About
MUTOR
MUTOR 2.0 is extension of a project which started by Georg Hajdu in 2005 within the framework of the E-Learning Consortium Hamburg (ELCH). MUTOR, the MUsic Technology Online Repository, aimed to provide a platform for instructional materials for classes in music technology and releated fields. It was decided to first start with two classes: A class on music perception and cognition and another on microtonality. For the music perception and cognition class the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) became partners with the University of California, Berkeley and Northeastern University in Boston.
Chapter 1
In 2019, the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT) applied for and had been allocated funds within the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) program to blow new life into the MUTOR project. This posed an opportunity to reconnect with our partners at Berkeley and Northeastern University as well as put our materials on a new platform with open access.
In the meantime Psyche had become Assistant Professor of Creativity and Creative Practice and Director of Northeastern’s Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Laboratory (MIND Lab), John had moved to Berlin to pursue work as a free-lance composer and programmer and had been hired by HfMT as a multimedia specialist. CNMAT’s current director Ed Campion also became excited about the renewed efforts and re-joined the project.
We are hoping that this class on music perception and cognition will only be the first of many more which will paint a complete picture of the exciting fields of music technology and multimedia.
We are also delighted about the AR and VR contributions that the Multimedia Kontor Hamburg (MMKH), a Hamburg-based multimedia production studio, will make.
Chapter 2
Much of the direction of this project was laid out in 2006 during the sabbatical of Anthony de Ritis (Northeastern University, Boston) at the HfMT who had been involved in a similar project called the BSO Online Conservatory. We had approached David Wessel (1942-2014), the director of the Center of New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the time. David was a polyhistor with great insights in various aspects of the science and practice of music. Both Tony and Georg had both taken David’s class and music perception and cognition while persuing doctoral studies and had found it to be a great inspiration to composers, electronic musicians and performers alike. David gladly accepted and hired two of the doctoral students working at CNMAT, cogntive psychologist Psyche Loui and composer John MacCallum who were to conduct interviews with him. These interviews, during which David simulated his class room teaching, were transcribed and extended by Max patches, videos and illustrations which were all gathered on a Wiki serving as the resource for classes taught at the three universities, even after David’s passing in 2014. For the design part, Tony had assembled a team consisting of two designers to turn these materials into an interactive Flash application. Programming was done in Hamburg by Oliver Frei. Due to budget cuts, the project had to be stopped after we had just finished a prototype (see below for some screenshots).
Samples from the first edition of MUTOR
Excerpt of a video with David Wessel created in 2006 at CNMAT, UC Berkeley with David explaining the potential of including a class on music perception and cognition in a composition curriculum.
Screenshots of the Flash application:
