Oh What A Time... #16 Inventions
Oct 30, 2023
They explore bizarre and influential inventions like the ghostly player piano and how it captured performances. Nostalgic 90s crazes get a spotlight with the Tamagotchi phenomenon and retro toys. An unsettling look at the continuous-moving paternoster lift and why it changed city life. Lighthearted inventing gags and listener stories round out the tech-through-time tour.
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Player Piano Prefigured Modern Performance Capture
- Player and reproducing pianos made high-quality performances widely accessible before recorded sound.
- This tech foreshadowed modern performance capture and shaped how composers write for film.
That First-Seeing Tech Feeling
- Elis recalls how new tech often feels like 'the end' of further innovation when first seen.
- He compares seeing a perfect reproducing piano to thinking music technology had finished evolving.
Performance Capture Changed Musical Legacy
- Capturing a performer's exact touch allowed reproductions to influence interpretations after their death.
- Modern computers now capture and convert performances, continuing that lineage into film scoring.