ABSTRACT
Nyquist, developed by Roger Dannenberg at the Carnegie Mellon University, USA, is a programming language for music composition and sound synthesis: it supports both high-level compositional tasks and low-level signal processing within a single integrated environment. This feature is particularly attractive for composers wishing to work at the microscopic level of abstraction. Most sound synthesis languages (e.g., the popular Csound) are not entirely suitable for algorithmic composition because they are limited to instrument design: the actual notes to be played on an instrument must be manually specified oneby-one in a score file. There is no provision for writing generative musical programs in such languages.
