David Cope: Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style (2001)

Virtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics.

The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author’s responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity.

The book includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text.

With commentary by Douglas Hofstadter
And with perspectives and analysis by Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Bernard Greenberg, Steve Larson, Jonathan Berger, and Daniel Dennett
Publisher MIT Press, 2001
ISBN 026203283X, 9780262032834
565 pages

Experiments in Musical Intelligence (author)

publisher
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PDF (updated on 2012-6-13)

Daphne Oram: An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics (1972)

“Daphne Oram was educated at Sherborne School for Girls, and then, during the war, she joined the BBC in London as a Music Balancer. There she worked with most of the well known international musicians in the fields of chamber music and opera. But, alongside this work, she was intrigued by the possibilities of manipulating magnetic tape sound, and as early as 1948 began to build special equipment for experiments. She was the first to compose an electronic sound track for a BBC television play (Amphitryon 38), all the composing being done in the middle of the night (using quickly assembled equipment) in the deserted Broadcasting House studios.

When the BBC eventually built an experimental studio, the Radiophonic Workshop, Daphne Oram helped to design it and then directed it. In 1959, she decided to leave the BBC to create her own studio in her converted oasthouse at Wrotham, Kent. Since then, she has become internationally known for her work in films, television, theatre and radio; she has presented successful concerts of electronic compositions at the Mermaid Theatre, London, and at the Edinburgh International Festival. She has lectured widely–at London University, Cambridge University Arts Society, The Institute of Physics, Harrow School, Wellington College, Roedean, and at many other Colleges, Schools and Music Festivals. She has also appeared a number of times on television and in films.

For her Oramics research work, at her Kent studio, she received two Gulbenkian Foundation Grants.”

Publisher Galliard, London, and Galaxy Music Corporation, New York, 1972
ISBN 0852491093
145 pages
via Michal Murin, via GussetBlog

CD reviews

PDF (updated on 2016-8-24)
Post-BBC work: CD1, CD2 (Paradigm Discs, 2007)

James Vogel, Nevin B. Scrimshaw: The Commodore 64 Music Book. A Guide to Programming Music and Sound (1984)

Are you interested in electronic music? Do you dream of playing “Rhapsody in Blue” … without a piano? You can … with THE COMMODORE 64 MUSIC BOOK. It will teach you to play your Commodore 64 as a musical instrument, and you’ll pick up profes sional programming skills along the way. THE COMMODORE 64 MUSIC BOOK is designed for people with little or no programming experience. It includes the fundamental techniques of musical composition, programming in BASIC, and electronic sound synthesis. All of the instructions are in practical step-by-step language, and are geared to teach, rather than train by rote. With THE COMMODORE 64 MUSIC BOOK, you can learn to compose music, write advanced programs, and enjoy the sheer pleasure of creation. Praised by Popular Computing for “simulating the sounds of acoustic instruments better than any other personal computer,” the Commodore 64 is an exciting addition to electronic musicology. With THE COMMODORE 64 MUSIC BOOK you can play too … from a simple one-voice tune, to a complex multi-instrumental score. Consider the possibilities! So, give Gershwin your best… with THE COMMODORE 64 MUSIC BOOK!

Publisher Birkhauser Verlag AG, 1984
ISBN 3764331585, 9783764331580
146 pages

google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-18)