Z362/K362/N562 — Computer Music: Design/Perform
Computer Music: Design/Perform is open to those who have taken Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music,
or have equivalent experience, and have received the permission of the
instructor.
This course is a sequel to Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music, in which students employ MIDI sequencing, audio editing, and synthesizer programming to create short pieces of music. Building on these skills, we now branch out to explore other creative territory. We take everyday sounds — collected by us using portable recorders — and make explicit the musical qualities they possess. We tackle the problem of providing music and sound effects for film. We construct our own virtual electronic instruments, learn to play them, and improvise together. While doing these things, we deepen our understanding of the theoretical concepts underlying this technology, become more expert in the operation of Digital Performer and Reason, and learn new software, chiefly Max/MSP.
The overriding goal of the course is for you to become more sensitive to qualities of sound and to the meanings that sound can have in various creative musical contexts: fixed-media, sound-only electronic music; music to accompany narrative or abstract visual sequences; and electronic music invented in real time in cooperation with others. By the end of the course, you should be able to compose music intelligently in any of these contexts, and you should be able to work efficiently with the software tools we use.
The course is offered only in the spring semester. It is 3 credit hours. Classes meet MWF 11:15-12:05 in room M373 in the Music Library. The room holds enough equipment for each student to have hands-on experience during class.