This book encompasses a wide range of topics. How can we create musical sounds through computation? How can we represent, organize, and manipulate music compositions through digital means? How can computers perform music with expression and emotion? Can computers listen to music? Understand music? Compose music? These and many related questions are the subject of Computer Music research and practice.
The book explains how musical sounds and musical scores can be represented and manipulated digitally. Fundamentals of sampling theory, music theory, acoustics, perception, and programming provide foundations for practical instruction on using the Nyquist programming language to create music. Readers will learn how to construct software musical instruments, create scores, apply audio effects, and perform audio analyses.
Roger B. Dannenberg is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, Art & Music at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has taught for over thirty years, and a Fellow of the Association for Computer Machinery, awarded for contributions to the field of computer science through innovative computer music systems. A pioneer in the field, he is known for his work creating interactive automated computer accompaniment systems, leading to several patents. He is also co-creator of Audacity, a popular audio editor, and the designer of Nyquist, the language for sound synthesis and music composition featured in this book.
As a trumpet player, he has performed jazz and electro-acoustic music around the world, including many of his own compositions. With Jorge Sastre, he composed the opera La Mare dels Peixos, and its English version The Mother of Fishes, and the opera Felicità.