Actual work on this problem was started [...]]]> On February 23rd, 1924, Lejaren Hiller was born in New York City. Hiller would become recognized as one of the pioneers of algorithmic composition. In 1957 he wrote the first major computer assisted composition. The Illiac Suite was composed using University of Illinois’ Illiac computer.

Actual work on this problem was started in September, 1955, at which time the present authors decided to collaborate to write the intial computer programs for producing music. The inital set of instructions was designed to cause the Illiac to generate simple cantus firmi; that is, simple diatonic melodies to be utilized subsequently to produce simple polyphony. Both authors had worked previously on Monte Carlo-type problems in connection with another research project and thus had had previous experience with coding problems of this type for a computer. In fact, a sizable portion of the basic programming techniques of the earlier music codes for the Illiac was adapted from this earlier research. The work as previously outlined progressed very smoothly, so that, by the following spring, we had accumulated enough material to begin the assembly of a musical record of the research results in the form of the Illiac Suite. By July, 1956, the first three movements of the suite had been completed with the exception of what is now the Coda of the third movement. A performance of this much of the suite was given publicly on August 9, 1956, at a concert at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinoid. This performance, which was privately recorded at the same time, was by a string quartet … and three instrumentalists … This concert attracted considerable attention because of its novelty, and representative reports of this event both prior to it and afterwards in the popular press can be cited to indicate the extent and nature of the reaction which occurred. [1]

Hiller also collaborated with John Cage on HPSCHD, a monumental multimedia concert that premiered on May 16, 1969 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.

Austin: Now that you have finished HPSCHD, what are some of the special things you remember about your association with John Cage?

Hiller: We were both interested in investigating certain compositional techniques, and we found that the computer provided a meeting ground upon which these ideas could be thrashed out and modified as our compositional plan gradually evolved. It was a dia- logue. The piece represents somewhat of a departure for both of us. I think one of the reasons the project interested John is that the work sessions were a con- crete illustration of one thing he has said he’s always been so interested in: the process of composition it- self. We were involved with composition as process right from the beginning, because it was the act of composing upon which we were focusing attention. Both of us sought to discover and to exploit an area of overlap of compositional attitudes. [2]

Notes

[1] Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson, Experimental Music: Composition with an Electronic Computer, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1959), 5-6.
[2] Larry Austin, “An Interview with John Cage and Lejaren Hiller,” Computer Music Journal. Vol. 16, No. 4 (1992): 15-29.

Shortly after Xenakis settled into his work as a civil engineer with Le Corbusier, he began his music career by looking for someone with whom he could study. After being turned down by Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Honegger, and Darius Milhaud, he followed the advice [...]]]> A new piece on Arts Electric attempts to answer that question.

Shortly after Xenakis settled into his work as a civil engineer with Le Corbusier, he began his music career by looking for someone with whom he could study. After being turned down by Nadia Boulanger, Arthur Honegger, and Darius Milhaud, he followed the advice of Annette Dieudonné, a friend of Nadia Boulanger, who suggested that he seek advice from Olivier Messiaen. Noting Xenakis’ background in mathematics and civil engineering, Messiaen advised him not to study harmony and counterpoint but rather to develop his mathematical ideas. Xenakis attended Messiaen’s class at the Paris Conservatory regularly through 1952 and less regularly in 1953.

Among many related and various theories and skills, civil engineering articulated for Xenakis the phenomenon of underlying complexity, as found, for example, in a multiplicity of miniscule causalities that are too numerous to be individually traced and, consequently, can be understood only as distributions and probabilities within a statistically-described whole. In 1953, he applied the principle in music by calculating the trajectories of individual stringed instruments, notated as lines rather than notes, in his orchestral composition Metastaseis. It was his first significant composition, and it proved seminal for other ideas and other projects—among them the Philips Pavilion and the UPIC system—throughout his life.

Read more at Arts Electric.

Beyond defining the sound of [...]]]> Les Paul passed away on Thursday. He was 94. Musically, he was more involved with popular entertainment than with the kind of music that we write about on this blog. But he invented an instrument that, in many respects, defined twentieth century musical innovation: the solid-body electric guitar.

Beyond defining the sound of rock music, Paul also defined the spirit of electronic curiosity that has been present in so many electroacoustic composers. He showed the world that innovative new sounds could come from a few hours of tinkering with spare parts in the garage. Today, with the prevalence of DIY music and homebrew music software, this spirit is more alive than ever.