Max Mathews
Encyclopedia
Max Vernon Mathews was a pioneer in the world of computer music
.
Matthews studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, receiving a Sc.D. in 1954. Working at Bell Labs
, Mathews wrote MUSIC
, the first widely used program for sound generation, in 1957. For the rest of the century, he continued as a leader in digital audio research, synthesis, and human-computer interaction as it pertains to music performance
. In 1968, Mathews and L. Rosler developed Graphic 1, an interactive graphical sound
system on which draw figures using light-pen and converted into sound, to simplify the process of composing computer generated music
. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE
(Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system, a first fully developed music synthesis
system for interactive composition and realtime performance, using 3C/Honeywell
DDP-24
(or DDP-224) minicomputers. It equipped CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12bit D/A for realtime sound playback, interface for analog devices (may be CV/Gate
interface for modular synthesizer
s), and even several controllers including musical keyboard, knobs and rotating joystick
s, to capture realtime performance. in
Although MUSIC was not the first attempt to generate sound with a computer (an Australian CSIRAC
computer played tunes as early as 1951), Mathews fathered generations of digital music tools. He described his work in parental terms, in the following excerpt from "Horizons in Computer Music", March 8–9, 1997, Indiana University
:
“Computer performance of music was born in 1957 when an IBM 704
in NYC played a 17 second composition on the Music I program which I wrote. The timbres and notes were not inspiring, but the technical breakthrough is still reverberating. Music I led me to Music II through V. A host of others wrote Music 10, Music 360, Music 15, Csound
and Cmix
. Many exciting pieces are now performed digitally. The IBM 704 and its siblings were strictly studio machines – they were far too slow to synthesize music in real-time. Chowning's
FM algorithms
and the advent of fast, inexpensive, digital chips made real-time possible, and equally important, made it affordable.”
“Starting with the GROOVE program in 1970, my interests have focused on live performance and what a computer can do to aid a performer. I made a controller, the Radio-Baton, plus a program, the Conductor program, to provide new ways for interpreting and performing traditional scores. In addition to contemporary composers, these proved attractive to soloists as a way of playing orchestral accompaniments. Singers often prefer to play their own accompaniments. Recently I have added improvisational options which make it easy to write compositional algorithm
s. These can involve precomposed sequences, random functions, and live performance gestures. The algorithms are written in the C language. We have taught a course in this area to Stanford undergraduates for two years. To our happy surprise, the students liked learning and using C. Primarily I believe it gives them a feeling of complete power to command the computer to do anything it is capable of doing.”
In 1961, Mathews arranged the accompaniment of the song "Daisy Bell
" for an uncanny performance by computer-synthesized human voice, using technology developed by John Kelly
of Bell Laboratories and others. Author Arthur C. Clarke
was coincidentally visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill
facility at the time of this remarkable speech synthesis
demonstration and was so impressed that he later told Stanley Kubrick
to use it in 2001: A Space Odyssey
, in the climactic scene where the HAL 9000
computer sings while his cognitive functions are disabled.
Mathews directed the Acoustical and Behavioral Research Center at Bell Laboratories from 1962 to 1985, which carried out research in speech communication, visual communication, human memory and learning, programmed instruction, analysis of subjective opinions, physical acoustics, and industrial robotics. From 1974 to 1980 he was the Scientific Advisor to the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM
), Paris, France, and since 1987 has been Professor of Music (Research) at Stanford University
. He served as the Master of Ceremonies for the concert program of NIME-01, the inaugural conference on New interfaces for musical expression
.
Mathews was a member of the National Academy of Sciences
, the National Academy of Engineering
and a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, the Acoustical Society of America
, the IEEE, and the Audio Engineering Society
. He held a Silver Medal in Musical Acoustics from the Acoustical Society of America
, and the Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres
, Republique Francaise.
The Max portion of the software package Max/MSP
is named after him (the MSP portion is named for Miller Puckette
, currently teaching at UC San Diego
).
Mathews died on the morning of 21 April 2011 in San Francisco, California of complications from pneumonia. He was 84. He was survived by his wife, Marjorie, his three sons, and six grandchildren.
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
.
Biography
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, receiving a Sc.D. in 1954. Working at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
, Mathews wrote MUSIC
MUSIC-N
MUSIC-N refers to a family of computer music programs and programming languages descended from or influenced by MUSIC, a program written by Max Mathews in 1957 at Bell Labs. MUSIC was the first computer program for generating digital audio waveforms through direct synthesis...
, the first widely used program for sound generation, in 1957. For the rest of the century, he continued as a leader in digital audio research, synthesis, and human-computer interaction as it pertains to music performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
. In 1968, Mathews and L. Rosler developed Graphic 1, an interactive graphical sound
Graphical sound
Graphical sound or drawn sound techniques are a consequence of the sound-on-film technology and based on the creation of artificial optical polyphonic sound tracks on transparent film. The first practical sound-on-film systems were created almost simultaneously in the USSR, USA and Germany...
system on which draw figures using light-pen and converted into sound, to simplify the process of composing computer generated music
Algorithmic composition
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.Algorithms have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy...
. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE
Groove
Groove or Grooves may refer to:In archaeology:* Grooves In computing:* Microsoft GrooveIn engineering and craft:* Groove , a slot cut parallel to the grain...
(Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system, a first fully developed music synthesis
Algorithmic composition
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.Algorithms have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy...
system for interactive composition and realtime performance, using 3C/Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
DDP-24
DDP-24
The DDP-24 was a 24-bit computer designed and built by the Computer Control Company, aka 3C or CCC located in Framingham, Massachusetts. CCC consequently became part of Honeywell in 1967. The DDP-24 was completely transistorized and has a sign magnitude code to represent positive or negative...
(or DDP-224) minicomputers. It equipped CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12bit D/A for realtime sound playback, interface for analog devices (may be CV/Gate
CV/Gate
CV/Gate is an analog method of controlling synthesizers, drum machines and other similar equipment with external sequencers. The Control Voltage typically controls pitch and the Gate signal controls note on/off....
interface for modular synthesizer
Modular synthesizer
The modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate specialized modules connected by wires to create a so-called patch. Every output generates a signal – an electric voltage of variable strength...
s), and even several controllers including musical keyboard, knobs and rotating joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
s, to capture realtime performance. in
Although MUSIC was not the first attempt to generate sound with a computer (an Australian CSIRAC
CSIRAC
CSIRAC , originally known as CSIR Mk 1, was Australia's first digital computer, and the fourth stored program computer in the world. It was first to play digital music and is one of only a few surviving first-generation computers .The CSIRAC was constructed by a team led by Trevor Pearcey and...
computer played tunes as early as 1951), Mathews fathered generations of digital music tools. He described his work in parental terms, in the following excerpt from "Horizons in Computer Music", March 8–9, 1997, Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
:
“Computer performance of music was born in 1957 when an IBM 704
IBM 704
The IBM 704, the first mass-produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware, was introduced by IBM in 1954. The 704 was significantly improved over the IBM 701 in terms of architecture as well as implementations which were not compatible with its predecessor.Changes from the 701 included...
in NYC played a 17 second composition on the Music I program which I wrote. The timbres and notes were not inspiring, but the technical breakthrough is still reverberating. Music I led me to Music II through V. A host of others wrote Music 10, Music 360, Music 15, Csound
Csound
Csound is a computer programming language for dealing with sound, also known as a sound compiler or an audio programming language, or more precisely, a C-based audio DSL. It is called Csound because it is written in C, as opposed to some of its predecessors...
and Cmix
Real-time Cmix
Real-Time Cmix is one of the MUSIC-N family of computer music programming languages. RTcmix is descended from the MIX program developed by Paul Lansky at Princeton University in 1978 to perform algorithmic composition using digital audio soundfiles on a VMS mainframe computer. After synthesis...
. Many exciting pieces are now performed digitally. The IBM 704 and its siblings were strictly studio machines – they were far too slow to synthesize music in real-time. Chowning's
John Chowning
John M. Chowning is an American composer, musician, inventor, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University and his invention of FM synthesis while there.-Contribution:...
FM algorithms
Frequency modulation synthesis
A 220 Hz carrier tone modulated by a 440 Hz modulating tone with various choices of modulation index, β. The time domain signals are illustrated above, and the corresponding spectra are shown below ....
and the advent of fast, inexpensive, digital chips made real-time possible, and equally important, made it affordable.”
“Starting with the GROOVE program in 1970, my interests have focused on live performance and what a computer can do to aid a performer. I made a controller, the Radio-Baton, plus a program, the Conductor program, to provide new ways for interpreting and performing traditional scores. In addition to contemporary composers, these proved attractive to soloists as a way of playing orchestral accompaniments. Singers often prefer to play their own accompaniments. Recently I have added improvisational options which make it easy to write compositional algorithm
Algorithmic composition
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.Algorithms have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy...
s. These can involve precomposed sequences, random functions, and live performance gestures. The algorithms are written in the C language. We have taught a course in this area to Stanford undergraduates for two years. To our happy surprise, the students liked learning and using C. Primarily I believe it gives them a feeling of complete power to command the computer to do anything it is capable of doing.”
In 1961, Mathews arranged the accompaniment of the song "Daisy Bell
Daisy Bell
"Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
" for an uncanny performance by computer-synthesized human voice, using technology developed by John Kelly
John Larry Kelly, Jr
John Larry Kelly, Jr. , was a scientist who worked at Bell Labs. He is best known for formulating the Kelly criterion, an algorithm for maximally investing money....
of Bell Laboratories and others. Author Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
was coincidentally visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill
Murray Hill, New Jersey
Murray Hill is an unincorporated area within portions of both Berkeley Heights and New Providence, located in Union County in northern New Jersey, United States....
facility at the time of this remarkable speech synthesis
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
demonstration and was so impressed that he later told Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
to use it in 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
, in the climactic scene where the HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
computer sings while his cognitive functions are disabled.
Mathews directed the Acoustical and Behavioral Research Center at Bell Laboratories from 1962 to 1985, which carried out research in speech communication, visual communication, human memory and learning, programmed instruction, analysis of subjective opinions, physical acoustics, and industrial robotics. From 1974 to 1980 he was the Scientific Advisor to the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
), Paris, France, and since 1987 has been Professor of Music (Research) at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. He served as the Master of Ceremonies for the concert program of NIME-01, the inaugural conference on New interfaces for musical expression
New Interfaces for Musical Expression
New Interfaces for Musical Expression, also known as NIME, is an international conference dedicated to scientific research on the development of new technologies for musical expression and artistic performance...
.
Mathews was a member of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, the National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
and a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, the Acoustical Society of America
Acoustical Society of America
The Acoustical Society of America is an international scientific society dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications.-History:...
, the IEEE, and the Audio Engineering Society
Audio Engineering Society
Established in 1948, the Audio Engineering Society draws its membership from amongst engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products for audio, and persons working...
. He held a Silver Medal in Musical Acoustics from the Acoustical Society of America
Acoustical Society of America
The Acoustical Society of America is an international scientific society dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications.-History:...
, and the Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
, Republique Francaise.
The Max portion of the software package Max/MSP
Max (software)
Max is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. During its 20-year history, it has been widely used by composers, performers, software designers, researchers, and artists for creating innovative recordings,...
is named after him (the MSP portion is named for Miller Puckette
Miller Puckette
Miller Smith Puckette is the associate director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts as well as a professor of music at the University of California, San Diego, where he has been since 1994....
, currently teaching at UC San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
).
Mathews died on the morning of 21 April 2011 in San Francisco, California of complications from pneumonia. He was 84. He was survived by his wife, Marjorie, his three sons, and six grandchildren.
See also
- Music4Music4MUSIC4 was a computer music synthesis software package written by Max Mathews. The program was an expansion of earlier packages written by Mathews to produce music by direct digital computation, which could be heard by converting samples to audible sound using a digital-to-analog converter...
- Qwartz Electronic Music AwardsQwartz Electronic Music AwardsQwartz Electronic Music Awards is a promotional and supportive program dedicated to new and electronic music. It recognizes and awards grants to independent labels and artists. It brings together the different waves of new and electronic music, from the most demanding to the most festive, from ...
- Algorithmic compositionAlgorithmic compositionAlgorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.Algorithms have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy...
- Graphical soundGraphical soundGraphical sound or drawn sound techniques are a consequence of the sound-on-film technology and based on the creation of artificial optical polyphonic sound tracks on transparent film. The first practical sound-on-film systems were created almost simultaneously in the USSR, USA and Germany...