Computer Cantata: A Study in Compositional Method
Lejaren Arthur Hiller, Robert A. Baker · Perspectives of New Music · 1964
Computer Cantata** is the name we have given to a new composition generated by means of electronic digital computers as part of our program of studies at the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois. This new example of computer music is the first large-scale computer composition completed in this studio since the Illiac Suite for String Quartet was written in 1957 by L. A. Hiller and L. M. Isaacson [1,2].t This Computer Cantata presents the results of a series of studies in computer music composition carried out in the spring of 1963. These studies were designed to test the efficiency and ease of use of MUSICOMP (MUsic SImulator-Interpreter for COMpositional Procedures), a completely generalized programming scheme for musical composition intended for use with an IBM 7090 computer. Indeed, in some instances, sections of the Computer Cantata were completed before the final version of MUSICOMP had been decided upon, and changes, additions to, and deletions from the MUSICOMP process resulted from these initial field tests.