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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Computer Generated DigItal Music | ||
| A computer composes music with a few simple inputs from the user. |
I'm sure there must be earlier references to this idea in sf, but I'm still looking.
| Waves, repetitions, pulsatons, rumblings, the rise of a violin taking off can all be described by a Fourier Series-an amalgamation of sine & cosine waves of different frequencies & amplitudes. A frequency is a number. An amplitude is a number. Charlie composed by choosing the number and deciding when to change it. His computer executed the command. He created his own computer language for imitating instruments. It was a simple matter to write a subroutine for oboe or violin or harmonica |
| From The Moon Goddess and the Son ,
by Donald Kingsbury. Published by Not known in 1979 Additional resources -
|
In an interview published in Wired magazine (August, 2010) Fred Brooks states that he programmed a computer to produce hymns in the 1950's. Brooks is the author of the famous The Mythical Man-Month.
Thanks to Dennis Cote for finding this item and sharing it with us.
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