Elements of Computer Music by F. Richard Moore (review)

ELEMENTS OF COMPUTER MUSIC by F. Richard Moore. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, U.S.A., 1990. 560 pp. Paper, $34.00. ISBN: 0-13-252552-6. Reviewed by Vance Maum’ck, Computer Science Division, 5 71Euans Hall, University of California, Berkelqr, CA 94720, U.S.A.E-mail: mavm’ck@cs. berkelq.edu Richard Moore aims high with this book. His title is broad, and the first chapter, a survey of the field, makes it clear that he really means to introduce every important area in it. Like many other academics, though, who after a long career of research in a field then set out to encompass it in a book, Moore is best on the topics closest to his experience. This is a valuable book but narrower than its author may have hoped. The second chapter is an introduction to the theory of digital signal processing (DSP). Moore has published similar material before, and he expounds the rudiments of the subject nicely. I am not sure, however, that this chapter alone will be a sufficient introduction to DSP for an unfamiliar musician. Furthermore, in this first edition, the chapter’susefulness is weakened by typos, primarily a long series of mismatched equation numbers . (An errata sheet is available from the University of California at SanDiego [I]). The theory of DSP may be essential to an understanding of how synthesis techniques work, but musicians have been applying these techniques empirically for decades. So even a ELECTRIC RAGS 1 1 by Alvin Curran/Rova Saxophone Quartet. New Albion Records, 1990. Reviewed by N i c k Didkovsky, 171 East 99th St., Apt. 20, New York, NY 10029, U.S.A. Electric Rags II is a challenging suite of 30 miniature pieces for computer and saxophone quartet. A flexible computer-music system,designed by Alvin Curran and Nicola Bernardini, tracks the quartet in real time, subtly or grossly altering their sound, echoing the group’s improvisations, anticipating their material or directly conducting the ensemble. The use of reader who is unwilling to work through the second chapter will benefit greatly from the third, which is an excellent compilation of algorithms. Here Moore provides working code in the C computer language and useful explanations for wavetable synthesis , the Fourier transform, the phase vocoder, frequency modulation, waveshaping, the Karplus-Strong ‘plucked string’ algorithm, linear prediction analysisand more. I would have liked to see some material on recent developments in synthesis from physical models, but the narrowness of this complaint is a fair measure of the breadth of this collection. The fourth chapter, involving rooms and reverberation, is more theoretical and is largely devoted to the exposition of the cmusic model of sound spatialization. Some code is given, but not enough for most readers to progress far without the cmusic program. Interested composers will need the program itself or a lot of time to spend writing code and experimenting with parameters. The weakest chapter (and by Moore’s own admission the least complete) is the fifth, called “Composition ”. It begins with a long quotation from Susanne Langer, expounding the familiar Romantic notion of music as expressing “the composer’s knowledge of human feeling”. Moore carries on the mood for a moment with a paragraph of meditation; from this point to the end of the chapter, everything is Markov chains and random sieves. This material fails at two levels:none of the algorithms is of sufficient complexity to intrigue a computer scientist, and none of the II.RecordingReviews indeterminate procedures ensures that each performance constitutes a new version of the work. The 30 sections of Electric Rags II are designed to be played in a random order. Unfortunately , they are grouped together in only 10 tracks on this compact disc (CD),denying the listener the full capability of sequencing the new versions. The Rova Saxophone Quartet’s extraordinary tight-and-loose performance yanks the listener from extremes of noise improvisation to meticulously composed and notated material, often within very short passages of time. The ensemble consistently sounds as though its members are in charge of results is of sufficient interest to attract a musician. Like some of the other founders of the computer-music field, Moore...