American Society of University Composers Proceedings! 1969 American Society of University Composers Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, April, 1969 Copyright © 1971 The American Society of University Composers, Inc. c/o Department of Music, Dodge Hall Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Subscription Information: Proceedings of The American Society of University Composers are published annually by the American Society of University Composers, Inc. Subscriptions are available at $5 .00 per year (domestic) and $6.00 per year (foreign). Back issue rate: $5.00 per volume. Subscription requests should be addressed to: Proceedings Editor American Society of University Composers Department of Music, Columbia Univeristy New York, N.Y. 10027, U.S.A. Designed and published for the American Society of University Composers by Stanley F. Bennett, Portland, Oregon. Printed in U.S.A. by Lake Grove Printing, Box 1516, Lake Grove, Oregon 97034. American Society of University Composers Proceedings/ 1969 American Society of University Composers Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, April, 1969 Copyright fl) 1971 The American Society of University Composers, Inc. c/o Department of Music, Dodge Hall Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Subscription Information: Proceedings of The American Society of University Composers are published annually by the American Society of University Composers, Inc. Subscriptions are available at $5.00 per year (domestic) and $6.00 per year (foreign). Back issue rate: $5.00 per volume. Subscription requests should be addressed to: Proceedings Editor American Society of University Composers Department of Music, Columbia Univeristy New York, N.Y. 10027, U.S.A. Designed and published for the American Society of University Composers by Stanley F. Bennett, Portland, Oregon. Printed in U.S.A. by Lake Grove Printing, Box 1516, Lake Grove, Oregon 97034. American Society of University Composers Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, April, 1969 Held at The University of California, Santa Barbara in cooperation with the Department of Music, University of California, Santa Barbara The Society gratefully acknowledges the support of THE ALICE M. DITSON FUND in assisting the publication of this volume. American Society of University Composers Founding Committee BENJAMIN BORETZ, DONALD MARTINO, J. K. RANDALL, CLAUDIO SPIES, HENRY WEINBERG, PETER WESTERGAARD, CHARLES WUORINEN National Committee ALLEN BRINGS, RICHMOND BROWNE, DAVID BURGE (Chairman), DAVID COHEN, OTTO HENRY, HOMER KELLER, JEFFREY LERNER, JOHN ROGERS , CLIFFORD TAYLOR Executive Committee ELAINE BARKIN, BARNEY CHILDS, CHARLES DODGE, PAUL LANSKY, RAOUL PLESKOW, NICOLAS ROUSSAKIS, JOAN TOWER Editors of Proceedings ELAINE BARKIN, BARNEY CHILDS, PAUL LANSKY Contents/ Proceedings, 1969 7 PANEL DISCUSSION: Recent Developments in Electronic Music Hubert S. Howe, Jr. Introduction John Clough Computer Music and Group Th eory David Cohen Yet Another Sound Generation Program Emmanuel Ghent Paper-Tape Control of Electronic Music Synthesis Max Mathews GROOVE, A Program for Real Time Control of a Sound Synthesizer by a Computer Robert Moog An Objective Look at Electronic Music Equipment 39 PANEL DISCUSSION: The Relation of Licensing Organi-· zations to University Composers; Chairman: Peter Racine Fricker Participants: Martin Bookspan, ASCAP Carl Haverlin, BMI ' ' 57 PANEL DISCUSSION: Should Composition Be Taught in Universities, and if so, How? Chairman: Joel Mandelbaum Participants: Richmond Browne Barney Childs Paul Earls Bernhard Heiden Claudio Spies David Ward-Steinman 89 BERTRAM TURETZKY, Contrabassist Performance Demonstration: The New World of Sound 93 MEMBERSHIP LIST, November, 1970 PANEL DISCUSSION: 7 Recent Developments in Electronic Music Moderator: Hubert S. Howe, Jr. Participants: John Clough David Cohen Emmanuel Ghent Max Mathews Robert Moog 8 Introduction HOWE: When we consider the problems that composers are currently dealing with in electronic music, it is apparent that, while there are still many problems to overcome, there have been great advancements over the last few years from the mod­ est beginnings of the late 'forties and early 'fifties. It was not too long ago that the primary components in an electronic music studio, with the exception of tape recorders and micro­ phpnes, were not designed for musical purposes at all. The early "classical" studios provided the means to explore qualities of sound not previously associated with music, but they provided little, compositional flexibility. :The field of electronic music received a tremendous boost in the early 'sixties with the development and wide distribution of electronic music synthesizers by the R.A. Moog Co. of Trumansburg, New York and Buchla Associates of Berkeley, California. The primary advancement in the case of both of these systems was the concept of voltage control, which allowed the operating characteristics of different instruments to be determined not only by internal controls on the front panel but also by externally generated signals. Thus, the ways in which musical parameters could be controlled were focused upon as separate problems, to which different solutions were provided by different kinds of controlling devices. (Even today, th~ pfimary difference between these two systems is the manner in wl1ith they treat control voltages.) ' . ' ; l;hese systems, and other similar synthesizers which have appeared since, have developed in two directions. One is the assemblage of what might best be described as an "electronic live performance instrument," in which the controls are sim­ J?lified. <J.nd standardize? in order to provide immediate access to a wide range of musical sounds and sound effects. (Today, a year a11d a half after this panel took place, there are several such systems competing for the market. Most of them use 9 keyboards as their primary controller, creating the impression of an electronic "organ" or, at least, "keyboard instrument.") The other direction in which these systems have developed is the assemblage of large systems which not only allow individual sounds to be structured in great depth, but also permit a certain amount of automatic or programmed control over musical characteristics. One of the first semi-automatic controlling devices was the Sequential Controller or "sequencer." The sequencer allows a certain number of control voltages, which may be used to control any musical parameter, to be preset and then performed sequentially, so that the first element of the series is repeated after the last. By combining sequential voltages with randomly or manually generated voltages, a power­ ful range of control is provided. There are clearly several ways in which further programmed controls can be introduced into an electronic music synthesizer. One is through the use of a binary input mechanism, which would allow all -of the control voltages corresponding to a !J1USical passage to be prerecorded and played back in real time. Another is through the use of a small digital computer to generate the control voltages for the system directly in real time. Either of these methods allows the combination of live and predetermined controls. Finally, the greatest range of control is provided by using a digital computer to synthesize an entire passage of music which is converted to sound through a digital-to-analog converter. While this method allows-indeed, requires-total flexibility in preprogramming, it does not allow any manual intervention in real time; there is no "live performance" at all. Our panelists represent a wide range of experience in these different areas. We are fortunate to have one of the pioneers in the development of voltage-controlled electronic music synthe­ sizers, Robert A. Moog. Another panelist, Emmanuel Ghent, describes an intermediate-level automatic controlling device which can be used in a variety of ways to provide an interaction between live and automatic control. Max Mathews, the next panelist, discusses a program which employs a small computer to control a number of analog sound generating and processing devices. Finally, David Cohen describes a computer sound­ generating program, and John Clough discusses some aspects of a complete language for music generation. IO JOHN CLOUGH Computer Music and Group Theory I will begin with preliminary remarks on two topics: First - existing programs and languages for computer sound-generation, and second - the mathematical theory of groups. These remarks will be informal and confined to information needed as back­ ground to the central topic of this paper - a language feature for sound-generation, based on the theory of groups. I will explain the function of this language feature, and suggest its potential by means of a musical example, and by means of a brief glance at one of its deeper implications. Since the late l 950's when work on computer sound-gener­ ation was begun at Bell Telephone Laboratories, at least a dozen universities and colleges (and probably nearer twice that many) have reached various stages in the implementation, development, and productive use of sound-generation programs. Two notable aspects of these efforts are ( l) composers are deeply involved in the programming itself and (2) the several programs developed display some significant differences from one another. The second of these aspects is surely due in part to the first. 11 In any case both aspects have contributed to wholesome growth. We need diversified research in order to expand the practical limits