John Pierce (1910–2002)
John Robinson Pierce, a celebrated
electrical engineer who oversaw and
promoted seminal research in com-
puter music, passed away in Sunny-
vale, California on 2 April 2002, at
age 92. He died of complications
from pneumonia, having been in de-
clining health for a number of years.
Historians will undoubtedly consider
his most significant impact on com-
puter music to be his encouragement
of Max Mathews’s pioneering but
unofficial work on digital music
synthesis at Bell Telephone Labora-
tories, where Mr. Pierce was an exec-
utive director. Tuttavia, Mr. Pierce
himself made numerous contribu-
tions to the field, including authoring
a popular book on musical acoustics
(with a slant toward computer music)
and conducting or co-authoring vari-
ous experiments in musical acoustics
and psychoacoustics.
John Pierce is best known for his
extramusical accomplishments. Lui
coined the term ‘‘transistor’’ for the
device invented by his colleagues at
Bell Labs, and he laid the basis for
the first telecommunications satel-
lites. His publications and leadership
resulted in Echo I, a 100-foot balloon
satellite launched by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administra-
zione (NASA) In 1960. Its success led
to the launching in 1962 of the first
commercial telecommunications sat-
ellite, Telstar I, built by a team John
Pierce directed at Bell Labs. He also
improved traveling-wave tubes (Vedere
Figura 1), invented the Pierce elec-
tron gun (a vacuum tube used in sat-
ellites and linear accelerators), E
co-developed the low-voltage reflex
klystron oscillator, which is used in
radar receivers.
An avid writer, he published
numerous technical books, in addi-
tion to science-fiction stories mostly
written under the pseudonym
J. J. Coupling. He authored or co-
authored at least 20 books and over
300 papers; and more than 90 patents
were issued in his name. His most
important books related to music are
his text The Science of Musical
Sound (Scientific American Books,
1983; reissued in paperback by W. H.
Freeman and Co., 1992) and the an-
thology Current Directions in Com-
puter Music Research (co-edited with
Max Mathews, CON Premere, 1991).
Born 27 Marzo 1910 in Iowa, John
Pierce grew up in California and re-
ceived his PhD in electrical engineer-
ing from California Institute of
Tecnologia (CalTech) In 1936, after
which he worked at Bell Labs until
1971. He was then a professor of en-
gineering at CalTech and worked at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Nel
1980S, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Mathews
were invited to join the faculty at
Stanford University’s Center for
Computer Research in Music and
Acoustics (CCRMA), directed by
John Chowning. Mr. Pierce was
given the unusual title of Visiting
Professor of Music, Emeritus.
Besides promoting Max Mathews’s
research at Bell Labs, John Pierce in-
fluenced many others in the field.
The distinguished engineer Carver
Mead took up computer music re-
search for a period after Mr. Pierce
introduced him to the area. And it
was John Pierce who, on learning
about Mr. Chowning’s FM sound-
synthesis algorithm, succinctly is-
sued two words of advice to him that
ultimately affected the music indus-
try: ‘‘Patent it!’’ Mr. Pierce also
helped Stanford University win a
large grant from the Systems Devel-
opment Foundation to support the
work at CCRMA.
Although John Pierce was by no
means a composer (having what he
referred to as ‘‘an unreciprocated
love of music’’), he experimented
with creating some pieces of music
to illustrate theoretical principles. In
1949, inspired by Claude Shannon’s
work on information theory, Mr.
Pierce and his assistant at Bell Labs,
Elizabeth Moorer, composed three
short hymn-like pieces using spe-
cially made dice and a random-
number table. Later, he generated
some musical examples using sound
synthesis at Bell Labs: Stochata
(1959), Variations in Timbre and At-
tack (1961), Sea Sounds (1963), E
Eight-Tone Canon (1966). These syn-
thesized pieces were published on
the compact disc Computer Music
Currents 13 (Wergo WE152–3, avail-
able from www.cdemusic.org).
(Decca issued two earlier recordings
on vinyl: ‘‘Music from Mathematics’’
and ‘‘The Voice of the Computer,’’
which included Mr. Pierce’s work.)
In his later years, he was particu-
larly interested in what he eventu-
ally termed ‘‘the Bohlen-Pierce
scale’’ (after learning of its earlier de-
scription by Heinz Bohlen): a divi-
sion of the frequency ratio 3:1 into
13 equal parts, modeled after tradi-
tional equal temperament’s division
del 2:1 octave into 12 equal parts.
The system includes a subset, analo-
gous to the traditional diatonic scale,
and a ‘‘triad’’ that approximates
within 7 cents the frequency ratios
3:5:7 (whereas the traditional major
triad approximates 4:5:6). Mr. Pierce
was intrigued by the notion that mu-
sic built on such scales could exhibit
consonance and dissonance analo-
gous to those of traditional music,
and that the 3:1 ratio could even be
perceived as an identity relationship
in place of the traditional octave.
Owing substantially to his and Max
Mathews’s influence, computer mu-
sic composers such as Jon Appleton,
Richard Boulanger, Curtis Roads,
Georg Hajdu, and Juan Reyes have
employed the Bohlen-Pierce scale.
Mr. Pierce himself wrote one or two
short studies in the scale.
6
Computer Music Journal
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
Figura 1. John Pierce dis-
playing a traveling-wave
tube.
autobiography My Career as an Engi-
neer, written in connection with his
being awarded the Japan Prize; E
in the lengthy 1992 interview by
Andrew Goldstein, available at
www.ieee.org/organizations/history
_center/oral_histories/transcripts/
pierce.html. This obituary’s mention
del 1949 stochastic compositions
derives from information in Marcia
Bauman’s dissertation from the East-
man School of Music on the music
research at Bell Labs, a document
based partly on her unpublished in-
terview with Mr. Pierce.]
John Pierce’s interest in pitch also
led him to learn that the psycho-
acoustician Harvey Fletcher had
apparently understood the phenome-
non of the ‘‘missing fundamental’’
slightly earlier than J. F. Schouten, A
whom its discovery has often been
attributed. Mr. Pierce’s musical re-
search interests were not limited to
pitch, Tuttavia; Per esempio, he co-
authored papers on physical model-
ing with Julius Smith and Scott Van
Duyne.
Mr. Pierce is survived by his wife
Brenda Woodard Pierce, his son John
J. Pierce, and his daughter Elizabeth
Anne Pierce. An afternoon of re-
membrance was held 3 May 2002 at
Stanford University, including a con-
cert of music by John Pierce, Richard
Boulanger, Edgard Vare` se, and Julius
Benedict.
[Editor’s note: This obituary was
written by Douglas Keislar, who re-
members with appreciation both
John Pierce’s intellectual enthusiasm
and his advice as a member of the
Editor’s PhD thesis committee. Ad-
ditional information about Mr.
Pierce can be found in Vol. 15, No. 4
of Computer Music Journal; in his
Bourges 2002
Prizewinners of the 29th Bourges in-
ternational electroacoustic music
and sonic art competition were an-
nounced during the Bourges Syn-
the` se festival in May 2002.
Residence prizes were awarded to
Ondrej Adamek (Czech Republic) for
Un souffle, une ombre, un rien; Fran-
cesco Biasiol (Italy) for Ne pas se
pencher au dehors; Thomas Cahill-
Jones (UK) for DeLeTE ‘e’ UNIT; Pe-
ter Gilbert (USA) for Rituals; Nikos
Stavropoulos (Greece) for Scene II;
and Ana Gabriela Yaya Aguilar (Ar-
gentina) for Patio.
In Trivium A, in the category of
electroacoustic music without in-
struments, prizes were awarded to
David Berezan (Canada) for Baoding
and to Jon Christopher Nelson (USA)
for Scotter. Mentions were made of
REcoil by Jens Hedman (Sweden) E
Lascivia Pristina II by Juan-Manuel
Marrero (Spain). In the category of
electroacoustic music with instru-
ments prizes were awarded to To
walk the night, for flute, percussion,
piano, violin, cello, and tape, by
Marco Marinoni (Italy) and to Labi-
rinto, for string quartet and tape, by
Joao Pedro Oliveira (Portugal). Men-
tions were made of Roderik de Man
(Netherlands) for Magnetic fields, for
orchestra and tape, and of Mario
Mary (Argentina) for Aarhus, for vio-
lin and tape. In the category of elec-
troacoustic sonic art, the prize was
awarded to Eric la Casa (France) for
Vibratility Mozaik and mention was
made of Frank Niehusmann (Ger-
many) for Untertagemusik nr.1.
In Trivium B, the mention for a
work for dance or theatre went to
Todor Todoroff (Belgium) for In Be-
tween. The prize for installation
work was awarded to Staccato Death
Life by Ralf Nuhn (Germany) con
mentions of Simone Simons and Pe-
ter Bosch (Netherlands) for Cantan
un Huero. The multimedia prize was
won by Marcelle Desche` nes (Canada)
with Die Dyer (video by Alain Pelle-
tier) with mentions being made of
Pascal Baltazar (France) for Soma and
Elsa Justel (Argentina) for Destellos.
The Magisterium prize was awarded
to Ricardo Mandolini (Italy/Argen-
tina) for his piece La noche en que
los peces flotaron.
The Bourges Synthe` se festival, In
its 32nd year, also celebrated the
30th anniversary of the collaborative
work ‘‘The Seasons’’ created by Jorge
Arriagada, Franc¸ oise Barrie` re, Chris-
tian Clozier, Lorenzo Ferrero, Beatriz
Ferreyra, Dieter Kaufmann, Peter
Kolman, Alain Savouret, Luis Maria
Serra, and Elzbieta Sikora in 1972.
All composers who wished to partici-
pate were invited to create a short
piece based on just one of the sea-
sons. Both the 1972 works and the
new 2002 pieces were performed dur-
ing the festival. Details of the festi-
val can be found on the Web at
www.imeb.asso.fr/english/
Sommaire/index2.html.
News
7
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
Prix Noroit 2002
Mu´ sica Viva 2002
The finals concert of the Prix Noroit
international composition competi-
tion took place on 27 April 2002 In
Arras, France, and Natasha Barrett
(England/Norway) won both the first
prize and the people’s prize. From
IL 73 entries submitted, 6 were se-
lected for the finals: Natasha Bar-
rett’s Angels and Devils; Response,
by Panayotis Kokoras (Greece/En-
gland); Funus, by Andrea Agostini
(Italy); Ante Litteram, by Giochino
Palma (Italy); Rous, by Loufopoulos
Apostolos (Greece/England); and HG
80, by Dimitri Coppe (Belgium). Al-
though they were not selected for
the final competition, Jon Aveyard’s
Depth Perception and Mario Lor-
enzo’s Erre received mentions.
Prix Ars Electronica 2002
The winners of the Prix Ars Elec-
tronica 2002 included artists from
the USA, Japan, France, Sweden, IL
United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,
India, and Austria. In the category of
Digital Musics, the Golden Nica was
awarded to Yasunao Tone for
Man’Yo Wounded. Awards of Dis-
tinction were made to Alejandra Sali-
nas and Aeron Bergman (Lucky
Kitchen) for Revisionland/The Tale
of Pip, and to Curtis Roads for Point,
Line, Cloud. The awards presenta-
tion is scheduled to take place dur-
ing the Ars Electronica Festival on 9
settembre 2002 E, during the fol-
lowing 3-day artists’ forum, the prize
winners (Golden Nica and Awards of
Distinction) are scheduled to present
their works in public. Information
about the Prix Ars Electronica is
available by visiting the competi-
tion’s Web site prixars.aec.at.
The results of the third Mu´ sica Viva
electroacoustic composition compe-
tition were announced during the
Mu´ sica Viva festival in Lisbon, Por-
tugal, in April 2002. The competi-
tion winners were Response by
Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece) E
Conversation by Ian Corbett (USA).
Mentions were made of Opposizione
Intermedia by Debora Mameli
(Italy), Deepfield by Mathew Adkins
(UK), and Percurso I by Olga Pereira
(Portugal). Formal encouragement
was offered to Georges Forget (Can-
ada) for Dieu est un ingrat and to
Jose´ Prendas (Portugal) for A apar-
ente ilusa˜ o by um som. The interna-
tional jury was Henri Pousseur
(Belgium), James Dashow (USA), E
Miguel Azguime (Portugal).
The eighth Mu´ sica Viva festival
extended over eight days at the end
of March 2002 and presented a wide-
ranging program of events focusing
on Portuguese composers and elec-
troacoustic composition presented
on a multi-speaker diffusion system.
The guest composers Henri Pous-
seur, James Dashow, and Claude Le-
doux each gave lectures and James
Dashow also led composition mas-
terclasses. Workshops on sound pro-
jection were given by Pedro Rebelo
and Miguel Azguime and there were
courses available on OpenMusic,
Nato 0.55, and Supercollider. Nine
concerts included performances by
the Remix Ensemble and L’autre-
Trio, solo concerts of music by Henri
Pousseur and James Dashow, concerts
for piano and live electronics (Ana
Telles) and cello and live electronics
(Arne Deforce), and concerts featuring
national studios and organizations
(EMS-Stockholm, Sweden, and the
Sonic Arts Network, UK). The full
program is available online (www
.misomusic.com/mv02proge.html) COME
part of the festival’s Web pages:
www.misomusic.com/mviva.html.
Concert Series in Paris
Features Several World
Premieres
The 2001–2002 cycle of concerts
held at the University of Paris 8 be-
tween November 2001 and May
2002 presented a wide variety of new
computer music for tape alone and
for instruments with electronics and
computer processing, including sev-
eral world premieres. The season
opened in November 2001 with mu-
sic by Mathew Adkins (UK), Mas-
simo Graziato (Italy), Antonio
Ferreira (Portugal), Pascal Gaigne
(France), Jose´ Manuel Lo´ pez Lo´ pez
(Spain), and Marı´a Eugenia Luc (Ar-
gentina). The January concert offered
pieces by Andrew Lewis (UK), Man-
uel Rocha-Iturbide (Mexico), Edson
S. Zampronha (Brasile), Numo Miguel
Fernades Leal (Portugal), Carlos
Graetzer (Argentina), and Mario Mar-
celo Mary (Argentina). In March,
music by Arturo Gervasoni (Italy/Ar-
gentina), Diego Garro (Italy), Joa˜ o Pe-
dro Oliveira (Portugal), Horacio
Vaggione (France/Argentina), and Ed
Bennett (Ireland) was presented. IL
series ended in May with a perfor-
mance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s
Helicopter-Quartet, followed by
pieces by Cort Lippe (USA), Elsa Jus-
tel (Argentina) Takayuki Rai (Japan)
Lars Graugaard (Denmark), and Mas-
simo Carlentini (Italy). After the fi-
nal concert of the Paris 8 series, UN
two-day colloquium was held, enti-
tled ‘‘Ways of Making Sound,’’
hosted by the University Paris 8 E
the International College of Philoso-
phy, and organized by Antonia Sou-
lez and Horacio Vaggione.
8
Computer Music Journal
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
Cinema for the Ear in Denmark,
Primavera 2002
SEAMUS Conference 2002
‘‘Intersections in Sound’’
During March and April 2002, spatial
sonic art was celebrated at the cin-
ema ‘‘East of Eden’’ in Aarhus, Den-
mark. Four evenings were devoted to
electroacoustic music new and old
from around the world. In the first
concert, Paul Lanksy presented mu-
sic by Katharine Norman (Anything
from the minibar? and You need a
cab?), Paul Koonce (Breath and the
Machine), Ted Coffey (Zap), Reuben
de Lautour (Planetarium), Tae Hong
Park (Aboji) and Colby Leider (Hy-
draulis), along with his own Pat-
tern’s Patterns. The second concert
was curated by Denis Smalley, who
played his Wind Chimes and pieces
by Apostolis Loufopoulos (Rous),
Robert Normandeau (Malina), Jens
Hedman / Paulina Sundı`n (Reflec-
zioni), and Aliocha Van der Avoort
(Anisotrope). The third concert was
curated by Jakob Goetz whose selec-
tion of music was taken from recent
CD releases. The final concert was
advertised as a classical concert and
presented a wide survey of early elec-
troacoustic music and musique con-
cre` te. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s
Gesang der Ju¨ nglinge (1956) was fol-
lowed by Iannis Xenakis’s Concret
PH (1958), Pierre Schaeffer’s Etude
pathe´ tique (1948), and Else Marie
Pade’s Glasperlespil II (1958). Dopo
the interval, John Cage’s 1939 Imagi-
nary Landscapes was followed by
music by Gyo¨ rgy Ligeti (Glissandi,
1957), and Edgar Vare` se’s 1957–58
Poe` me e´ lectronique was followed by
Come Out by Steve Reich, from
1966. The Cinema for the Ear con-
cert series is presented by the Danish
Institute of Electroacoustic Music
(DIEM) in Aarhus, Denmark. More
information can be found on the
DIEM Web pages at www.daimi
.aau.dk/(cid:1)diem/.
The national conference of the Soci-
ety for Electro-Acoustic Music in the
stati Uniti (SEAMUS), ‘‘Intersec-
tions in Sound,’’ was held 4–6 April
2002 at the University of Iowa in
Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Concerts and
research sessions explored intersec-
tions between aesthetic approaches,
compositional media, historical and
developing technologies, and electro-
acoustic composition and perfor-
mance. The conference chair was
Lawrence Fritts. Annually at the
conference, a SEAMUS Lifetime
Achievement Award is presented.
IL 2002 award was made to Don
Buchla, who discussed his recent re-
search and performed in a concert
featuring early and recent works on
original instruments and new con-
trollers. The guest composer was
Denis Smalley, who presented his
work Base Metals and participated in
a panel discussion comparing recent
aesthetics and approaches to electro-
acoustic composition of European
and American composers. Twelve
concerts of electroacoustic works for
tape, live electronics, video, instru-
menti, voice, and dance were pre-
sented alongside paper sessions,
curated presentations, and three dis-
cussion panels. A full list of pieces
and papers presented can be found on
the conference’s Web pages at
seamus2002.music.uiowa.edu/.
Festival ‘‘Rien a` voir’’
in Montreal
The eleventh Rien a` voir (Nothing to
Vedere) festival took place in Montreal,
Canada, 10–14 April 2002, and pre-
sented six concerts. The first event,
titled Rien pour rien (Nothing for
nothing), comprised six half-hour
‘‘mini-concerts’’ in the presence of
the festival’s guest composers. Ste-
phan Dunkelman presented Metar-
cana and Rituellipses; Bernard
Parmegiani presented Litaniques and
Le Pre´ sent compose´ ; Jonty Harrison
presented Streams and Splintering;
and Ingrid Drese presented Amaryllis
and Horloge a` feu. A soire´ e of experi-
mental electronics presented the per-
formers Camp, Komsomolsk, and the
duo Cal Crawford and Alexandre St-
Onge. The third concert was hosted
by Ingrid Drese and Stephan Dunkel-
man under the title Silences and
Colors/Rhizomes. Ingrid Drese pre-
sented her pieces Horloge a` feu, Am-
aryllis, Papillon, abıˆme, nuit, E
Tout autant with E´ tienne Leclercq.
Stephan Dunkelman presented Me-
tarcana, Rituellipses, Hanna’s Duet,
Dreamlike Shudder in an Airstream
Part 1: for a crumpled woman,
Aquae´ ra 1. Signallures, and Thru,
Above and Between.
Concert four was given by Jonty
Harrison under the title Up Close
and Personal, in which he presented
Concreta by Aquiles Pantalea˜ o, IL
Tincture of Physical Things by Alis-
tair MacDonald, MachineWerks by
Michael Thompson, and four pieces
of his own: Surface Tension, Sorties,
Streams, and Splintering. Concert
five was devoted to works by young
composers: Nicolas Orton, Olivier
Be´ langer, Paul Williams, Jean-Michel
Robert, Jean-Se´ bastien Durocher, E
Jean-Franc¸ ois Dessureault. The final
concert, Memory and Time, was de-
voted mostly to the music of Bernard
Parmegiani. His Le Pre´ sent compose´ ,
Capture e´ phe´ me` re, Litaniques, Sons/
Jeu, and La me´ moire des sons were
preceded by E´ te´ (tire´ de 12 Haı¨ku) by
Bernard Fort, and Annam by
Franc¸ ois Donato.
News
9
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
The Internet version, www.
orpheuskristall.net, has been online
since October 2001. As a work-in-
progress, it represented phases in the
process of conceiving the stage ver-
sion. For its visual appearance,
Berlin-based Web designer Bettina
Westerheide created her own multi-
media world from material that was
worked out in collaboration with the
team of artists. The enigmatic start-
ing page is the entrance into the
world of Orpheus, which is presented
online as a searching, immersive
game. The viewer is drawn into an
interactive cosmos: musical frag-
menti, excerpts from the libretto,
and mystical worlds of imagery lead
the user through the system.
The world premiere of the stage
version retained and extended its
links with its online development.
The opera took the form of an inter-
action between actors on stage and
musicians situated elsewhere. Com-
puter musician Georg Hajdu used the
newly developed Quintet.net soft-
ware for the stage version: Orpheus’s
singing and the actions of the on-
stage percussionist were encoded,
transmitted via the Internet to other
musicians in Amsterdam, New York,
and San Francisco. They heard the
music and also received it in notated
form in real time, enabling them to
respond immediately to the arriving
sonic and visual information. Their
improvisations were similarly en-
coded and transmitted to become a
visible and audible component of the
live performance in Munich. IL
online version is still available
at the Web address www.
orpheuskristall. net.
Sound Installations in New York
in April 2002
The Diapason Gallery, New York,
New York, USA, hosted a series of
Saturday evening sound installations
through April 2002. The first evening
presented two installations: Dust
Theories by Kim Cascone, using
Max/MSP, and Room Piece, a sound
installation with laser lights by Dia-
pason co-founder Michael J. Schu-
macher, comprising rhythmic events
derived from a number series and a
fragment of sampled gong sound.
The rest of the month was devoted
to An Outgoing Message by Ron
Kuivila which explored emotional re-
sponses to concepts of waiting and
responding to commands. Outgoing
Message uses forty telephones and
eight channels of synthesized sound
to explore the transition zone be-
tween sounds and commands.
Stage Premiere of Online Opera
in Munich
The stage version of Orpheus Crys-
tal, an opera in two media by Man-
fred Stahnke, received its world
premiere on 3 May 2002 all'interno del
framework of the 8th Munich Bien-
nale. Orpheus Crystal—Opera in
Two Media combines new media and
innovative technologies with the tra-
ditional art form of the opera to cre-
ate a new reading of musical theater.
The two-part work, which consists
of a stage version and a version for
the Internet, views the ancient myth
of Orpheus from a perspective which
relates to the contemporary era. IL
project was developed by a team of
artists including Georg Hajdu, Si-
mone de Mello, Peter Staatsmann,
Manfred Stahnke, Bettina Wackerna-
gel, and Bettina Westerheide.
Altermedium Festival at the
Theremin Center, Russia
The second Altermedium Interna-
tional Festival took place in Mos-
cow, Russia, in May 2002. IL
Altermedium festival, founded in
2001, is a development of the elec-
troacoustic music programs pro-
duced since 1994 by the Theremin
Center, within the Alternativa New
Music Festival in Moscow. The Fes-
tival takes as its subject the art of
sound and it focuses on electroacous-
tic music, with a particular interest
in live interactive forms of computer
music and multimedia, particolarmente
the interactions of sound, Immagine, E
dance. The theme of Alterme-
dium.02 was ‘‘Well Tempered
Noise,’’ intended as a continuation
of the traditions which had their
roots in the ideas of Russian and Ital-
ian Futurists of the beginning of the
20th century. The festival was also
dedicated to the tenth anniversary of
the Theremin Center, founded in
May 1992.
Concerts were held each evening.
IL 15 May concert presented Shere-
metievo Airport Rock by Jon Apple-
ton (USA), Mind Feedbacks 2.0, for
theremin, guitar, voice, and live
computer processing, by Dmitry Su-
bochev (Theremin Center), OHNE,
for voices and electronics, by Dave
Phillips (Svizzera), rm 74 by Reto
Maeder (Svizzera), and Tochnit
Aleph Empire by Daniel Loewen-
brueck (Svizzera). IL 16 May
concert featured multimedia pieces.
b-i-r-d-r-e-a-m, for Kyma system and
theremin, by Yuri Spitsin (Theremin
Center) was followed by Die grosse
partitur by Sepo Gruendler and Elisa-
beth Schimana, with graphic design
by Elisabeth Kopf (Austria), and a
performance-installation Alien City
by Alien productions, of Austria
(Martin Breindl, Norbert Math, E
Andrea Sodomka). On 17 May, IL
10
Computer Music Journal
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
Theremin Center was represented by
Soma by Vera Ivanova and Correla-
zioni 1.0, for two performers, there-
min sensors, and MAX/MSP based
interactive system, by Andrei Smir-
nov. The work of the Studio for
Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM)
in Amsterdam was then represented
by a solo live electronics perfor-
mances by Daniel Schorno (Nether-
lands) and Netochka Nezvanova
(New Zealand), followed by Spring:
Still Unfurled, for voice and live
electronics by Netochka Nezvanova
and an interactive video design by
Hans Christian Giljes (Norway).
Throughout the festival there was
an installation of a laser-to-sound
sculpture by Rob Mullender (UK) E
a retrospective of video works by
Sergei Kossenko, the ZORCH Group,
Olga Teksheva, Jana Aksenova, Na-
tasha Borisova, the FUGK Group,
Olga Kumeger, and Yuka Lukicheva.
The Altermedium Festival was di-
rected by Andrei Smirnov.
day ended with a keynote address by
Cillian O’Briain and the second con-
cert. Sunday offered three more pa-
per sessions: Tools and Teaching,
Novel Controllers, and Content
Mapping, before the closing keynote
address by Joel Chadabe, closing re-
marks from Joe Paradiso and Marcelo
Wanderley, and an open discussion
on the organization of NIME-03.
In all, 17 papers were presented by
researchers from Belgium, Canada,
France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the
USA. There were also 20 demonstra-
tions of new systems and interfaces
for performance, allowing partici-
pants to explore the practical as well
as the theoretical aspects of the con-
ference theme. The full proceedings
of NIME-02 are available in search-
able form on the conference’s Web
pages at seamonkey.mle.ie/nime/.
These pages can also be accessed
from the general NIME address:
www.nime.org.
NIME 2002 Held at MediaLab
Europe in Dublin
The International Conference on
New Interfaces for Musical Expres-
sion (NIME) took place at MediaLab
Europe, Dublin, Ireland, 24–26 May
2002. The conference explored the
new directions that musical inter-
faces are taking, addressing current
research and evolving issues through
presented papers, discussions, E
performances with academics, tech-
nologists, and artists working at the
cutting edge. The conference opened
with a welcome from Rudy Berger, UN
keynote address by Tod Machover,
and the first concert. On the Satur-
day, there were four paper sessions
under the headings Sensate Surfaces,
Haptic Feedback, Body Electric, E
(E)Traditional Instruments. IL
JIM 2002 Held in Marseille
The Journe´ es d’Informatique Musi-
cale (JIM) are held each year at a re-
search institute in France. The ninth
JIM was hosted by the Centre Na-
tional de Cre´ ation Musicale (GMEM)
in Marseille, 29–31 May 2002, con un
special focus on sound synthesis. JIM
encourages wide-ranging discussion,
and papers, posters, and demonstra-
tions were invited on the themes of
formalization and representation of
musical structures; formalization
and modeling of musical knowledge;
languages and environments to assist
composition; systems for composi-
tion and automated arrangement;
tools for music analysis; editing and
publishing systems; optical score rec-
ognition; modeling and simulation of
musical interpretation and perfor-
mance; sound synthesis systems; In-
strument modeling; signal
processing; sound spatialization;
room acoustics; systems for interac-
tive performance; recognition of mu-
sical parameters; informazione
archiving and transfer, sound and
music perception modeling; real-
time information processing; E
general institutional research reports.
In all, 30 papers were presented over
IL 3 days of the symposium. A full
list of papers can be found on the
Web by visiting the JIM 2002 pagine
at www.gmem.org/Jim2002.html.
Acoustical Society of America
Meeting, Estate 2002
The Acoustical Society of America
met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
USA, 3–7 June 2002 and its program
included several sessions related to
musical issues which all contained
invited papers. The session ‘‘Natural-
ness in Synthesized Speech and Mu-
sic’’ was chaired by Sten Ternstrom
and included papers by Ingo Titze,
Hideki Kawahara, Roger Dannen-
berg, and Xavier Serra. The session
devoted to Interactive Computer
Music Systems was chaired by Roger
Dannenberg and featured papers by
Joel Chadabe, David Wessel, George
Tambouratzis, Robert Rowe, Chris-
topher Raphael, and Masataka Goto.
James Beauchamp chaired ‘‘Music
Recognition Systems’’ which was
spilt over two sessions and included
heard the work of Roy Patterson,
Alain de Cheveigne´ , Barry Jacobson,
Tuomas Virtanen and Anssi Klapuri,
Ichiro Fujinaga, Jean Laroche, Ju¨ rgen
Herre, Judith Brown, Mark Kahrs,
and Neil Todd. Information about
the Acoustical Society of America
and its meetings is available on the
Web by visiting asa.aip.org.
News
11
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3
DIEM Presents MIX.02 In
Denmark in June 2002
The Danish Institute of Electro-
acoustic Music (DIEM) organized the
second MIX festival, 13–16 June 2002
in Aarhus, Denmark, around a num-
ber of themes, including a focus on
the film Forbidden Planet which was
screened each day of the festival.
Concerts featured works for ensem-
ble and electronics, performed by
The California EAR Unit (USA), Os-
satura (Italy), and Contemporanea
(Denmark). Guest composers in-
cluded Denis Smalley, Adrian
Moore, Amy Knoles, and Takayuki
Rai. The festival also included acous-
matic concerts and a sound diffusion
workshop on DIEM’s 16-channel
loudspeaker array, computer music
videos from around the world, E
DJ’s remixing Bebe and Louis Bar-
ron’s soundtrack from Forbidden
Planet and the music of other pio-
neers of electronic music, including
Else Marie Pade. Remixing brought
the festival to a close in a six-hour
electronic music marathon in the
park near the Moesga˚ rd Museum,
where four classic DIEM works from
its 15-year history were re-presented.
More information is available by vis-
iting DIEM’s Web site
www.diem.dk.
Audio Engineering Society Meet
in Helsinki
The 22nd Audio Engineering Society
(AES) International Conference on
Virtual, Synthetic, and Entertain-
ment Audio was held at the Helsinki
University of Technology, Espoo,
Finland, 15–17 June 2002. The three-
day conference brought together re-
searchers and developers in the field
of virtual and synthetic audio, COME
well as entertainment audio technol-
ogies and applications. Sessions were
held on Virtual and Augmented Real-
ità, Sound Synthesis, 3-D Audio
Technologies, Audio Coding Tech-
Carino, Physical Modeling, Soggetto-
tive and Objective Evaluation, E
Computational Auditory Scene Anal-
ysis.
In addition to the eleven paper ses-
sions and an extensive demonstra-
tion and poster session, there were
four invited papers. Jens Blauert, UN
pioneer in spatial hearing research,
gave a presentation on instrumental
analysis and synthesis of auditory
scenes. Peter Svensson and Ulf Kris-
tiansen were invited to speak on
computational modeling and simula-
tion of acoustic spaces. Xavier Rodet
discussed the present state and fu-
ture challenges of synthesis and pro-
cessing of the singing voice, E
Ju¨ rgen Herre presented audio coding:
an all-round entertainment technol-
ogy. The Co-Chairs of the conference
were Nick Zacharov and Jyri Huo-
paniemi. More information on the
AES meeting can be found by visit-
ing the conference Web site at
www.acoustics.hut.fi/aes22/. IL
titles of all the papers presented are
also available at www.acoustics
.hut.fi/aes22/papers/.
Pauline Oliveros Celebration
‘‘Sounding the Margins,’’ a 40-year
retrospective of the work of Pauline
Oliveros, was presented by the Me-
ridian Gallery in San Francisco, Cali-
fornia, USA, 31 May–2 June 2002 A
celebrate the composer’s 70th birth-
day. Although the event intention-
ally centered around performances of
works for live performers in order to
involve as many participants as pos-
sible, Pauline Oliveros’s significant
contribution to electronic and com-
puter music was also celebrated,
with performances of several pieces
for instrument and live electronics,
including Four Meditations for Or-
chestra, Red Shifts, What Time Is
It?, Timeless Pulse, Portrait of Tom
Bickley, and The Well and the Gen-
tle; E 13 changes for Malcolm
Goldstein, for three performers on
computer.
Gottfried Michael
Koenig Honored
Gottfried Michael Koenig, composer
and electronic and computer music
pioneer, has been awarded an honor-
ary doctorate by the University of
Saarbru¨ cken, Germany, in recogni-
tion of his theoretical work in the
field of modern composition theory.
Gottfried Michael Koenig was born
In 1926 in Magdeburg, Germany.
From 1954 A 1964 he worked in the
electronic music studio of West Ger-
man Radio at Cologne, assisting
other composers and producing his
own electronic compositions. In
1964 Dr Koenig moved to the Neth-
erlands and until 1986 he was direc-
tor of the Institute of Sonology,
firstly at the University of Utrecht
and then at the Royal Conservatory
at The Hague.
12
Computer Music Journal
l
D
o
w
N
o
UN
D
e
D
F
R
o
M
H
T
T
P
:
/
/
D
io
R
e
C
T
.
M
io
T
.
e
D
tu
/
C
o
M
j
/
l
UN
R
T
io
C
e
–
P
D
F
/
/
/
/
/
2
6
4
6
1
8
5
3
6
3
0
0
1
4
8
9
2
6
0
2
3
2
0
9
9
1
3
3
8
P
D
.
F
B
sì
G
tu
e
S
T
T
o
N
0
8
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3