When Computer Music was Experimental, 1951-1971

This Episode: When Computer Music was Experimental, 1951-1971

Early Recordings of Computer Synthesis

Playlist

1. Tones from Australia, 1951. All produced using the CSIR Mark 1 computer built at the CSIR’s radiophysics division in Sydney.
2. Alan Turing’s computer music. 1951. Recording made of tones generated by the mainframe computer at the Computing Machine Laboratory in Manchester, England. Snippets of the tunes God Save the Queen, Baa, Baa Black Sheep, and Glenn Miller’s swing classic In the Mood. Plus the voices of computer lab members listening to the sound as it was recorded. Original acetate recording from 1951 restored by University of Canterbury composer Jason Long and Prof Jack Copeland.
3. Incidentally, synthesizing music ….
4. Beat Canon (1960) by Dr. J. R. Pierce. From the album Music From Mathematics, Bell Telephone Laboratories.
5. Numerology (1960) by Max Mathews. From the album Music From Mathematics, Bell Telephone Laboratories.
6. Noise Study (1961) by James Tenney, from Music for Mathematics, Bell Labs, 1961 expanded edition.
7. Bicycle Built For Two (Unaccompanied and Accompanied versions) (1963) From the demonstration record Computer Speech - Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet (He Saw The Cat), produced by Bell Laboratories.
8. Computer Cantata, Prologue to Strophe III (1963) by Lejaren Hiller. From the album Computer Music From The University Of Illinois (1963). This work employed direct computer synthesis using an IBM 7094 mainframe computer and the Musicomp programming language.
9. Lyric Variations For Violin And Computer (1965-1968) by J. K. Randall. From the record A Mitzvah For The Dead For Violin And Tape / Lyric Variations For Violin And Computer on Vanguard Records.
10. Permutation of Five Sounds (1967) by Pietro Grossi. From the album GE-115 - Computer Concerto on the Italian General Electric label. Realized at Studio di Fonologia musicale di Firenze (Italy). Distributed in 1967 as a New Year's gift by Olivetti company.
11. Mixed Paganini (1967) by Pietro Grossi, also from the album GE-115.
12. HPSCHD by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller (1967-1969). The piece was written for Harpsichords and Computer-Generated Sound Tapes.
13. January Tensions (excerpt) by Peter Zinovieff. Computer performed and composed in his private studio outside of London.
14. Synthesism (1970) by Barry Vercoe. From the album Computer Music released on Nonesuch. Realized in the Computer Centers of Columbia and Princeton Universities using MUSIC 360 for the IBM 360 mainframe computer. Vercoe authored this musical programming language.
15. Wishful Thinking About Winter (1970) by Wayne Slawson. From the album Voice of the Computer: New Musical Horizons (1970). Produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
16. Eight-Tone Canon (1970) by J.R. Pierce. From the album Voice of the Computer: New Musical Horizons (1970). Produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
17. Computer Suite From "Little Boy" (1970) by Jean Claude Risset. From the album Voice of the Computer: New Musical Horizons (1970). Produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
18. The Earth’s Magnetic Field by Charles Dodge (1971). From Nonesuch Records. Every sound in the piece was computed into digital form using the IBM/ 360 model 91 at the Columbia University Computer Center, and then converted into analog form at the Bell Telephone Laboratories.
19. Computer says farewell, Music from Mathematics (1960).

The Archive Mix in which I play two additional tracks at the same time, to see what happens.

1. Capriccio N. 5 (1967) by Pietro Grossi. From the album GE-115 - Computer Concerto on the Italian General Electric label. Computer synthesized sound.
2. Pitch Variations (1960) by Newman Guttman. From the album Music From Mathematics, Bell Telephone Laboratories. From the album Music From Mathematics, Bell Telephone Laboratories.
3.  

Read my book: Electronic and Experimental Music (sixth edition), by Thom Holmes (2020).