The Computer and Music

Book excerpt: The first of its kind, this is book consists of twenty-one essays describing the many different uses of the digital computer in the field of music. Musicologists will find that various historical periods-from medieval to contemporary-are represented, and examples of computer analysis of ethnic music are considered. Edmund A. Bowles contributes an entertaining historical survey of music research and the computer. Lejaren Hill here discusses computer composition, both in this country and in Europe, and gives a bibliography of composers and their works. A. James Gabura's essay describes experiments in analyzing and identifying the keyboard styles of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. There is also a section of particular interest to music librarians.