Two Pioneering Projects from the Early History of Computer-Aided Algorithmic Composition

Abstract

Lejaren Hiller's 1970 chapter, "Music Composed with Computers: An Historical Survey" (Hiller 1970) contains numerous descriptions of projects in the computer generation of musical structures. By then, just over ten years after the publication of Hiller's and Leonard Isaacson's seminal book Experimental Music (Hiller and Isaacson 1959), a startling number of experiments in generativemusic with early computers had been completed. Hiller’s early research, compositions, and publications established him as a leader in the then-emerging field of computer-aided algorithmic composition (CAAC). Some researchers, likely inspired by Hiller and Isaacson's 1956 Illiac Suite string quartet, even duplicated their instrumentation: in an amusing footnote, Hiller writes that "it is curious to note how many computer pieces have been written for string quartet . . . particularly since string-quartet performers seem to be among the least receptive to newer compositional ideas such as computermusic" (Hiller 1970, p. 70).