Paganini Project (2003)

Software written by Tristan Jehan and Mary Farbood.
Additional collaborators: Diana Young, Tod Machover.

For the Toy Symphony project, a special transcription of Paganini's Caprice No. 24 was developed to demonstrate some of the potential of the new Hyperviolin techniques. Created to be performed by Joshua Bell on his acoustic Stradivarius, it uses only a microphone and a couple of foot pedals. Using the system, Bell can turn his playing into a swirling spiral of sound, doubling or tripling his playing at different intervals, delicately reinforcing or modifying the timbre, all under his expressive control.

Audio/video excerpts from Joshua Bell's performance

• Theme and Variations 1 and 2 (853KB mp3) - Bell accompanies himself in real time
  
  
• Variation 3 (648KB mp3) - Triple and quadruple stops... in octaves
  
  
• Variation 9 (326KB mp3) - Special pizz
  
  
• Variation 10 (790KB mp3) - Unexpected backup
  
  
• Joshua Bell performing the finale (11.4MB Quicktime)