Computer Music from the University of Illinois

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr Leonard Isaacson Robert Baker

1967

Music/Sound

1 LP, 33 ⅓ rpm, stereo, 12-inch

The Listening Room

Description

Computer Music from the University of Illinois presents two milestones at the intersection of mainframe computing and algorithmic composition. They were created using the Illiac supercomputers that made the University of Illinois an important center for the research and practice of computer music.

Side A contains Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson’s Illiac Suite (1957), the first composition in which a digital computer determined every note. Feeding rule-sets into the Illiac I, the composers generated scores for a live string quartet. Each of the four movements tests a different procedure: from cantus firmus generation to rule-based counterpoint, rhythmic dynamics, and finally, the use of generative grammars and Markov chains. The result is a pioneering fusion of classical polyphony and computational logic.

Side B debuts Hiller and Robert Baker’s Computer Cantata (1963), written on the Illiac II. Here the computer not only composes but also performs, weaving twelve-tone lines for live singers while simultaneously generating electronic sounds on tape.

Together these works chart the evolution from computer as silent composer to audible performer. They are foundational experiments in the marriage of music and machine.