hear about a remarkable Californian who will be taking the wondrous science of music into the future; Elaine Chew, who is currently working her heart out to answer one question which not only musicians, but all you stereo-blaring aficionados out there: "Why does music bring pleasure to the human ear?"



Elaine Chew is a senior investigator at the University of Southern California’s Integrated Media Systems Center, a professor in the field of engineering and, you guessed it, an accomplished concert pianist (she started playing piano in Singapore when she was six), who believes music is the ideal domain in which to study communication, creativity, human perception and cognition, and has become the supreme inspiration behind all her work and research.

Elaine is currently working on this amazing new project called ESP, or Expression Synthesis Project, a computer screen hooked up to a toy-like steering wheel with the two standard pedals, gas and brake, where anyone can get behind the wheel and in "performance rendering", her invention aims to provide a compelling metaphor for expressive performance, and to let the ears explain the music rather than math.



In ESP, the user drives a car on a virtual road that represents the music with its twists and turns, including some of the most complex numbers like Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance #5, and makes decisions on how to cruise control everywhere the meandering road travels, and every decision the driver makes affects in real-time the rendering of the piece. In the end, the pedals and wheel provide a visual interface for controlling the car dynamics and musical expression, while the display portrays a first person view of the road and dashboard from the driver's seat. And, Elaine hopes, this will help reproduce with math and computers part of what happens when our very precious minds listen to the sonorous music you know and love, even why we find some melodies more beautiful than others! :)

In simple terms, this experiment is just like a videogame, only it allows even those without any musical knowledge whatsoever to create expressive renderings of existing music, and allows expert musicians to experiment with expressive choice without having to first master the notes of the piece. :) She's already performed this miracle device at various public demonstrations, yay! :)



:) In other words, if I wanted to jog over 2,000 miles south to southern California and asked Elaine Chew, "Hey, Elaine, can I take Antonio Vivaldi's Spring Concerto in E-Minor for a spin, he always makes fast company behind the wheel when the equinox comes around!", she'll plug it right in and I can pop proverbial wheelies' down that floriferous, proverbial U.S 66! :) Pass that conductor's baton, my friend, I'm no cat in a room full of rocking chairs, y'know! :)

:) Some even believe her research could eventually create a piece of technology that can listen to a tune you have stuck in your head, interpret each of the notes, and tell you exactly what the song is and play it back to you! :) (giggles) Look out, everyone, cause soon my original recording "Weather Girl" will be a top-requested humdinger interpreter! :)



Gioacchino Antonio Rossini once boldly proclaimed to his loyal followers, "Give me a laundry list and I'll set it to music." Look forward, mis amigos; you won't even have to go to Fester Fizz's Spume of the Moment coin laundry anymore to make melodies of the mischievious fettuccini melisma in your mind! :) Ain't nothin' we need here but the spin cycle! :)



Au revoir to washing clothes on the last day of your lives, musicians, Christmas is coming early this year! :)

Love,
Noah Eaton
(Mistletoe Angel)
(Emmanuel Endorphin)