High-performance Computing, Music Composition, and the Soniication of Scientiic Data the Instrument Computing Requirements What We Have Done so Far What We Have Found so Far

Music composition and scientiic computing are usually considered separate and unrelated elds of intellectual activity. The thought of a musical piece being the result of involved calculations is not a familiar one; nor is that of using sound objects to present the results of large-scale scientiic computations. However, an unusual collaboration centered on the high-performance computing capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory pursues precisely these two ideas. For the past few years, the authors have been engaged in a project to develop high-performance computing tools for the world of sound. Initially, the goal of the project was to see how a composer of serious music might beneet from access to the latest supercomputing technology. The idea of using computers for music composition was certainly not new; already in the 1950s, Lejaren Hiller performed many experiments at the University of Illinois 1], and the premiere of his Quartet No. 4 for strings \Illiac Suite" 2] in May 1957 is generally regarded as the birth of serious computer music. Computers have helped many composers since to algorithmically synthesize new sounds and produce new pieces for acoustical as well as digital instruments (see Box 1). Given the power of today's high-performance computing architectures, one could reasonably expect a signiicant increase in the quality of synthesized sounds and possibly realize a music composition \in real time." This expectation provided the original impetus for the project. Currently, the centerpiece of the project is DIASS, a Digital Instrument for Additive Sound Synthesis. DIASS is part of a comprehensive Environment for Music Composition (Fig. 1). The Environment includes, besides DIASS, software for computer-assisted composition, automatic music notation, and visualization of sound objects in a multimedia environment. Not all components are as fully developed as DIASS, but even now the user can write a work with the help of the computer, have a score of the instrumental or vocal parts printed in traditional music notation, produce a tape 1 Computer-assisted Interface Interface Score editor GRAFCHORD SCORE TM Music notation and printing CAVE Printed score composition program VR visualization sound file MP1 C S Binary M4CAVE DIASS_M4C Sound synthesis DIASSIN Score editor Figure 1: The Environment for Music Composition, with data entry points for composition (C) and soniication (S). of digitally synthesized sounds, and have those sounds represented as graphic objects in a virtual-reality environment. Early results obtained with the Environment for Music Composition include the Argonne Chime (see Box …