The Sequential Drum
M. V. Mathews, Curtis E. Abbott · Computer Music Journal · 1980
The Sequential Drum is a device used to demonstrate a new method of playing intelligent instruments such as a computer-controlled synthesizer. The method demonstrates a different relationship between the musician, the score, and the instrument. As shown in Fig. 1 with traditional instruments, all the information in the score passes through the musician, who communicates the information to the instrument by physical gestures. The musician has fast, absolute control over the sound, but he or she must be able to read the score rapidly and make complex gestures quickly and accurately. Some scores make great demands on the musician's virtuosity. A second possible relationship between score, musician, and instrument is shown in Fig. 2. This relationship is used by pure digital synthesis programs such as Music V (Mathews 1969) and Music 10. The musician first prepares the score in a machine-readable form. It is then read and performed by the instrument without further intervention by the musician. No real-time demands are made on the musician, who can take as much time as he or she wants to prepare or revise the score. But the musician cannot perform the score in a way that resembles traditional instrumental performance. A third relationship is shown in Fig. 3. Here the score and the musician both send information directly to the instrument. The score is a sequence of partial descriptions of musical events. In general the sequence is ordered by time. The information not contained in the score is supplied by the musician in real-time during the performance. The aspects of the performance that are to be interpreted are generally supplied by the musician. The