Learning from History: Recreating and Repurposing Harriet Padberg's Computer Composed Canon and Free Fugue

Richard J Savery, Benjamin Genchel, Jason Brent Smith, Anthony Caulkins, Molly E Jones, and Anna Savery

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Harriet Padberg wrote Computer-Composed Canon and Free Fugue as part of her 1964 dissertation in Mathematics and Music at Saint Louis University. This program is one of the earliest examples of text-to-music software and algorithmic composition, which are areas of great interest in the present-day field of music technology. This paper aims to analyze the technological innovation, aesthetic design process, and impact of Harriet Padberg's original 1964 thesis as well as the design of a modern recreation and utilization, in order to gain insight to the nature of revisiting older works. Here, we present our open source recreation of Padberg's program with a modern interface and, through its use as an artistic tool by three composers, show how historical works can be effectively used for new creative purposes in contemporary contexts. Not Even One by Molly Jones draws on the historical and social significance of Harriet Padberg through using her program in a piece about the lack of representation of women judges in composition competitions. Brevity by Anna Savery utilizes the original software design as a composition tool, and The Padberg Piano by Anthony Caulkins uses the melodic generation of the original to create a software instrument.

Citation:

Richard J Savery, Benjamin Genchel, Jason Brent Smith, Anthony Caulkins, Molly E Jones, and Anna Savery. 2019. Learning from History: Recreating and Repurposing Harriet Padberg's Computer Composed Canon and Free Fugue. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3673021

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Savery2019,
 abstract = {Harriet Padberg wrote Computer-Composed Canon and Free Fugue as part of her 1964 dissertation in Mathematics and Music at Saint Louis University. This program is one of the earliest examples of text-to-music software and algorithmic composition, which are areas of great interest in the present-day field of music technology. This paper aims to analyze the technological innovation, aesthetic design process, and impact of Harriet Padberg's original 1964 thesis as well as the design of a modern recreation and utilization, in order to gain insight to the nature of revisiting older works. Here, we present our open source recreation of Padberg's program with a modern interface and, through its use as an artistic tool by three composers, show how historical works can be effectively used for new creative purposes in contemporary contexts. Not Even One by Molly Jones draws on the historical and social significance of Harriet Padberg through using her program in a piece about the lack of representation of women judges in composition competitions. Brevity by Anna Savery utilizes the original software design as a composition tool, and The Padberg Piano by Anthony Caulkins uses the melodic generation of the original to create a software instrument.},
 address = {Porto Alegre, Brazil},
 author = {Richard J Savery and Benjamin Genchel and Jason Brent Smith and Anthony Caulkins and Molly E Jones and Anna Savery},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.3673021},
 editor = {Marcelo Queiroz and Anna Xambó Sedó},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 pages = {423--428},
 publisher = {UFRGS},
 title = {Learning from History: Recreating and Repurposing Harriet Padberg's Computer Composed Canon and Free Fugue},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2019/nime2019_paper083.pdf},
 year = {2019}
}