composition, music theory, mathematics
Undergraduate and Graduate Course: Fall 2022
Computer Music Programming
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:35 – 4:50 pm
Three-credit course counts as a music theory elective.
(Non-music majors with programming experience may register with instructor permission.)
This course is an introduction to music and multimedia programming using the visual programming language Max (from Cycling ‘74). Max allows users to create their own software for interactive audio and graphics by virtually connecting objects for real-time manipulation of MIDI, digital audio, and video (including 2D and 3D vector graphics). Some of the many projects utilizing Max:
More generally, this course will focus on computational methods for manipulating, analyzing, and generating musical data and will cover many of the fundamental concepts of computer programming, including variables and data types, conditionals, loops, data structures, encapsulation and abstraction, and graphical user interface (GUI) design. Students who take this course will be well-prepared to learn a more general programming language in the future.
Previous experience with programming or MIDI and digital audio is not required. The course is intended for all undergraduate music majors who have passed the core music theory courses and counts toward the upper-division music theory requirements. The course is also open to all graduate music majors. (Interested students from outside the College of Music who have programming experience may take the course with instructor permission.)