Robert Baker

Robert A. Baker was a composer and programmer active at the University of Illinois in the early 1960s. He worked with Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr on some of the first systems for computer-assisted composition using the Illiac I, one of the earliest digital computers housed at a university. As a graduate student in composition, he contributed to the development of Musicwriter, an early notation system for the Illiac, created in conjunction with Cecil Effinger’s music typewriter. He went on to co-develop MUSICOMP, a general-purpose compositional language first written for the Illiac I and later adapted for the IBM 7090. The system used a library of subroutines capable of generating musical material through both rule-based logic and probabilistic methods, and became a foundational model for early algorithmic composition.

In 1963, Baker and Hiller used MUSICOMP to co-compose Computer Cantata, a 24-minute work for soprano, chamber ensemble, and computer-generated tape. The piece followed Hiller and Leonard Isaacson’s Illiac Suite, 1957, one of the first compositions generated by a computer, but moved beyond it by incorporating machine-produced sound. While the earlier work produced a notated score for human performers, Computer Cantata made the computer an audible presence, generating electronic tape and twelve-tone vocal material. Baker programmed the system that produced the vocal lines and tape components, using output from the CSX-1, a real-time synthesis machine developed at Illinois. The piece is structured around five strophes and framed by prologs and epilogs, integrating stochastic text approximations, serial writing, and microtonal synthesis. He is credited as co-composer of all movements and co-authored two technical studies with Hiller, including Computer Cantata: A Study in Compositional Method, 1964.

Baker’s work marked a turning point in computer music, shifting focus from symbolic score generation to real-time sound. While little is known about his later career, Baker’s contributions to MUSICOMP and his role in designing the system’s compositional logic established core principles that continue to shape generative music today.