Toshio Iwai, a media artist who created the concept of TENORI-ON
Manual music box that inspired the artist
"The electronics technology has advanced, but the power to create new musical instruments seems to have dwindled," says Toshio Iwai, a media artist who developed TENORI-ON, a new concept musical instrument, jointly with Yamaha.
Iwai disclosed the process of creating TENORI-ON at the presentation April 25, 2008 (See related article).
The strongest motivation for creating TENORI-ON was the desire to compose music without the ability to read musical scores. The user interface based on the matrix composed of a time axis and tones was created to realize it.
Iwai showed a manual music box that inspired him to create TENORI-ON. When the handle is turned, sound is produced at the punched points on the paper tape. This score is the origin of TENORI-ON, which is composed of a time axis and tones.
The first product Iwai created on the basis of a time axis and tones was the "Piano as Image Media," which was introduced in 1995. The screen, which is comparable to the paper tape of a music box, lights up reacting to the operation of the trackball. The light is transmitted to the piano to produce the sound. The video will help you understand the system more clearly.
It is impressive that "light," one of the elements that characterizes TENORI-ON and has not been adopted for manual music boxes, was employed at this initial stage. However at this stage, the route of the trackball was lit up and columns of light extended from the piano. Later, Iwai created a similar instrument for live performance.
The next milestone is the "Musical Chess" disclosed in 1997. The player places glass balls on the chess table. The time line moves across the chess table, producing sound at the points on which the glass balls are placed. It is a stationary TENORI-ON, not a handheld type.
The pursuit of good appearance suitable for a musical instrument as well as good-looking posture of the player resulted in the shape and operation of TENORI-ON. Traditional musical instruments are beautiful in shape and the players are beautiful at the same time, Iwai said.
However, due to digitalization of musical instruments, note PCs are now the most frequently-used musical instruments. The scene of tapping on the PC keys is not very attractive. This is why he expressed his concern that "the power to create new musical instruments seems to have dwindled."
TENORI-ON is the result of the joint development with Yamaha Corp for an unprecedented musical instrument. They attached particular importance on the square shape, the magnesium die-cast body of hairline finish and the LED on the back, which was installed to make it a good-looking musical instrument.
That was the birth of "the musical instrument with no artist (dubbed by Mitsuru Umemura, president of Yamaha Corp)." How far will TENORI-ON satisfy the needs of existing artists as well as the people who had to give up playing musical instruments because of inability to read scores? The new digital musical instrument has left the hands of creators and is to be evaluated by the market.
Toshio Iwai reveals the concept of TENORI-ON(4:00)
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