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GENERATIVE MUSIC 1WITH SSEYO KOAN © SOFTWARESome very basic forms of generative music have existed for a long time, but as marginal curiosities. Wind chimes are an example, but the only compositional control you have over the music they produce is in the original choice of notes that the chimes will sound. Recently, however, out of the union of synthesizers and computers, some much finer tools have evolved. Koan© Software is probably the best of these systems, allowing a composer to control not one but one hundred and fifty musical and sonic parameters within which the computer then improvises (as wind improvises the wind chimes). The works I have made with this system symbolize to me the beginning of a new era in music. Until 100 years ago, every musical event was unique: music was ephemeral and unrepeatable and even classical scoring couldn't guarantee precise duplication. Then came the gramaphone record, which captured particular performances and made it possible to hear them identically over and over again. But now there are three alternatives: live music, recorded music and generative music. Generative music enjoys some of the benefits of both its ancestors. Like live music, it is always different. Like recorded music, it is free of time-and-place limitations - you can hear it when you want and where you want. I really think it is possible that our grandchildren will look at us in wonder and say: "you mean you used to listen to exactly the same thing over and over again?" Brian Eno 1996 Taken from his book A Year With Swollen Appendices (publ. Faber & Faber) Imagine! Book List Send this page to a friend Return to Imagine!: Brian Eno!
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