The Dyson Symphony — A song of sound and science
By: Dyson On
Tags: Dyson, Music, Performance, Symphony, Inventions

A competition in composition

Unlike most composition competitions, there was no music to judge. Instead, entrants were asked to pitch an idea for a “piece of Dyson music” that would express the processes and values that the company uses to create technology. The winner would then get the chance to turn their musings into a melody.

16 candidates met with Toby Purser, Sir James and some of Dyson’s acoustics experts to discuss their ideas about how to make a piece which combined science and sound.

But according to Toby the “standout winner” was composer, David Roche, who brought “an incredible enthusiasm about using Dyon technology and a great idea about the creative process the company uses to design its products.”

Aged just 27, David has already had his work performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orion Orchestra, London Graduate Orchestra, Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Grand Band, and The Assembly Project. He has also written “music about teeth, pioneering medical devices, strawberry picking robots, and balloons”.

Of course like all good invention stories, David’s Dyson composition began with a problem that needed solving. Namely, how do you make a piece of music about vacuum cleaners that doesn’t just contrast their overpowering noise with the idealised qualities of orchestral instruments?

To answer this question he turned to science, writing, for the first time, in a laboratory rather than a studio.

In order to fully utilise “the sound of a Dyson” David first had to explore what was sonically possible with the company’s technology.

During the composition of his piece David worked with over 50 Dyson sound engineers to understand the precise tones their technologies make. In particular, he found himself dissecting the core technology in almost every Dyson product: the motors.

With the help of Ben Mercer and Tom Ridley, two acoustics and sound experts at Dyson, David was given a ‘motor auraliser’ — a curious piece of software which “is designed to faithfully reproduce the sound that a V9 motor makes” — the same motor that is found in Dyson’s Supersonic hairdryer.

“It is interactive,” Ben explains “to such an extent that you can change the speed of the virtual motor in real time — you can even control it from a keyboard and play a tune on it.”

The V9 motor produces a range of noises from the rush of air through its impeller to the “whine” of fast rotating components. Ben and Tom also provided David with “several settings for the auraliser, which meant that he could change the frequency and volume to reflect “snapshots of V9’s noise signature at different stages in the motor’s development,” allowing David to genuinely explore the science behind how “that distinctive Dyson sound” was created.

He then altered the pitch a Dyson V9 motor produces in order to functionally use “Dyson ‘sounds’ as music.”

But he did more than just adapt the sound of the motor to complement the range of an orchestra. Every note, pitch, and frequency the traditional instruments play are all actually selected from the same family of sounds that go into the Dyson technologies. Essentially the piece is written in the language of Dyson.

As he explains: “I didn’t want to just supplement an orchestra with technological noises; instead the technology sounds are the music, the devices are instruments. With this piece of music,” David says explaining his piece, “I wanted to a produce something that expressed what I find exciting about the creative process — whether you’re making a new piece of technology or music. Or both.

“There is a serious and exciting component to Dyson that I discuss in the piece I’ve written about them,” he adds “it’s a discussion about the importance of failure and design process. You do things wrong until you get them right, that’s something I feel is part of my own creative output. That idea of persevering is an extremely positive thing and lets you constantly develop as an artist, or through technological advancement — or in this case both. Adding current technology to an orchestra is just a new way of developing art.”

What’s more, David isn’t the first person to envision updating the orchestra.

Technology has played a much more regular role than you might imagine in shaping the world of music. Instruments in particular are limited by the extent to which they can be technologically advanced.

Arguably it’s always been the case that they have simply followed wherever technology led. This is well documented; from David Edward Hughes’ invention of the microphone in 1877 to Cher’s first use of auto-tuning back in 1998 when she asked us if we “believe in life after love?” And both are just examples of technologies that shaped music as an industry. There are as many examples of technology unlocking the new acoustical and compositional regions of music.

One famous example involves perhaps of the world’s most renowned piano makers, Steinway & Sons. In 1854 Albert Steinway perfected and patented the last major addition to the grand piano: the ‘Sostenuto pedal’. Steinway’s invention allowed a pianist to selectively extend some notes without affecting any others being played. It allowed pianists to fundamentally rethink what was possible in their compositions and by 1857 it had become so popular that the concert piano would never sound the same again.

Although David would modestly recoil from such a comparison, his most recent piece he has moved music’s technological dial one notch closer to 11.

But that is just the beginning. His piece, named ‘Acoustical Anatomy’ after a term used by one of the acoustical engineers he met while touring Dyson, also has a couple of extra limbs in the shape of two unique and hitherto unheard instruments.