From: rower@acf3.nyu.edu (Robert Rowe)
Date: 28 Oct 92 21:43:55 GMT

Interactive Music Systems,
Machine Listening and Composing,
by Robert Rowe

For the growing number of professionals in computer music -- composers,
performers, and teachers -- who are looking for more from the computer
music systems that are now available, _Interactive Music Systems_ provides
the first comprehensive survey and evaluation of new computer programs that
can analyze and compose music in live performance.

Although Rowe focuses primarily on musical motivations and possibilities of
interactive systems, he also takes up such practical considerations as how
to build, analyze, and extend these systems, and he looks at the impact of
music theory, music cognition, and artificial intelligence on the design of
interactive systems and on ensemble performance. He describes in detail
both the theory and practice of his own real-time interactive music
program, Cypher, and further illustrates basic concepts and characteristic
issues using the graphic MIDI programming environment Max.

In a concluding chapter, Rowe assesses developments in hardware and
software with implications for the evolution of interactive systems,
including their implementation in multiple-processor environments, the
impact of real-time digital signal processing, and extended prospects for
sensing performance gesture.

Interactive Music Systems CD-ROM

This supplement to Interactive Music Systems contains audio and program
examples that document a variety of systems and the music they produce. An
extensive library of Macintosh software allows the user to experiment with
or adapt existing interactive systems.  Some parts of the library require
the presence of underlying software environments, such as SmallTalk, LISP,
or Opcode's Max language.  The program discussed most extensively in the
text, Robert Rowe's Cypher, will run on any Macintosh computer with no
additional software required.

Both the book ($35) and the CD-ROM ($19.95) can be ordered from The MIT
Press/55 Hayward Street/Cambridge, MA 02142/ USA