Machover, Tod
Entry updated 26 October 2021. Tagged: Music, People.
(1953- ) US avant-garde composer. Particularly fascinated by the crossovers between technology and music, Machover has not only composed science-fictional opera and orchestral pieces, he has also innovated the instruments of the traditional orchestral, producing an electronic stringed instruments with feedback hardware he calls a "hyperviolin" and "hypercello" (played with a "hyperbow") as well as a "hyperpiano". Valis: An opera in two parts (1987) is based on Philip K Dick's 1981 novel, and contains some SF Music of quite exquisite delicacy and fluency. Another opera, Death and the Powers (2010) concerns a businessman (the titular Powers) who turns himself into a Cyborg to cheat death. It was first staged with twelve free functioning robots on stage, supplied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. [AR]
Tod Machover
born New York: 24 November 1953
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