ABSTRACT
One of the most fascinating applications of computers in the musical arts is live performance in which the computer and human players can interact. Aside from the novelty of “the computer as artist,” there are things that the computer can do in a live music performance setting that even a highly skilled human cannot. Computers can follow extremely detailed and precise directions without error and in the blink of an eye. These properties of precision and speed open up new possibilities for music making. Let us examine a few of these. Computers can compose complex textures that are manipulated according to musical input. For example, a dense cloud of notes might be generated using pitches or harmony implied by an improvising soloist. A dense texture is quite simple to generate by computer, but it is hard to imagine an orchestra producing a carefully sculpted texture while simultaneously listening to and arranging pitch material from a soloist.
