Google Glass, a futuristic headset that includes a mini-computer screen visible only to the wearer, will soon be available commercially from Google. Glass has the ability to shoot photos and video of whatever the wearer is looking at.
It also has the potential to display musical notation on the tiny screen.
Imagine a symphony orchestra, all wearing Google Glasses, performing a Brahms symphony without sheet music in front of them. They are able to watch the conductor and their music at the same time. The music is scrolling by on the tiny screen visible through their Glasses.
The conductor, too, is wearing Google Glass. There is no score in front of her. She is watching what amounts to highlights from the full score scrolling across her field of vision.
At various moments during the performance, what the conductor sees through her Google Glass is projected on a screen above the orchestra, giving the audience a close-up view of the conductor's stick technique, as well as the musicians performing in front of her.
Professor Cynthia J. Turner of Cornell University envisions such a performance. Moreover, she's actively working to make it possible.
Prof. Turner is part of Google's Glass Explorer Program, a group of adventurous types who are giving Google's new technology a trial run. She has experimented with Google Glass while leading the Syracuse Society for New Music in Greg Wanamaker's "A Story Within a Story."
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Once again, Prof. Turner will wear Glass during her upcoming November 22 concert with the Cornell University Winds; what she sees will be broadcast on a screen above the ensemble.
Turner is careful to explain that she does not believe the device will ever replace sheet music entirely. But as a tool to aid conductors and musicians in their craft, she believes it has promise.
Turner and Cornell undergraduate student Tyler Ehrlich are working on special apps for Glass that would enable the important parts of a musical score to be displayed on the screen. And Turner, herself, is thinking about a new way of notating music--designed for that tiny screen.
Prof. Turner has also succeeded in turning her Glass into a "bare bones, wearable metronome." She and Ehrlich took some open source Android code from a metronome app called "Beat Keeper" and adapted it for Glass.
This metronome app could be useful for conductors, letting them set any tempo without having to pause and set a physical metronome.
"For less-experienced conductors, we saw that a hands-free metronome would be helpful in learning to internalize tempo. Even for experienced conductors, who are conducting contemporary pieces with lots of different metronome markings, it could be useful," Turner said.
With the adapted "Beat Keeper" app for Glass, the user can both hear and feel the beat. But the user still has to adjust the tempo manually by sliding a finger along the side of Glass.
"We plan to adapt the app so that it is responsive to voice commands," Turner said. "We want to get to the point where you can just say 'quarter note equals 100.'"
But Turner isn't stopping there. Her latest idea is to get together with other Glass-wearing colleagues, including a composer of digital music and a keyboard player/vocalist.
"What if we were to ask the composer to write music specifically for Glass, that we musicians play wearing Glass?" Turner said.
You can follow Turner's progress on her blog, CU Winds Goes Glass.
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