Welcome to the Digital Arts Research Center (DARC)

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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.

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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