Welcome to the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Or as you may more often see it
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
Welcome to the Algorithmic Music Classroom
• Look around you• Behind me is the break room for the
workshop• Behind you is the graduate student
algorithmic workshop• Across the hall are the offices of Cope,
Nauert, and Elsea.• Out the windows is Monterrey Bay
Welcome to WACM
Workshop
In
Algorithmic
Computer Music
WACM
• Pronounced “whack-em”
• Our eighth year
• We will be asking you to introduce yourself (with a brief interesting story) shortly. Be thinking about what you might say.
Staff introductions
• David Cope (Dave)
• Peter Elsea (Peter)
• Paul Nauert (Paul)
• Daniel Brown (Daniel)
Class Introductions
• A brief short story that will identify you for the rest of us throughout the workshop and, for that matter, forever.
• The stranger and more “out there” the better (within reasonable limitations).
Algorithm:
fromGreek word arithmós—number
Arabic word algorism—number series
meaning:a set of rules for solving a problem in
a finite number of steps.
Recipe
ranging from severe control
(Bach)toalmost no control(Cage)
Historically
• isorhythmic motets•figured bass
• fugues•Musikalisches Würfelspiele
•golden mean•serialism
• indeterminacy•minimalism
•Xenakis•Hiller
Note:
Tonalvoice-leading/doubling/
triad rulesare
algorithms
Note:
bothpaper
andcomputer algorithms
Why computers?
• faster•more accurate•able to tackle large amounts of data
Why programming?
•Composing and Analysis applications
harbor their creator's biases
•The less bias the more apt you are to get what
YOU want.
Why Lisp?
great programming environment
IRCAM, Grame, CCRMA, CNMAT, MIT, etc.
Lisp is:
• (1) high level
• (2) functional
• (3) symbolic
• (4) interpreted
• (5) recursive
Programming Credo
Divide and
Conquer
Programming Credo
Divide and
Conquer
Programming Credo
Divide and
Conquer
Programming Credo
Divide and
Conquer
Lisp Credo
Simple is beautiful (kiss)
Small is best
Lisp Credo
Simple is beautiful
(kiss)
Small is best
Lisp Credo
Simple is beautiful (kiss)
Small is best
Above All
Readability is @#$%^&* everything.
Need a text for reference:
A Gentle Guide to Common Lisp
By David Touretzky
Free on the server
Need a reference volume:
Common LispThe Language
By Guy Steele
Free online
Final Project
• We’ll have plenty of daily exercises for you.• However, each student is responsible for
creating a final music project (examples provided later this week).
• Presentations of these projects takes place on the final two days of the workshop.
• Be thinking (start now) of some project that you wish to accomplish in the next two weeks.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Former Students
• One will have a premiere of an instrumental work at the International Computer Music Conference this year.
• Another has finished a book on Max for Oxford University Press that includes algorithmic composition (and a mention of us here at the workshop)
• One of us now teaches in the Workshop (Daniel Brown)
• And believe me many other success stories.
Welcome to WACM
Workshop
In
Algorithmic
Computer Music