Music From Mathematics (Box Set)

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Max Vernon Mathews Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs) Newman Guttman David Lewin Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr Leonard Isaacson John L. Kelly, Jr. Louis J. Gerstman Sheridan Dauster Speeth Mary Elizabeth Moore Shannon John Robinson Pierce

1960

Music/Sound

12"x12"
Box Set contains:
LP : 33 ⅓ rpm, monophonic ; printed inner sleeve with technical note; liner notes; booklet

The Listening Room Historical Firsts Highlights

Description

Music From Mathematics (1961), published as a promotional box set by Bell Labs, is the first publicly released recording of a computer making music. Spearheaded by Max Matthews, the godfather of computer music, nearly all 11 tracks compiled on the album were created at the famous Bell Labs using an IBM 7090 mainframe with just 32k of memory.

This release introduced the world to computers and music. It was the first time the public heard computers talking, computers singing, computers playing music, and computers composing. The artists list on the album reads as a “who’s who” of computer music in the 1960s.

This limited and rare box set is the very beginning of today’s electronic music.

Tracklist:

A1 J. R. Pierce Stochatta

A2 Max V. Mathews Three Against Four

A3 J. R. Pierce Beat Canon

A4 Newman Guttman Pitch Variations

A5 Max V. Mathews Numerology

A6 J. R. Pierce Variations In Timbre And Attack

A7 David Lewin Study One

B1 L. Hiller, L. Isaacson Excerpt From Illiac Suite

B2 J. R. Pierce, M. E. Shannon Music By Chance

B3 S.D. Speeth Improvisations On A Random Piano