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Our first hour is devoted to music designed for dancing, including a dance-friendly "Piano Puzzler" and a slice of Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis and Chloe," from Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall. And our second hour features music that's played a starring role in such films as "The Red Violin,""The Pianist,""The Piano" and "Amadeus."
hour 1 Listen
hour 2 Listen
Honda's robot named ASIMO will conduct the Detroit Symphony on May 13th. That's the headline in "news of the odd" around the world today. Perhaps more aptly: the Detroit Symphony has agreed to have a robot stand on the podium and wave its arms in a pre-programmed set of movements while they play some music.
The reason they've agreed to this entertainingly humiliating demostration? That's not making the headlines, but it should. Honda is giving the Detroit Symphony a million dollars to create "The Power of Dreams Music Education Fund." ASIMO may not do any actual conducting, but a million dollars for music education in Detroit? Thank you, Honda!
ASIMO has been around since 1986, and according to the official Honda ASIMO website:
ASIMO can help the blind and the elderly. He can do things that old people can't do for themselves. ASIMO could help the blind cross the street...He could help the elderly by walking up and down steps with them and keeping them company.
But before you rush out to buy an ASIMO to help you walk up and down steps, check out this video of ASIMO taking a tumble. (ASIMO then burbled "I've fallen and I can't get up.") (He didn't really.)
By the way...ASIMO is not the first conducting robot. In 2004, Sony's QRIO (pronounced curio) conducted the Tokyo Symphony in about 90 seconds of Beethoven's 5th. The first violinist in the Tokyo Philharmonic, Eiji Arai, said "We usually adjust our timing by paying attention to the conductor's breathing, but QRIO doesn't breathe, so it was a bit difficult to communicate with it."
I haven't seen any official admission of ASIMO's pre-programmed conducting movements, but Sony was upfront about QRIO in 2004. A joke was even pre-programmed. Right before the performance, QRIO turned to the audience and said "I'm feeling nervous."
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