Music is a universal form of art that has evolved over the centuries into something humans can use to express themselves, irrespective of their cultural origin, across the globe. It has proven to help reduce stress, develop the human brain and its functioning, and also treat chronic diseases such as cancer with the help of music therapy. It is so ingrained in the lives of a human that we can track its presence almost everywhere. Music has been believed to have evolved from a simple instrument such as a flute to a complex instrument of Accordion.
Every culture is characterised by its own distinctive collection of trills, whistles, parps, honks, and beats, and each corner of the world has created its own location-specific indigenous resource to recreate a sense of cultural identity through noisy self-expression. In recent times, music has partnered with technology; society has witnessed the birth of some new musical instruments due to the technological revolution. One such instrument is the Eigenharp- which has 120 keys, each representing a dynamic tone percussion button, built-in sound processing features like recording, playback, and looping and a potentially infinite array of sounds. It can be played through a keyboard, mouthpiece, and tap-pad resulting in an instrument that sounds similar to a band.
Tenori is another instrument with 16 x 16 LED light grids that responds to touch. It also has real-time time looped programming, creating soaring, rippling compositions that captivate beginners as well as experts. Adding to the list of inventions of new musical instruments, a music professor at the Northeastern University has also contributed to the union of music and technology. The instrument plans on bringing vintage sounds into mainstream music, helping produce sounds that could only be simulated until now. This is another step towards establishing a symbiotic relationship between music, engineering, and design.
Mayuri Talgaonkar