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.

Inventor Laurens Hammond designed and manufactured a variety of instruments: clocks, an automatic [...]]]> On this date in 1934, Laurens Hammond received a patent for an “electrical musical instrument”. This instrument would go on to become one of the most commercially successful electronic musical instruments. Even today, Hammond organs are ubiquitous, and their sound is iconic.

Inventor Laurens Hammond designed and manufactured a variety of instruments: clocks, an
automatic shuffling bridge table, and eyeglasses for viewing 3-D film. Then, in 1933, he bought
a used piano and began to design an electronic organ.

Unlike Theremin, Trautwein, and Martenot–and the other electronic-instrument inventors who
were motivated by the adventure of invention and a fascination with discovering new ways to
make music Hammond was motivated by profit through sales. His goal was to sell organs to a
mass market. Like most businesspeople with a similar goal, he approached the problems of
design, manufacture, marketing, and sales with a cool-headed eye toward reducing expenses
and increasing revenue.

The designs for his organs reflected economy in manufacture. For example, after analyzing
concave pedal-boards in other organs, Hammond leveled the pedalboard in his design and
omitted the pedals that were played the least often. The sounds in his organ were generated by
additive-synthesis tone-wheels that were refinements of the mechanisms that Cahill had used in
the Telharmonium.

The Model A organ appeared in June 1935. Hammond’s marketing was pervasive and intense,
initially aimed at churches throughout the country. But his organ’s distinctive sound was soon
found to have just the right quality for jazz and blues–and eventually for rock. [1]

But the organ that most of us are familiar with is the iconic Hammond B-3.

…by far the most popular model was the Hammond B-3, the first one of which came into being [in 1954]. It is an organ with two 61-note keyboards and a range of built-in effects, including chorus mode, percussion, vibrato and adjustable attack and decay effects. It has a set of foot pedals covering two octaves and two sets of nine stops or drawbars for each keyboard.

The B-3 has a specially designed external tone cabinet, the Leslie, which had rotating speakers in order to produce the vibrato effects of the organ. Taking the instrument on the road has always represented something of a challenge, because with its solid walnut frame, four legs, a base and a built-in stool, it weighs 400 pounds.

As Alan Morgan noted in his liner note to the 1963 Verve album, “Any Number Can Win”, Jimmy Smith bought a secondhand hearse in which to transport his B-3. But because, in the USA, such vehicles are not permitted to use the freeways unless they are actually taking a deceased person to the burial ground, when Jimmy and his sidemen went on the road, they dressed themselves in mourning attire. [2]

Notes

[1] “The electronic century part I: Beginnings.” Electronic Musician. Vol. 16, Iss. 2 (2000):74-84
[2] “The History of the Hammond.” Crescendo & Jazz Music. Vol. 41, Iss. 4 (2004):25

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.

Note: Be patient. The first few minutes are music only.

Nowhere. is a high-definition video presentation filmed across seven states over the course of seven months. It is inspired by the filmmaking of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio in its employment of non-narrative structure, use of time-lapse photography, and observational technique.

I saw this project as [...]]]>

Note: Be patient. The first few minutes are music only.

Nowhere. is a high-definition video presentation filmed across seven states over the course of seven months. It is inspired by the filmmaking of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio in its employment of non-narrative structure, use of time-lapse photography, and observational technique.

I saw this project as a personal challenge to create a film with production values that are as comparable as possible to the works of the filmmakers mentioned above, even with a limited amount of funding and equipment. The film was shot entirely on a Canon HV20 digital video camera and features music that was recorded and mixed on my home computer and in the computer music studio.

The resulting film seeks to uncover where we find the greatest wealth of beauty in our habitat by observing the way we live and the how we affect the land we inhabit. Through its poetic structure, the viewer is allowed to question both the aesthetics and meaning of our environmental impact and discover where the lines between garbage and grandeur are distorted or ultimately realized.