[South Florida DX Association] Max Mathews, the first computer musician dies at age 84.

[Kai Siwiak]

This is from my daughter Diana, KE4QXL.
-Kai, KE4PT

-------- Original Message --------

Dear friends and family,
It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of a dear 
colleague, Max Mathews. He died in San Francisco this morning from 
complications from pneumonia at the age of 84. Max is the father of 
computer music. He worked at Bell Labs and was the first person to have 
music emanate from a computer. The first piece ever uttered from a 
computer was a backing track to "Bicycle Built for Two". Here is a 
YouTube of him performing with his radio baton to that song, which he 
also created: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoqEC2mLYyE

Max was one who helped start CCRMA, the program where I did my masters. 
One of the quotes he once conveyed to a group of us was the following: 
“The future will add the digital computer to the equipment of today’s 
electronic studio. In the near future it will control analog sound 
synthesizers. Together the digital and analog form a hybrid sound 
synthesizer. In the far future analog devices may be swept away by more 
reliable and accurate digital synthesizers constructed from integrated 
circuits. The result will be real-time digital synthesizers which can be 
played with all the nuances of present-day performance and all the 
precision and range of sound quality achieved by present-day digital 
synthesis. The future grows from the past and, and the past is now long 
enough to reveal at least the next step forward.”

He was, needless to say, a huge supporter of laptop orchestras, 
experimental music and such. Last correspondence I had with him was to 
tell him I brought laptop orchestra to Arizona State. He was quite 
excited. A sweet, innovative man who touched everyone's lives, whether 
they know it or not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Mathews

Next time you hear computer generated sounds, think of the person who 
started it all... Max Mathews.

Time to watch Space Odyssey: 2001 (where HAL sings "Bicycle") and toast 
a glass of wine in his honor.

/~Virtually~/
Diana
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