Graphical Language for the Scores of Computer-Generated Sounds
M. V. Mathews, Lawrence Rosler · Perspectives of New Music · 1968
Conventional musical scores are an insufficient and inconvenient way of describing sound sequences to computers. A procedure is described for drawing scores as graphical functions of time, using a light pen on a cathode‐ray tube attached to a small computer. The information is transmited digitally to a larger computer, which synthesizes the sound and reproduces it immediately with a loudspeaker. Typically, functions for amplitude, frequency, and duration of a sequence of notes are drawn. An algebra allows combining functions by addition and multiplication. In this way, certain compositional processes may be performed by the computer. For example, the time‐varying weighted average between two melodic or rhythmic sequences may be synthesized. The graphical programs provide great flexibility for drawing, copying, erasing, and altering functions. Thus it is easy to develop a sound sequence by a succession of trials. Microfilm and punched‐card versions of the score are automatically provided. In addition to being compositional tools, the graphical scores are effective representations of the sound to a listener. In many ways, they are easier to follow than conventional scores.