Max Mathews
Max Vernon Mathews (November 13, 1926 in Columbus, Nebraska, US – April 21, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, US) was an American pioneer of computer music.
Biography
Max Vernon Mathews was born in Columbus, Nebraska, by two science schoolteachers. His father in particular taught physics, chemistry and biology in the Peru High School [1] of Nebraska, where he was also the principal.[2] His father allowed him to learn and play in the physics, biology and chemistry laboratories, where he enjoyed making lots of things from motors to mercury barometers. At the age of 9, when students are usually introduced to algebra, he started to study by himself the subject with few other students. That was because the vast majority of population there were farmers and their sons weren't interested about learning algebra, since it isn't useful for the everyday work. In the same way he studied calculus, but he never graduated from high school.[2]
After a period as a radar repairman in the navy, where he felt in love with electronics, Mathews decide to study electrical engineering at the
Although MUSIC was not the first attempt to generate sound with a computer (an Australian CSIRAC computer played tunes as early as 1951),[8] Mathews fathered generations of digital music tools. He described his work in parental terms, in the following excerpt from "Horizons in Computer Music", March 8–9, 1997, Indiana University:
Computer performance of music was born in 1957 when an
Music I program which I wrote. The timbres and notes were not inspiring, but the technical breakthrough is still reverberating. Music I led me to Music II through V. A host of others wrote Music 10, Music 360, Music 15, Csound and Cmix. Many exciting pieces are now performed digitally. The IBM 704 and its siblings were strictly studio machines – they were far too slow to synthesize music in real-time. Chowning's FM algorithmsand the advent of fast, inexpensive, digital chips made real-time possible, and equally important, made it affordable. Starting with the GROOVE program in 1970, my interests have focused on live performance and what a computer can do to aid a performer. I made a controller, theStanfordundergraduates for two years. To our happy surprise, the students liked learning and using C. Primarily I believe it gives them a feeling of complete power to command the computer to do anything it is capable of doing.
In 1961, Mathews arranged the accompaniment of the song "
Mathews directed the Acoustical and Behavioral Research Center at Bell Laboratories from 1962 to 1985, which carried out research in speech communication, visual communication, human memory and learning, programmed instruction, analysis of subjective opinions, physical acoustics, and industrial robotics. From 1974 to 1980 he was the Scientific Advisor to the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (
Mathews was a member of the
The Max portion of the software package Max/MSP is named after him (the MSP portion is named for Miller Puckette, who teaches at UC San Diego).
Mathews died on the morning of 21 April 2011 in San Francisco, California of complications from pneumonia. He was 84. He was survived by his wife, Marjorie, his three sons and six grandchildren.
See also
References
- ^ Bell, Gordon C. "MAX V. MATHEWS 1926–2011". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
- ^ JSTOR 40301041– via JSTOR.
- ^ a b
Holmes, Thom (2008). "Digital Synthesis and Computer Music". Electronic and experimental music: technology, music, and culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 254. ISBN 978-0-415-95781-6.
- ^ a b
Roads, Curtis (Winter 1980). "Interview with Max Mathews". Computer Music Journal. 4 (4).
in Curtis Roads, ed. (1989). The Music Machine: Selected Readings from Computer Music Journal. MIT Press (1989/1992). pp. 5.ISBN 978-0-262-68078-3. - ^ Max V., Mathews; F.R., Moore (1970). "GROOVE—a program to compose, store, and edit functions of time". Communications of the ACM. 13 (12).
- ^ Nyssim Lefford; Eric D. Scheirer & Barry L. Vercoe. "An Interview with Barry Vercoe". Experimental Music Studio 25. Machine Listening Group, MIT Media Laboratory.
- ^ a b
Bogdanov, Vladimir (2001). All music guide to electronica: the definitive guide to electronic music. Backbeat Books. pp. 320. ISBN 978-0-87930-628-1.
- ^ "Australian CSIRAC computer website".
- ^ "Bell Labs: Where "HAL" First Spoke (Bell Labs Speech Synthesis Web Site)". Archived from the original on April 7, 2000. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
- ^ "Acoustical Society of America Awards". Acoustical Society of America. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
External links
- the GROOVE System on '120 Years Of Electronic Music'
- The Digital Computer as a Musical Instrument; Science, Volume 142, Issue 3592, pp. 553–557 1963–11
- Max Mathews at cSounds.com
- Max Mathews received the Qwartz d'Honneur – 2008
- Max Matthews 1926–2011 on Stretta blog
- Max Mathews 1926–2011 by Geeta Dayal, Frieze Magazine, May 9, 2011
- Max Mathews, Computer Music Pioneer, R.I.P.
- Max Mathews interview in Computer Music Journal by Tae Hong Park
- The GROOVE System
- Max Mathews Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection March 29, 2007