From Bach to Natural Machines, algorithms as the shapers of music
Dan Tepfer - Host: Holger Rauhut
06.06.2024 um 16:15 Uhr
Dan Tepfer
in der Aula im Hauptgebäude über das Thema
From Bach to Natural Machines, algorithms as the shapers of music
Abstract:Audiences often think of music as primarily a product of the heart, but pianist / composer / coder Dan Tepfer argues that algorithms - rules that are followed consistently - are just as important. Without constraints underlying creativity, whether they're conscious or not, music tends to lack the deep structure that makes it timeless. In his newest project, Natural Machines, he's taken this idea to the limit, programming rules into his computer that enable it to respond in real time to the music he improvises. The computer creates immediate structure around whatever he plays at the Yamaha Disklavier player piano, which in turn guides him to improvise in certain ways, for an unprecedented melding of natural and mechanical processes. The idea of music living at the intersection of the algorithmic and the spiritual is far from new. It was Pythagoras who first codified the logic behind harmonic consonance. Renaissance composers such as Ockeghem created music that followed strict mathematical procedures. And Bach, whose Goldberg Variations Tepfer has been performing worldwide since the 2011 release of his album Goldberg Variations / Variations, in which he follows each of Bach's variations with an improvised variation of his own, seemed to gain endless creative results from imposing constraints on himself. Join Tepfer as he explains the deep connections between the high-tech Natural Machines, the timeless music of Bach, and the algorithms that support it all.About the speaker: Dan Tepfer is an internationally renown pianist and composer based in New York City who has performed and recorded around the world with leading musicians both in Jazz and classical music, such as Lee Konitz, Paul Motion and Renee Fleming. Dan Tepfer earned global acclaim for his 2011 release Goldberg Variations / Variations, where he performs J.S. Bach's masterpiece as well as improvising upon it to "elegant, thoughtful and thrilling" effect (New York magazine). Tepfer's 2019 video album Natural Machines stands as one of his most ingeniously forward-minded yet, finding him exploring in real time the intersection between science and art, coding and improvisation, digital algorithms and the rhythms of the heart. His 2023 return to Bach, Inventions / Reinventions, an exploration of the narrative processes behind Bach's beloved Inventions, became a best-seller, spending two weeks in the #1 spot on the Billboard Classical Charts. Besides his musical career, including a degree in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory in Bosten, he has earned a Bachelor's degree in Astrophysics from the University of Edinbourgh. From a young age, Dan Tepfer has been interested in coding, which he now uses in very creative ways for making music, such as in Natural Machines. During the pandemic, his belief that music brings people together in times of crisis led him to dive into live-streaming, performing close to two hundred online concerts. As part of this effort, he pioneered ultra-low-latency audio technology enabling him to perform live through the internet with musicians in separate locations, culminating in the development of his own app, FarPlay, which is now distributed by a company of which he is the CEO.