Musical Computer

A new page in the manifestation and demonstration of expressive means of musical sound has been opened by the computer as a musical instrument, or the “musical computer.” Contemporary musicians have endeavored at the attempts at connecting composition with the theory of information, the unification of musical and acoustic parameters, having realized the idea of a regulated poly-dimensional sound space, a multilevel compositional model applied for sound generation with the use of concisely differentiated modulations of parameters of the level of frequencies, durations and dynamics. In the present lecture the author turns to the main stages of the evolution of the concept of “musical computer” reflecting the changes in the sound and the musical material during the course of the development of the practice of composition and music-making; questions are examined in connection with the particularities of development of the computer synthesis of sound; a retrospective analysis of technical and technological experiments made by musicians in their interactions with computer technologists, who have enhanced the development of the musical computer as a polyfunctional musical instrument, including the capabilities of its use as a means of providing the symphonic organization of music by means of stereophonic panorama setting of musical space; a broad range of issues is touched upon in connection with the peculiarities of musicians’ thinking and perception, including the impediments to a consistent acquisition of possibilities of the programmed musical instrument existent in the sphere.