Abstract: Hyperscore, the composing portion of [Tod Machover]'s "Toy Symphony" trinity, is a sophisticated musical tool in the guise of a simple computer game. Children position drops of sound and colored lines on the screen, building up layers and length into a texture that is as complex as they can manage. It is not, however, just a matter of drawing a picture and getting a pretty tune: Fill the screen with monochrome swirls and you will produce a boring sequence of repetitions; do the tangle in all the colors, and you will get a cacophonous jumble of notes. Hyperscore is visually abstract and very responsive, and it requires care.

"It reveals the underpinnings of music," says Dan Gluck, a father who spent the weekend playing with Hyperscore before bringing his daughter to one of Machover's workshops. "You can sit at a piano and you have the keys and the notes, but you don't understand anything about how it all fits together. With Hyperscore, you do."

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The Sounds of Play

Tod Machover is trying to revolutionize the way kids learn to make music with digital technology

Hyperscore, the composing portion of Tod Machover's "Toy Symphony" trinity, is a sophisticated musical tool in the guise of a simple computer game. Children position drops of sound and colored lines on the screen, building up layers and length into a texture that is as complex as they can manage. It is not, however, just a matter of drawing a picture and getting a pretty tune: Fill the screen with monochrome swirls and you will produce a boring sequence of repetitions; do the tangle in all the colors, and you will get a cacophonous jumble of notes. Hyperscore is visually abstract and very responsive, and it requires care.

The first step is to create a motive - a fragment of a tune - by placing notes on a grid and moving them around by ear. The program allows you to make any number of these motives, and it's a good idea to make half a dozen, each as different from the others as possible. Then, on a separate grid, like a long scroll of paper, organize the motives using color-coded lines. A long, straight line that drifts gradually upward will make the motive repeat, beginning each time on successively higher notes. A short, level stroke will produce a quick, lone utterance.

The program has no stylistic preconceptions: It is equally easy to write repetitive minimalist patterns as it is to compose textures saturated with thick harmonies and lengthy melodies. But Hyperscore can help shape a structure. One button snaps the assortment of notes into an arrangement that makes tonal sense. Another will restore its pristine dissonances. A blue line that runs from left to right in the middle of the grid is the piece's flexible spine: Bend it, and the key will change as abruptly or gradually as you wish. In essence, the program asks the composer how much control to exert.

"It reveals the underpinnings of music," says Dan Gluck, a father who spent the weekend playing with Hyperscore before bringing his daughter to one of Machover's workshops. "You can sit at a piano and you have the keys and the notes, but you don't understand anything about how it all fits together. With Hyperscore, you do."

Machover nods in agreement. "Within a couple of days, even with kids as young as 7, we can talk about issues in composition that are usually things you discuss in a graduate seminar: structure, motivic development, contrast. Do you want to move toward one climactic event, or do you want to keep the texture the same throughout? Kids are perfectly able to think about these things."

Hyperscore is geared to children 7 to 12, but Machover is thinking about adapting it for other age groups. "My goal is to extend Hyperscore in both directions. I'd love to make something a 3- year-old could use, but it would also be great if an experienced musician could use it to sketch ideas quickly."

To get the free software:

Go to www.toysymphony.net.

Click the "musictoys" tab.

Click the "Hyperscore" tab.

Click the "Hyperscore showcase" button.

Click "Download Hyperscore," and follow directions for downloading.

A good introductory tutorial is also available on the Web site, as well as a somewhat more forbidding user's guide.

[Illustration]
Caption: Newsday Photo / Bruce Gilbert - Some of Machover's Hyperscore software is projected onto his face.

(Copyright Newsday Inc., 2003)