Farseeing inventor pioneered computer music
Max Mathews devoted most of his life to learning how computers could aid musicians in performance (Photo: Kham via Flickr cc2.0)
Article Summary
Renowned computer generated music innovator Max Mathews has died at the age of 84. Back in 1957 Mathews wrote the program that enabled an IBM 704 mainframe computer to play a composition lasting 17 seconds – an achievement recognized as one of the first examples of digital synthesis of music on a computer. For the next 54 years Mathews pioneered the field of digital audio research and devoted most of his life to learning how computers could aid musicians in performance.
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