The aesthetics of interactive music systems
Robert C. Rowe · Contemporary Music Review · 1999
Computers in music have made possible new kinds of composition at the same time that they have caused upheaval in the social and cultural practice of music making. Interactive music systems have a particular place in this context in that they explore some highly specific techniques of composition at the same time that they create a novel and engaging form of interaction between humans and computers. In this essay, real-time algorithmic composition in works including improvisation are considered as well as the contrasts between interactive and tape music. The author's composition Maritime for violin and interactive music system is presented as an illustration of the aesthetic viewpoint developed.