Composers Score With Video-Game Gigs

Established names drawn to new, lucrative branch of composition

(NEWSER) - Far from the shrill beeps of a decade ago, video-game music has come into its own with compositions approaching the maturity of film scores, BusinessWeek reports. A new wave of composers is putting time and effort into sophisticated soundtracks that mark the continuing expansion of video games as a form of entertainment. More»

Composer saw creatures emerging from piano

(NEWSER) - The 19th-century composer Frédéric Chopin suffered frightening hallucinations, ranging from ghosts to creatures coming out of his piano. Now, researchers believe the visions may have been prompted by temporal lobe epilepsy, the Daily Telegraph reports. The disease can cause short, detailed hallucinations, and “could easily have been overlooked by Chopin’s doctors,” researchers note in Medical Humanities . More»

(NEWSER) - We may have Erik Satie to blame for hold music—the composer “developed a very cynical attitude” toward a distracted listening public and decided modern music would be more like a chair than an intellectual pursuit—but the science behind it is state-of-the-art, Newsweek reports. Studies on the intrusion of recorded voices have found they're not so effective. But the determining factor appears to be expectation. More»

First movement of John Cage's 4'33 becomes April Fool's giveaway

(NEWSER) - ITunes' April 1 giveaway is a landmark composition by avant-garde American composer John Cage, Gizmodo reports. The first movement of Cage's 4'33—an experimental piece consisting entirely of silence—has been made available for free download, although listeners who enjoy the first minute and 46 seconds of silence and want to hear the rest will have to cough up $1.98. More»

Scratch 'could reinvigorate DJ culture'

(NEWSER) - Could DJs be the next Guitar Heroes? The publisher of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ hopes so. "I know that Scratch can reinvigorate DJ culture," turntable icon Mix Master Mike tells Ars Technica of the videogame, due out this summer. It'll push kids "into getting real turntables to not only keep the art alive but to spawn a new generation of DJs and beat makers," he says. More»