Tod Machover: Program Notes

Tod Machover / Gammified Notes I composed Gammified for Kronos Quartet – as part of the Fifty for the Future series – in spring 2019, and made some small revisions in January 2021. The work is scored for amplified quartet plus stereo electronics, with the quartet being amplified just enough to blend in volume and timbre with the electronics. The electronics play continuously during the ca. 9­minute composition, with the start of each of the five tracks marked in the score. (Each of the tracks should ideally be routed through different stereo channels on a mixer so that each new track overlaps with the last, with the previous track faded out at the discretion of the sound engineer/quartet.)

Gammified is based on current research at the MIT Media Lab where I work, as well as in the MIT labs of Prof. Li­Huei Tsai and Prof. Ed Boyden. Over the past five years, this research has shown that frequencies of ca. 40 Hz. (approximately the low­E on the piano) play fundamental roles in our brains. Specifically, healthy brains hum with this frequency, which in turn activates many functions central to mental sharpness. One important function of Gamma frequencies is to stimulate activity in microglial cells, which are the primary immune cells in the brain and also destroy pathogens and remove damaged cells. The Tsai/Boyden teams made the important discovery that mice bred with Alzheimer’s disease also had missing or intermittent Gamma frequencies in their brains, and the effect was that microglial cells were not able to clean up the plaque debris that causes the disease.

By exposing the mice to Gamma frequencies (first with flashing light, then with audio drones), microglial cells became active again, plaque was removed, and Alzheimer’s symptoms were reversed. This discovery was huge, since no medicine or surgery can reverse Alzheimer’s – but apparently sound and/or light can do it!

For the past several years, my Opera of the Future team at the MIT Media Lab has been working with the Tsai/Boyden teams to see if Gamma frequencies can affect people as – or more – effectively – than they affect mice. And the news is good. Our work shows that humans can be successfully exposed to sound or light at 40 Hz. – with especially surprising results when both are combined – in a way that kickstarts the brain into producing Gamma frequencies again. We have been working to find out exactly which combinations of frequencies with a 40 Hz. fundamental are most effective for this “entrainment,” and how these frequencies can be best combined with music, to make this therapy beautiful and interesting as well as useful for a number of mental problems (from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s disease, depression and focus).

Gammified is my first attempt to create a musical work based around therapeutic Gamma frequencies. The electronic layer of the piece is based on spectra constructed over a 40 Hz. drone.

This drone is mixed with other sonorities – studio­produced as well as sampled/processed from Kronos ­ to keep the ear interested while the mind is meditating. The string quartet part is meant to blend with the electronics, neither dominating nor disappearing, and creates a musical journey from pedal to pulsation to spectral shimmering to melody to harmonic resolution. The quartet is asked to listen carefully to the electronics while performing, interacting, imitating and occasionally improvising.

The duration of Gammified is probably not long enough to produce complete mental entrainment (although we are studying that now), but my hope is that the piece will promote careful listening, mental focus and emotional satisfaction, as well as invite curiosity about this exciting new world where sensory experiences – simple sounds and sights, without medicine or surgery – can target specific brain processes to cure mental diseases and to keep us as healthy as possible.

Tod Machover February 2021