EUTERPE A Computer Language for the Expression of Musical Ideas

Abstract

The electronic medium has vastly increased the amount of material available to the contemporary composer. The various pieces of electronic equipment available today allow one to produce any conceivable sound; yet because of the complex nature of their output, these devices are generally difficult to control and the composer of electronic music may take several hours to prepare but a few minutes of his creation. EUTERPE was designed during the summer of 1966 by Marvin Minsky as a "real-time" music program" to be used at a teletype which was a direct link with a digital computer. The program is an interpreter and compiler, basically a translation device to convert symbolic input into internal machine language of a computer. The symbolic input consists of yup to six "voice-programs" which are strings of words.