Throw away Rock Band and toss out Guitar Heroes 1, 2 and 3, because a new video game is set to take over the globe, and it's one which fulfills many music fans' deepest, secret desires.Which is, of course, not to rock out on a Gibson Les Paul or bang one's way through Enter Sandman, but rather to lead an orchestra with grace and verve; to raise one's baton, nod to the concertmaster - and conduct.
The newcomer goes by the name of UBS Virtual Maestro, and has been developed by Teresa Nakra at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, with Swiss banking giant UBS providing financial sponsorship. In concert halls across America, classical fans young and old have been lining up for the chance to swing an electronic baton and lead a virtual incarnation of the Verbier festival orchestra. A European tour is planned for the autumn.The set-up is a 42-inch plasma TV screen and a large speaker, both hooked up to a Nintendo Wii running special Virtual Maestro software. The player uses the wireless Wii remote as if it were a baton, and guides the orchestra's tempo. With just a wave of the hand, they can transform Barber's ponderous Adagio for Strings into a mile-a-minute gambol, or Rossini's bracing William Tell Overture into a slow-motion funeral dirge. "In the ebb and flow of the beat there's a real flow of emotion," Nakra explained.Of course there's more to being a conductor than just goading the orchestra into a faster or slower tempo. But even as-is, the game is proving popular with those of all ages. "You can have someone in their 70s," the Philadelphia orchestra's Katherine Blodgett raved, "[and] you can have children. I think it just goes to show that everyone wants to be a conductor."And if they really want people to get excited, they just need to offer a free set of tails.
