bradr@bartok.Eng.Sun.COM (Brad Rubenstein) (05/31/90)
Music-Research Digest Sun, 27 May 90 Volume 5 : Issue 48
Today's Topics:
Administrivia: Organisation of next six issues
Congratulations!
Keynote 4.1 now available
looking for a UK address
Music manufactured by the yard, like cloth
MusiCopy project
MuTeX
Request for recommendations
Resource
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Date: Sun, 27 May 90 11:56:55 BST
From: The Moderator (Stephen Page) <sdpage@uk.ac.oxford.prg>
Subject: Administrivia: Organisation of next six issues
To: music-research
Message-ID: <9005271056.AA14421@msc0.prg.ox.ac.uk>
There has been a mail deluge. I have therefore organised the next few
issues as follows, so people can throw away batches of material in which
they are not interested:
Vol 5 no 48: The usual miscellany
5 49: Conference announcements, and a proposal for MIDI file format
5 50: "Fruitful research areas", and Digest scope/policy
5 51 to 53: The debate on music semantics, symbolism, AI, etc.
In order to get all this out I have had to break my usual rule of keeping
Digest files to under 10-20k. This will mean that I get a few mail system
failures, so if you are missing a copy please order it from the archive.
VAX/VMS users please note: We would greatly asappreciate it if you could
check your filestore quota from time to time. VMS puts incoming mail in your
personal filestore, and we often get messages bounced because there is
insufficient space allocated. If you find you are missing issues, this is
probably the reason for it.
UK users please note: the Archive has now changed machines. The addrss is
the same, i.e. archive-server@uk.ac.oxford.prg. Please report any weird
behaviour. The UK archive is also now accessible by NIFTP over JANET:
details are given in the file "index music" available from the server.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 May 90 10:45:43
From: ray%hku@nl.nluug
Subject: Congratulations!
To: music-research%hp4nl@prg
Message-ID: <9005152245.AA25471@hku>
Congratulations, Sterling!!!!
It's about time someone was heard from the otherside of the fence.
I was pretty sick of the Lasky-bashing that was going on. It's about
time some of us started speaking up.
Lasky's contributions of the past 15 years are outstanding. If you publish
as much as he does you are bound to be the target of some disagreements.
However, His work is clearly valuable. This is coming from someone in
the Visual Arts, not Music. His original work on musical grammars is
a CLEAR contribution to your field.
Now, I am going to take on the bunch of you, because some of your
arguments seem to be so petty.
You seem to have forgotten the fundamental motives of your field
(making, composing, and apreciating music). Instead, you gotten
dazzled by hardware & software gizmos. Your concerns seem to be
closer to those of psychologists rather than musicians, or even
computer scientists.
In a previous letter, I suggested that what you guys need was a good
dose of Barthes, Ecco and Derrida. I think that's still true.
How about some contemporay musicology, here!!! Lasky has certainly
made a contribution to the field and most of you seem to have missed it.
- Ray Lauzzana, artist, critic, scientists.
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 90 00:21:48 GMT
From: "timothy.j.thompson" <tjt%cbnewsh%att@edu.berkeley.ucbvax>
Subject: Keynote 4.1 now available
To: music-research@prg
Message-ID: <1990May13.002148.22584@cbnewsh.att.com>
Keynote version 4.1 is now available in the AT&T UNIX Toolchest. Keynote is
the extensible graphical (piano-roll) editor and awk-like music language
that I presented at the Winter 1990 USENIX Conference in Washington, D.C..
The abstract from that paper:
Keynote is a programming language for manipulating and generating music
with MIDI-compatible equipment. It was designed for and in the style of
the UNIX software system, as an application-specific ``little language''
and interactive shell. Most obviously used for algorithmic music
composition, Keynote also serves as a more general utility for
non-realtime and realtime MIDI data manipulation. By adding only a few
functions to the language, a graphic interface was recently added. This
built-in graphic interface did not, however, build-in any particular
user interface. All the nested pop-up menus and operations of a
graphical music editor have been implemented in the Keynote language
itself. The result is an extensible tool, similar in spirit to the
extensibility of emacs, easily modified and enhanced by end users.
If you would like a hardcopy documentation package, which includes a reprint
of the USENIX paper as well as a complete language reference manual, please
send your postal address to tjt@twitch.att.com or Tim Thompson, AT&T Bell Labs,
Room 3C-231, Crawfords Corner Road, Holmdel, New Jersey, 07733.
The AT&T UNIX Toolchest contains only the source code for Keynote, although
binaries for the Macintosh and Amiga are available on special request.
Initial registration for the Toolchest is $100, and Keynote is $100. For more
information on the Toolchest, dial 1-201-829-7256 at 1200/2400 bps and
log in as "guest", or mail to tcadmin@pluto.att.com, or call 1-201-829-8843.
Jon Backstrom is organizing a user group and is sub-licensing Keynote for
binary redistribution. His announcement is included below. Thanks Jon!
Thanks also to Steve Falco and Alan Bland who did the Mac and Amiga ports.
...Tim Thompson...AT&T Bell Labs/Holmdel/NJ...tjt@twitch.att.com...
=========================================================================
A Keynote User's Group is being organized to provide a way for users
to share new functions and example applications through a quarterly
newsletter and a BBS archive. Keynote has also been sub-licensed,
allowing the distribution of binaries directly to end users. This
will be a much more convenient way of getting Keynote for many people,
especially personal computer owners (Amiga, Macintosh, Atari ST, and
IBM PC's). For more information, please contact:
Jon W. Backstrom
Applied Digital Arts
P.O. Box 176
Bloomington, IN 47402-0176
(812) 336-3660 (after June 1, 1990)
E-mail: Internet: media@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
UUCP: {ames,rutgers,att}!iuvax!silver!media
Membership in the Keynote User's Group is $20 annually, which includes
a subscription to the quarterly newsletter and access to a growing
library of Keynote functions and musical sequences.
Sub-licensed Keynote binaries are being distributed for $49, including
a one year membership in the Keynote User's Group. (Source code is
only available directly from the AT&T UNIX Toolchest.)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 May 1990 9:36:33 CDT
From: Alexander Rubli <RUBLI@UK.AC.middlesex.udlap.pue.udlapvms>
Subject: looking for a UK address
To: Music-Research@prg
Message-ID: <900515093633.126@UDLAPVMS.PUE.UDLAP.MX>
From: ACADE::RUBLI "Alexander Rubli" 15-MAY-1990 09:07:40.83
To: SMTP%"Music-Research@uk.ac.oxford.prg"
CC: RUBLI
Subj: looking for a UK address
Hi ! I established contact with a company called OPAL in london. I see
on their post a E-mail address that is opal-uk. I asked them how
can I reach them this way, but the usual mail is very slow and I
haven't received any response.
Does anybody know how can I reach them with E-mail ?
Alexander rubli
University of the americas, mexico
BITNET: RUBLI@UDLAPVMS
INTERNET: We are arranging our new address, but you can reply me to
UDLA01@MTECV1.MTY.ITESM.MX
thanx
------------------------------
Date: 12 May 90 04:12:13 GMT
From: Mark Gresham <mgresham%artsnet%daysinns%chara%eedsp%mephisto%emory%samsung%usc@edu.ucsd>
Subject: Music manufactured by the yard, like cloth
To: music-research@prg
Message-ID: <824@artsnet.UUCP>
In article <24558@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> maverick@fir.berkeley.edu (Vance Maverick) writes:
> I won't claim that the sax hasn't been used to make noise by the yard;
>but its construction at least entails some real-time physical
>involvement with the sound. My problem with the proposal for automatic
>four-part harmonizations of random bass lines was its lack of personal
>involvement. I have no problem with algorithmic composition; it bothers
>me, though, when people act as if music were purely a combinatorics of notes.
A few years ago, in a letter, John Cage told me he was no longer
interested in computer music except for interactive works where
live performers are involved, having an impact on what the
sonic outcome would be.
(Considering his extensive earlier experimentation with
electronics and computers, it's an opinion worth hearing. But
then, since the notion of computer-generated synthesis is so much
in vogue these days, it's not surprising that Cage would lose
interest!)
Cheers,
--Mark
========================================
Mark Gresham ARTSNET Norcross, GA, USA
E-mail: ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham
or: artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu
========================================
------------------------------
Date: 24 May 90 08:39:27 GMT
From: Timo Knuutila <news%utu.fi%tut%sunic%luth%eru@edu.mit.bloom-beacon>
Subject: MusiCopy project
To: music-research@prg
Message-ID: <1990May24.083927.23270@utu.fi>
Howdy netters! Does someone know something about a music-printing project
called 'MusiCopy'? I read recently an (old) article in Communications of ACM
titled 'A Language for Music Printing' (May -86). The story was written by
John S. Gourlay from Ohio State University and it described the outlines of
a music-printing project including a syntax for a music-description language.
The immediate plan of the project was to (i) prototype the system around TeX
(something like MuTeX???) and (ii) make it public domain.
Please answer directly to:
knuutila@cs.utu.fi
P.S. Comments about the MuTeX-system are welcome, too (I've had much problems
with triplets).).
[ A reference to one of the papers published at Ohio State University
on the MusiCopy project appears in Volume 2, issue 9 of the Digest.
Sadly, the project was disbanded (I think) a year or so ago, when the
project researchers moved on to other places/things. However, several
valuable papers were produced and can be obtained from OSU. - S ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 May 90 10:41:02 BST
From: Steve Townsend <spt@uk.ac.aberdeen.computing-science>
Subject: MuTeX
To: Music-Research@prg
Message-ID: <9005170941.AA06482@eagle>
Re: >The MuTeX package, copyright by Andrea Steinbach and Angelika Schofer,
>is a set of macros allowing TeX to typeset beautiful music. It is the
>outcome of a Master's thesis at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms
>University. MuTeX can be obtained by anonymous ftp. Contact cs.ubc.ca.
I have been trying to get the MuTeX package by ftp, but have encountered
insurmountable network problems - a remote gateway that I can't penetrate.
Has anyone successfully brought this over to UK yet, who would be willing
to channel it to others?
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 90 23:49:54 GMT
From: Vance Maverick <maverick%fir.berkeley.edu%pasteur%helios.ee.lbl.gov@edu.ucsd>
Subject: Request for recommendations
To: music-research@prg
Message-ID: <25086@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
I'm working on a set of programming languages for computer
composition. I'd like the scoring language to handle some of the basic
"music-theory" facts of the composer's musical language, in the case where
these are known and fixed. For example, a tonally-minded composer might
like the language to know the standard set of note names; the set of
intervals, and rules for adding notes and intervals (G + minor third = Bb,
G + augmented second = A#); also rules for assigning pitches to notes
(depending on the period and medium, A = 440 Hz; A = any of (F * 5/4), (D *
3/2), etc., at the composer's choice; other compromises and defaults ad
infinitum). Obviously, I don't want to enforce a single set of these
facts, and I do want to support systems arbitrarily far from Western
convention, so I need a way for the composer to express these things
symbolically. Do any existing computer music systems provide this kind
of flexibility?
I'm sure lots of work in this line has been done, but I don't know
where to begin. Please e-mail me whatever recommendations come to mind.
Thanks,
Vance
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 90 18:01:35 GMT
From: Roger Lustig <roger%phoenix@edu.princeton>
Subject: Resource
To: music-research@prg
Message-ID: <16380@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
The following has appeared at our library:
Computing in Musicology: A Directory of Research
ed. Walter B. Hewlett and Eleanor Selfridge-Field
Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities
525 Middlefield Road, Suite 120
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(415) 322-7050
XB.L36@stanford.bitnet
The book discusses available databases and other resources. Many
readers of this group will be interested in the music-printing section,
which provides comparative examples of at least 10 types of software.
I have met Dr. Selfridge-Field; we spent more time on baroque opera
(which we both specialize in) than on this stuff; but I'm told that she
has a good grasp of available resources.
Roger
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End of Music-Research Digest
--
---Brad Rubenstein-----Sun Microsystems Inc.-----bradr@sun.com---