Max Mathews in real-time
DAVID L. WESSEL · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2007
Some of the most important contributions of Max Mathews stem from his emphasis on live-performance computer music. His performer-oriented perspective has won over musicians ranging from Pierre Boulez to Stevie Wonder. The most prominent real-time computer language in use today, Max/MSP, bears his name. In the 1960s, after making an overwhelmingly convincing argument for the digital computer as a musical instrument, he and F. R. Moore at Bell Labs built a hybrid system, GROOVE, consisting of analog synthesis modules under real-time digital control. Though not a fully digital system—a practical move—it anticipated much of what we in the field are currently doing with laptops and gestural controllers in performance. Indeed his GROOVE conducting program impressed both Pierre Boulez and Stevie Wonder when it was demonstrated to them in the mid-1970s. I will strive to honor Max’s contributions to musical performance with examples from his work and those influenced by him. Along the way there will be a few stories.