I met with Adrian in July to learn more about the VMI project and about his role in it.  Adrian’s first encounter with the Bloorview VMI took place in 2009 just after he had finished his graduate studies in music at Yale.  He had given a recital at Bloorview and was taken on a tour of the music therapy department.  Although the department houses many adapted instruments, the VMI clearly stuck out.  Unlike the more traditional musical instruments, it didn’t have a set physical shape.  It was more like an idea or a concept than like a standard instrument.  Adrian was intrigued by the VMI and was soon thinking about its potential, and about the challenges it presented.  The first challenge he recognized (not surprisingly, for a professional musician) was the quality of the sound the VMI produced.  Adrian  knows how motivating it is for musicians, professional performers and beginning students alike, to produce a beautiful, “organic” sound on their instruments.  He wondered if the sound of the VMI could be made more aesthetically pleasing, and he started to think about how it might be integrated into existing musical ensembles, and how to go about developing a repertoire for it.

In keeping with his tendency to think big, Adrian started to work on showcasing the VMI in a professional concert setting.  One day at Bloorview he met Dr. David Alter of “Vigour Projects” and they decided to collaborate.  Adrian explained to me that the public concert represents a “top-down” approach or a “best case scenario” for using, developing and promoting the VMI.  With the exception of Eric Wan, who will operate the VMI for the concert, the musicians on stage will be professionals.  Eric himself is an engineer who had a hand in the instrument’s development.  Presenting the VMI under these conditions will hopefully allow others to recognize its potential as a tool for rehabilitation, and as an aesthetic accomplishment in its own right.

Adrian hopes to convince other professional musicians to record some files for the VMI.  He also envisions the potential for the VMI to contain a database of instrumental sounds from all over the world, and hopes that a dedicated repertoire can be developed for it.  While the VMI concert will in many ways represent a culmination of its development, I know that Adrian and all those involved also see it as a beginning.  We still have a lot to learn about the VMI, its use in rehabilitation, and its artistic potential.

But when I put aside both kinds of prejudices and reflected a bit, I realized that things never were so simple.  Computers are much more than tricked-out typewriters, and composers have long exploited the latest technology of their time to craft new experiences for listeners.  Think of Bach’s collection “The Well-Tempered Clavier” which took advantage of the then-evolving technology of tempered keyboard tuning.  And many of the best-loved works for the violin would be unplayable on instruments created before the changes in instrument design of the 18^th century.  Considered in these terms, computerized instruments are just a further development in our compositional and musical practice.  Indeed, the progress of electro-acoustic music in its many forms over the last century (musique concrète, works composed for playback rather than performance, and new electronic instruments such as the Theremin and the Ondes Martenot) can be seen in this way.

But a virtual instrument?  (“Virtual” here means that the instrument is implemented in computer code rather than in wood, metal or reed.)  How much is a virtual instrument a continuation of previous musical and compositional practice, and how much is it a departure?  To what extent does it challenge the conceptual categories we already use to talk about music?  I’m not yet sure how to answer these questions.  I’m only just getting to know one particular VMI – designed by Tom Chau at Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto.

What I have already learned – even on my relatively brief acquaintance – is that the Bloorview VMI has tremendous potential to help in the rehabilitation of children with severe physical disabilities.  One of the challenges faced by these children and their families is to find opportunities for genuine participatory play.  Some early studies with the Bloorview VMI have been very promising in this respect.  Play is a crucial component in child development, and children with disabilities all too often lack the opportunities for play that non-disabled children can take for granted.  This puts them at risk for developing passivity and learned helplessness, and can contribute to their social isolation.  The Bloorview VMI is a video-capture software program that allows users to play musical sounds and melodies using gestures.  Even children with a very limited range of motion were able to interact with the instrument and trigger musical tones.  Children whose physical disabilities would prevent them from playing a conventional instrument were able to gain some sense of control, creation and mastery of the VMI.

As with many kinds of musical therapy, the potential for physical and cognitive development for these children seems clear.  What I found more striking and truly inspiring to read was how much the children in these early studies enjoyed playing the VMI.  The sheer joy and fun of playing overshadowed the therapeutic aspect of the experience for them.  Some of the children who used the VMI in their home environment enjoyed the additional benefit of social interaction when they played the VMI together with their parents, siblings, or grandparents.

I’m looking forward to my next visit to Bloorview, when I hope to be able to see more of the Bloorview VMI in action.