The Power of Music Thinking

Everything about Orchestration with Robin Hoffmann

A few episodes ago, I asked the question What is Orchestration? This was because I saw a lot of different orchestrators, nota bene, non-musical orchestrators with job titles like Design Orchestrator, Value Network Orchestrator, Data Orchestrator and Innovation Orchestrator, just to name a few. This is an ongoing research, and I am writing a paper about what people do when they say they are orchestrating. 

But today, we flip the side and talk with a music orchestrator, or, shall I say, an original orchestrator?

We speak with Robin Hoffmann, a prize-winning composer, arranger and orchestrator from Berlin. We talk about orchestration in music and the difference between composing, orchestrating, arranging and conducting in Hollywood films, games and concerts. 

This is a deep dive into the music industry and all its facets and an inspiration for everyone orchestrating something.

Robin shares with us many insights and a great story.

 

Show notes

• Connect with Robin: https://www.robin-hoffmann.com/ 

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Inspiring Books on Music Thinking

Let’s talk about books today. What was the last book that inspired you? Was it a novel, a non-fiction book, a design book, a music book or a cookbook? 

 

In this episode, I share three books that inspired my sound way of thinking, experiencing the world with an open ear and what has led to developing music thinking, the framework, the jam cards, the book and the podcast. 

I will briefly discuss Nada Brahma by Joachim Ernst Berend, The Soundscape by R. Murray Schafer, and The Glass Bead Game, the prize-winning novel by Hermann Hesse. These three books directly and indirectly influenced the ideas in The Power of Music Thinking. 

But my book also influenced another author, and he used parts of the music thinking framework described in the book to explain his idea of rebels in digital development in Belgium. 

Today I speak with Geert de Mol, a CDO for the leading Belgian Bank for 16 years, during their development of ‘the best app in the world’. Geert is a music lover of rock and pop, and he shares with us how music thinking and the book helped him to pen his story.

 

Show notes

• Connect with Geert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geert-van-mol-1779812/ 
• Music from the world of Anathem: https://soundcloud.com/ztutz/sets/iolet-music-from-the-world-of-anathem 

 

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Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

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2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

Sonic Branding with Willemijn van Hussen

Today we speak with Willemijn van Hussen - a trained concert pianist, strategy consultant - co-founder and owner of Sonic Branding agency TAMBR.

We talk about the power of our senses and how sound can make a difference in recognising a brand and what it stands for. Willemijn shares with us insights from an audio branding project, with a sonic logo, brand anthem and different sound assets that are used strategically. 

Among others, we hear the brand anthem of Lazy Vegan and how this might be different from other brands in the industry. Willemijn gives tips for students who work on sound assignments and for brands that want to make a start with sonic branding.

Show notes

• Connect with Willemijn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willemijnvanhussenfuhring/ 
• TAMBR Sonic Branding Agency: https://www.tambr.nl/en/
• Steve Keller Audio Alchemist: https://musicthinking.com/blend-sound-science-with-sound-art-to-make-sound-decisions-with-steve-keller/ 

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Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

 

The role of emotions and rationality in research with Leonoor Opstelten

We end this year with Leonoor Opstelten, a young researcher who used improvisation and music as an experimental approach for her thesis on forest and nature conservation.  With this approach, she won the Birgit Elands thesis prize just a few weeks ago.

In her thesis, she included five piano pieces accompanying five different storylines - patterns and themes that resulted from her research.

Let's listen to the research, its story, and the beautiful music.

Show notes

• Connect with Leonoor: www.linkedin.com/in/leonoor-opstelten-088957297 
• Download her thesis: https://edepot.wur.nl/657505  

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Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

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2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.

 

Thinking Music - Music Thinking - special epsiode

Christof Zürn talks about music thinking, the music thinking framework, and JAMMIN’ before SCORE and what this means in the context of co-creation in the business. How does this sound? 

It sounds marvellous; we hear a lot of musical experts from the new (digital) album of MRZ - an ambient improvisation trio - and get an explanation of how this relates to the music thinking practise.

Show notes

• Thinking Music Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0yITUGcz4pH8qU0FbN4vhc?si=bdb26633538a4495 
• Download Music Thinking Framework: https://musicthinking.com/download-music-thinking-instruments/ 
• MRZ on Bandcamp: https://mrznl.bandcamp.com/album/improvisations-in-an-ambient-space 

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

 

What is orchestration?

What is orchestration? And

What is an orchestrator? What do they do?

Is everybody now a musician or music thinker?

Is it important? And Why should we care?  

 

What challenges around orchestration are there in different fields and can music, music thinking or the grandmaster of orchestration, Rimski-Korsakov, help?

In this short episode, I discuss a pre-research concerning orchestration in different fields. If you are an orchestrator or use orchestration to explain your work, please fill in the form below.

Show notes

• Please fill in the Pre-Research Survey about Orchestration: https://forms.office.com/e/MJchG9yEgP 
• Principles of Orchestration by Rimski-Korsakov on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33900/33900-h/33900-h.htm#rimsky1 

 

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Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com

Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and/or the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

Strings between MBA and AI with Anna Filochowska

join us in our conversation and hear more about the journey from Poland to Germany and the US, from playing violin in a top-notch orchestra to getting an MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and writing a white paper about AI and music. 

Show Notes

• Connect with Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniaf/ 
• Berlin Philharmonic: https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/ 
• AI White Paper: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7228754698395148288/ 
• Performing at Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJIjLMMMuYg 

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
3. Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

Sound Walk in the Summer with Christof Zürn

Today is a special episode of the podcast, not just because of the 50th episode anniversary but because there will be no guests today. Instead, you'll be immersed in a unique sound walk experience, a journey of sound I recorded in July in Italy. This is not just a regular episode; it's a sonic adventure. 

Open your mind and listening brain because, as we learned in the last episode with Professor Nina Kraus, you can only hear what you know. 

But now let's get on our trip or, better yet, the sound walk of the summer.

Every two years, my wife and I, visit the Art Biennale of Venice. It's not just a visit, it's a learning experience, an inspiration, a ritual about creativity in the broadest sense. It's about un-learning, re-learning, and encountering new things that make you rethink. And this time, I brought my recording device with me on a sound walk through the Biennale of Venice. 

Be my guest while I was walking with my ears and microphone open on this unique sound walk.

Show Notes

• David Rothenberg website and books: http://www.davidrothenberg.net/ 
• Biennale Arte Venice website: https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024  
• Italian Pavillion, Duo Qui/Two here: https://www.duequi-tohear.it/project 
• More on Deep Listening and Pauline Oliveros:
  https://musicthinking.com/deep-listening-with-sharon-stewart/  

Show Support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
3. Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

A Love Letter to Sound with Nina Kraus

We don't just hear; we engage with sounds. Our hearing is always on, and we can't close our ears the way we close our eyes, yet we can ignore unimportant sounds. Making sense of sound is one of the most challenging jobs we ask our brains to do. But how does this work?

Today, we speak with Dr. Nina Kraus, scientist, inventor, book author, Professor of Neurobiology at Northwestern University, and Director of BrainVolts. 

Nina's research reveals that our daily lives, filled with sound, play a significant role in shaping how our brain interprets the sounds we hear. This influence can be both positive, as seen in musicians and bilinguals, and negative, as in the case of concussion, hearing loss, and language disorders. Sound, therefore, leaves a profound imprint on our identities. Nina talks about the partnership of sound and the brain and how sound processing drives many of the brain's core functions. 

To give you an idea of our conversation, there is a short, surprising sound example in the intro of the episode that will make you wonder!  Because we only hear what we know, we have to hear and listen a lot to better understand our world and ourselves.

So, relax and join our conversation about exploring sound and listening! Or how Nina also talks about her work and book: It is a love letter to sound.

 

Show Notes

• Brainvolts website www.brainvolts.northwestern.edu 
• Book Of Sound Mind: https://brainvolts.northwestern.edu/of-sound-mind/ 

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! 
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
3. Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​

Sound Buildings with Ron van Leeuwen

Today, we speak with Ron van Leeuwen, who straddles two creative worlds. By day, he is an architect and urban designer, shaping physical spaces. By night, he transforms his creative energy into music, composing pieces that the 55-piece Metropole Orkest has recorded. His newest composition, Architones, is also available on Spotify.
We discuss the relations and differences between working in these two fields, the metamorphoses of buildings and music, and the challenges of delivering a feasible building.
During our discussion, Ron generously shares his compositional insights and the creative process behind his homage to the Vredespalais (Peace Palace) in The Hague. He reveals how he began with a waltz rhythm, a choice that adds a unique musical dimension to the architectural masterpiece.

Show Notes

• Connect with Ron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-van-leeuwen-65b30723/ 
• Architones website: https://architones.com/ 
• Architones on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2VJ4ZJhDqlXNwKnuQjoPFw?si=2DW2gQ9_Q66iTvLEBvJNSw 
• Kokon: Architecture & Urbanism: https://www.kokon.nl/en 

 

Show support

Please choose one or more of the ‘three ways to support the show’:

1. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a review — even one sentence helps! I appreciate your support; it helps the show!
2. Tell your friends about the podcast and musicthinking.com
3. Buy the book The Power of Music Thinking and the Jam Cards at a 20% discount using musicthinking20 at the check-out of the BIS Publishers website only.​​