Sonic boom

Tod Machover walks fast, talks fast, and emanates boundless enthusiasm. One gets the impression this composer/inventor/educator never stays still for long. So a concert he arranged tonight at the Institute of Contemporary Art comes as a rare opportunity to experience Machover's more contemplative side.

It's not that all the music, which the Ying Quartet will perform, is contemplative -- far from it. It's more that Machover reflectively conceived the concert as a kind of artistic taking stock, pairing his own music with a compilation of pieces that have influenced his work, from Beethoven's last quartet to his own transcription of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life ."

The quartet was attracted to Machover because of similar artistic goals. "Not only do we care about pursuing art at the highest level, but about making artistic experiences more real, unexpected, and engaging to audiences," explains violist Phillip Ying. "We found a kindred spirit in Tod."

After commissioning Machover's piece, "but not simpler. . .," in 2005, the group asked the composer for suggestions of other pieces that might make a complementary program. Machover came up with the idea of an evening of music that had all in some way influenced the writing of "but not simpler. . ." played as one continuous form connected by electronic interludes. In addition to Machover's quartet and interludes, the evening embraces the music of Bach, William Byrd, Beethoven, Elliott Carter , John Cage, and Lennon/McCartney.

For Machover, the program marks a way of looking forward and back at the same time -- each work was written at a turning point in the composers' lives. Machover considers his centerpiece quartet a reassessment of what he learned from Elliott Carter, who was his composition teacher.

"It has many layers that overlap and sometimes sound like they're moving in different directions, and the dynamic is created by the pull for those pieces to come together," he says. "The four players skitter and pull away from each other and keep coming back to common notes and phrases. In many ways, it's a reflection on how to find a kind of balance and connection between elements in today's world where things move so fast and are so fragmented."

The guiding principle was finding a balance between complexity and directness. "The whole concert is based on Einstein's quote, 'In life, you should always make things as simple as possible, but not simpler,' " Machover explains. "I tried to put pieces in an order so that the whole evening feels like a journey, so that each sounds fresh yet connected to the others in ways you'd never expect."

The project exemplifies the Ying Quartet's desire to create new contexts for music, encouraging audiences to make connections across disciplines and styles. "Beatles, Bach, Beethoven, Carter -- his piece is right in the middle of a collage of musical influences," Ying says. "And we couldn't resist putting a little technology in the middle of that -- acoustic vs. amplified, sound processing vs. natural sound. The whole range is explored in the program."

The program played to a full house at New York City's Symphony Space last January. The ICA's 8 p.m. show sold out so quickly that a 6 p.m. performance has been added as well. "but not simpler. . ." is just one manifestation of Machover's vision and curiosity. It's clear that he thrills in thinking outside the box. "Tod is very unique in terms of the skills and passions he incorporates in one person," says Media Lab director Frank Moss . "He imagines the roles of music and technology in ways no one else on the planet does."

Best known for his such innovative projects as "Brain Opera" and "Toy Symphony," Machover is also working on two opera commissions for 2008 premieres. (He calls "Death and the Powers," commissioned by the country of Monte Carlo, "one of the biggest, nuttiest things" he's ever tackled.) Rising star Matt Haimovitz will premiere Machover's new work for "hypercello" in July.

One area in which Machover has consistently devoted attention is music education. A cellist and a committed family man with two daughters, the Waltham resident believes technology offers an accessible entree into first-time music-making, allowing not only children but adults to get directly and immediately to the heart of what makes music so engaging. The three - year Toy Symphony Project , which involved the invention of electronic musical toys and accessible compositional software called Hyperscore, gave children direct, intuitive means to express musical ideas and understand elemental musical materials without first having to master notation or the physical demands of playing a conventional instrument.

The Media Lab is currently working with the education ministry of China and Portugal's Casa da Música to develop curriculum using Hyperscore as a learning tool.

Machover is also especially interested in exploring connections between music, technology, and healing, using Hyperscore as an expressive tool for people with limited abilities. He believes the technology could generate applications for populations ranging from kids with autism to seniors with Alzheimer's.

"Music can be a drug with good side effects," he says. "By making something that enables someone with limited abilities to do something fantastic, we've developed something that is useful to everybody. As we make technology adapt to each of us, it allows us to adapt to whatever we're confronted with in a changing world."