wraparound

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of a pure computer music
> because it seems that all of the fundamentals of electronic music already
> existed either in practice or theoretically and computers simply made the=
se
> basic operations more convenient, more practical or more accessible.

to answer your post would take pages upon pages of thrashing around trying
to explain what computer music is, why it was a completely new approach to
creating sound and why it tried to emulate analog synthesis/acoustic
instruments in the very beginning...if you read up on the history of
computer music you'll begin to see why/how the technical limitations tended
to force paths of little resistance in order to demonstrate proof of
concept...so this is in partly why we hear 'filter sweeps' and 'bell tones'
and singing computer voices and such...because the math involved with
modeling those behaviors was known and able to be coded using Fortran or on=
e
of the MusicN languages...once the novelty of a computer singing 'Bicycle
Built for Two' or sounding like a bell wore off composers began to see the
magnitude of working with algorithms and data...since numbers can be used t=
o
represent *anything* models can be developed to produce all sorts of sounds
and behaviors that are impossible to create otherwise...

without trying (and failing) to capture in email the sheer elegance and
power of what is musically possible with a computer I suggest you read Road=
s
book(s) and listen to the history of computer music...

the bible(s): "The Computer Music Tutorial" - Curtis Roads (MIT Press)
"Computer Music" - Dodge/Jerse  [there are others but these two are the
bookshelf reference for most computer music composers]

music:
Max Matthews
Jean Claude Risset
Charles Dodge
Paul Lansky
James Dashow
Curtis Roads
Lejaren Hiller
Iannis Xenakis
Herbert Br=FCn
John Chowning 

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