The Japanese have built an enormous Marimba-like music mechanism which plays Bach in a forest outside of Kyoto. The making of this music machine (instrument?) involved dozens of musicians, mechanics, builders, and more. Besides thoroughly enjoying the inventive take on a classic Bach piece, I could not help but ask a number of questions. Who is the musician? Is each person involved a member of a hyper-modern orchestra of sorts? If someone's job is simply to set up the wooden run in the forest but he is in no way involved in the coordinating of tones, is he still a musician, or is that role analogous to an instrument manufacturer? What if the person who came up with the idea never lifted a finger to create the sounds - what's the name of that role? Not composer, not player, but something.
After a few minutes of contemplating these question I went back and watched my favorite Japanese musical comercial:
Yes, that is a real television commercial (for soy sauce).
