The Brazilian Group For Computer Music Research. A Proto-history - Carlos Palombini.pdf

The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research: A Proto-History Author(s): Carlos Palombini Source: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 10, Southern Cones: Music Out of Africa and South America (2000), pp. 13-20 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1513371 . Accessed: 19/05/2013 20:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo Music Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ORIGINS

The Music

Brazilian

for Group Computer A Proto-History Research: ABSTRACT

CarlosPalombini

ademic research into computer music in Ac Brazil started with Guido Stolfi and Celso de Oliveira, who, early in 1975, built a synthesizer at the Polytechnic School of Sao Paulo University (USP) (Fig. 1) [1]. This article discusses the works of four researchers-Aluizio Arcela, Eduardo Miranda, Geber Ramalho and Mauricio Loureiro-who gave the Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research (NUCOM) its initial impetus.

RIO 1975-1984, BRASILIA1983-1989: ARCELAAND HIS GROUP Arcela's research started in 1975 in the electrical engineering department of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ),which awarded three relevant master's degrees between 1976 and 1984 [2] to Arcela, David Simonetti Barbalho and Marcio Brandao. Working under Paulo Leo Os6rio, in February 1977 Arcela presented his thesis, "DynamicSpectra-Generating System for the Synthesis of Musical Signals" (Fig. 2). Arcela's thesis described a system for producing frequency spectra within the range of humanly audible frequencies. A Fourier series generator consisting of frequency multipliers that employed phase-locked loops engendered harmonic or inharmonic components whose phase could be controlled. The amplitude of each partial was modulated by curves that could take on a variety of shapes. A time-generating system defined the instants at which such curves should act. In addition, Arcela discussed problems arising from the displacement of spectra across the pitch field: The systemconsistedof a music machine that combined digital and analogcircuits.In those days,microprocessors werejust startingto appear.And what was then called "logic"actually were algorithmsimplementednot by a programbut by digital circuits.Thus, for instance,the frequencymultiplicationalgorithm actually consisted of groups of digital chips such as counters, registers,and Boolean-logicgates, all connected to analog deviceslike the VCO,operationalamplifiers,etc. [3].

The Brazilian for Group MusicResearch Computer hasbecomerenowned (NUCOM) foritsannual Brazilian Symposium onComputer Music. Theauthor recounts thegroup's proto-history-theperiodofthe1970s and1980s-withparticular referenceto theearlyworksofAluizio Arcela andEduardo Miranda. The author continues hisdiscussion to focusonNUCOM, whichbeganto takeshapein1993whenMiranda andGeberRamalho (oneof Arcela's metinParis students) anddecidedto launch a discussionlistontheWeb.Thefollowing chaired Loureiro year,Mauricio theFirstBrazilian on Symposium Music, Computer affiliating NUCOM to theBrazilian Computer Society(SBC).

Working under Os6rio, in August 1983 Brandao presented his thesis, "Microcomputer-Controlled Programmable Polyphonic Synthesizer," which described a microcomputer-controlled system for the subtractive synthesis of four simultaneous sounds. The hardware employed analog blocks that performed generating, filtering and shaping functions. A keyboard permitted real-time performance. The programming allowed users to modify those blocks, defining basic parameters that could be stored on floppy diskettes. Brandao designed hardware to allow the synthesis of the human voice, but the corresponding software, which would have had recourse to a library of phonemes, was not actually implemented. Arcela then transferred to the university'scomputer department, where he worked under Roberto Lins de Carvalho to present his dissertation in June 1984: "Time Trees and the Genetic Configuration of Musical Intervals"(Fig. 3), in which he investigated the nature of informationhosted by the musicalinterval [4], consideredas a physicalphenomenon modeled by the combination of periodic movements.Fromthis model, the lawsthat governthe order of occurrenceand the spatialdistributionof the self-intersectionsof the resulting trajectoryare inferred. Throughsystematicobservationof the sequencesof durations Fig. 1. Guido Stolfi and Celso de Oliveira built what was probably the first Brazilian synthesizer in the Polytechnic School of Sio Paulo University early in 1975. (? Guido Stolfi)

Working under Arcela, in February 1979 Barbalho presented "Spectral Synthesis System by Means of Geometric Character Programming"; his thesis described an electronic machine for the synthesis of elementary sounds by means of treatment of spectra. He developed a programming language that generated geometric functions for the synthesis of sound sequences by combination of formants.

Carlos Palombini (musicologist), Rua Cariri 386, Vila Assuncao, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 91900-560, Brazil. E-mail: <[email protected]>.

C 2000 ISAST

Vol. 10, pp. 13-20, 2000 LEONARDOMUSICJOURNAL,

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

13

thus engendered, it becomes evident thatthe aforementionedinformationis structuredinto treesof numbers.These trees can be generated by computable functions, which prescind from the phenomenon itselfand its simulation.I describethe model, its algorithmsand functional representation. From this study,it emerges that the overallorganization of such trees of intervals reflects the existence of naturalscoresinside the intervalitself [5]. In October 1983 the electrical engineering department of Brasilia University (UnB) invited Arcela to set up a graduate program in computing. No computer department existed there at that time-the capital was barely 23?/ years old-and the disciplines of engineering and mathematics were both laying claim to the field. Arcela accepted the engineering department's offer on the conditions that (1) he would do research into computer music, (2) he would have a laboratory, (3) Brandao would be hired as an electronic engineer and (4) Francisco de Assis, a department technician, would be made available to them. The engineering department agreed and, thus, attracted by "the interdisciplinary lights of Brasilia University" [6], the fulcrum of research into computer music shifted from Rio to Brasilia. According to Arcela, In those days the making of computer music demanded such [an interdisciplinary] team because things like D/A converters needed to be built. We were living in the pre-Sound Blaster era; the PC was then the big novelty and, though hugely expensive (as much as a brand new car!), our great motivation for setting up the lab. Computer music has always required the exclusive use of computing facilities. And only Max Mathews had a whole mainframe just to himself. Low-pass filters for digitalto-analog conversion of sampled signals were yet another problem. Being in a well-equipped department came in handy. There were top quality filters (e.g. 18-pole-per-channel Butterworth) and various extremely useful gadgets such as oscilloscopes, frequency meters, decibel meters, plotters and digital multimeters, as well as an excellent depot stocked with a vast array of electronic components [7]. Brasilia University supported Arcela wholeheartedly, as did National Research

Council (CNPq) officers. During the first half of 1984, Gentil Lucena, who worked for the computer science commission of CNPq, invited Ivan Moura Campos, one of the CNPq directors, to pay a visit to the team. The laboratory was to be named, after the French and Italian nomenclatures, "the Musical Informatics Labora-

14

tory."Within technology circles, however, music was viewed not as a field of knowledge but as a form of entertainment, and music research, at best, as interesting but undeserving of public funding in a thirdworld country such as Brazil. Serendipity, none the less, brought the following definition to Arcela's view: "music is spectral processing." Describedhere is the initial phase of a laboratorydevoted to spectralprocessing. It includes equipment availablein the electricalengineering department, plus the computer I am applying for. Stresswill be initially laid on software implementation,that is, basic software and softwarefor spectral treatmentof sound structures.Hardwareis specific to the approximationbetweensoftware and digital synthesis of signals. And such a support guaranteesthe pursuit of ArtificialIntelligence activities,particularlyas concerns formal languages for the constructionof structuresbearing a semanticcontent thatis graspable by human perception. That is to say, spoken word and sound aesthetics; a field where the analysisof signalsis of paramountimportance, provided it is performed in accordance with the theory that underpins the aforementioned language of sound-structure construction.The mechanisms of this language deal with the geometric nature of spectral organizationand with data structuresthat dwell in harmonic interactions[8]. In July 1984 CNPq acknowledged receipt of the spectral processing laboratory research grant application. On 1 February 1985 Arcela was told in writing that 30,170,500 cruzeiros [9] had been made available to him. Spectral processing was music to the ears of science and technology officers, and Arcela's entrance to a treasure trove of public funding in a period that came immediately after the demise of the military regime, which had set firmly in place a policy of market reserve for computing [10] and the ideology of national independence in the field as a matter of national security. Accordingly, science and technology agencies had been-and, for a while, kept beFrom 1985 to endowed. ing-richly 1987, the electrical engineering department played host to Assis, Brandio, Arcela and his students. Everything in the Spectral Processing Laboratory revolved around the concept of time trees. The lab ran Music V on PCs to render audible spectral charts computed by time trees. Brandao and Assis developed a sound card. Vicente Nogueira

Filho,

a research

student,

sought to overcome Music V's deficien-

cies, thus doing groundwork for Som-A, Arcela's own programming language for additive synthesis [11]. Homero Piccolo, another research student, sought to implement a graphic program to compute geometries and lights from time-tree scores (Color Plate B No. 1) [12]. On 21 October 1986 Arcela presented "Time-Trees: the Inner Organization of Intervals" at the Twelfth International Computer Music Conference, in the Hague. In July 1987 he and his team organized a panel on computer music in the Thirty-Ninth Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), in Brasilia. Arcela spoke on algorithmic composition, Brandao on the controlling of synthesizers by computers, Piccollo on Euof sounds clidean representation through computer graphics, and Nogueira Filho on the performance of polyphonic scores by means of a LISP program. In 1988 Nogueira Filho and Piccolo earned their degrees with their theses "Modular Additive Synthesis: A Programmable Spectral Machine" and "Tridimensional Figure Editor Endowed with Interactive Polyhedral Operations." In 1990 Ricardo de Sousa Ribeiro Nascimento earned his own degree with "Graphic Editor of Spectral Envelopes Based on the Geometric Correspondence between Curves." In the second half of 1987, Crist6vam Buarque, the principal of Brasilia University, invited Arcela to join a group of lecturers in the creation of a computer science department. Arcela made the creation of a master's program in computer music a condition of his transfer. In the same year, the Spectral Processing Laboratory moved to the computer science department. By 1989 a master's program in computer science with emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and research interests in sound computing, computer graphics and non-conventional architectures was in place. AI was ... the only areawe could convincinglyargue for. Emphasisareasare registeredwithin the Office for Development of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES),and we could not have chosen an item that was not listed under "computing"in the official repertory of names. Computergraphicswas a siblingof sound computing,and they justified one another.As for "non-conventional architectures," this was a kind of concession to a staff member. At the time we were only three Ph.D.s, and this was one of the hardest nuts to crack when it came to convincing Brasilia University and CAPES [13].

Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The degree included courses in applied formal logic, AI, languages for AI, spectral information structures, composition of sound forms, spectral computer graphics, treatment of images, non-conventional architectures, languages for concurrent programming, and distributed operational systems. There were readings in sound and image perception as well as further topics in AI, sound computing and computer architectures. The final dissertation could fall under AI, sound computing, computer architectures or image processing. Eighty candidates turned out to compete for six places, which went to three computer scientists, two musicians with backgrounds in science and technology, and a biologist.

PORTO ALEGRE, 1986-1988:

Fig. 2. From March to December 1975, Aluizio Arcela worked to design this spectra-generating system, which he built in the electrical engineering department of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro from January to December 1976. (? Aluizio Arcela)

MIRANDA AND COLLEAGUES The latter half of the 1980s saw experimentation elsewhere, notably in Porto Alegre and Salvador [14]. In 1986 Moyses Lopes Filho, a composition student of Frederico Richter at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), transferred to the degree program in guitar performance of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where Eduardo Miranda, who taught the C and BASIC programming languages to students in the National Service for Commercial Learning (SENAC), was also completing a degree in music. Sharing an admiration for Qorpo Santo's and Mario de Andrade's writings, and a disdain towards what they perceived as the facade modernism of the Musica Viva (Living Music) and Misica Nova (New Music) groups, Lopes Filho and Miranda joined forces in the creation of Tupiniqarte, a privately owned laboratory for computer music research, in the earlier half of 1986. We wanted to advance anew the national musicalvalues that had been ignored by those "Misica This or That" movements [15] of Rio deJaneiro and Sao Paulo. Moyses, for instance, wanted to take up Villa-Lobos'swork, but with technological means. As for myself, I took a more independent stand.Wewere both after an evolution of the musicallanguage, startingfrom the use of new technologicalresources. ...

So, we created that name combin-

ing the words tupiniquim(meaning Indians' thing) [16] and arte[art], but we used the "q"without the "u," as in QorpoSanto. We knew that, so far as technological development was concerned, we could not compete with American centers or even with the

Brasiliacenter. We then opted for going Native, making do with whatever we had at hand, but in a very anthropophagic[17] sense, in Oswald de Andrade'sliteralsense [18]. Tupiniqarte was located above the Cacique cinema, in Rua da Praia, once the political and intellectual center of Porto Alegre, the capital of the southernmost Brazilian state. Using an electronic organ [19], a Sinclair ZX-81 [20], and an MSX [21] to which an external interface [22] with MIDI in and out and some simple FM capabilities was attached, Lopes Filho and Miranda set to elaborate programs for FM synthesis and algorithmic composition (Fig. 4). On 23 April 1987, Tupiniqarte put on a multimedia performance for the launching of the ninth issue of the anarchopunk magazine Cobra in the Teatro da Companhia de Artes, in Rua da Praia. The 40-minute concert was called Apokalipse,in an allusion to issues concerning the Y2K bug [23] and the misuse of technology. Miranda created the music and did the sound diffusion. Lopes Filho created the graphic work, did the lighting and projected the videotaped VDU images. Elton Scartazzini, a Cobra editor, had developed his own technique for playing the violin upside down. He took the center stage. The unwritten violin part was largely improvised, "similarly to a jazz piece, where you know what to do at certain points, but you seldom do the same all the time" [24]. According to Miranda, I particularly liked the Porto Alegre show: it had a performance atmo-

sphere to it; there was a reception afterwards,people were dressed up, etc. True, it was a bit late in the eighties (perhapsfiveyearsor so?), considering what was going on in terms of electronic arts in Europe or the USA, but we did it, unlike anybody else, either before or even afterus! [25] In September 1987 Miranda and Scartazzini landed in Brasilia to present an hour-long version of the Cobraperformance in the First Latin American Festival of Art and Culture [26]. On the evening of 21 September, the music auditorium of Brasilia University displayed onstage a white screen flanked by two loudspeakers; to one side before the screen, a chair and a microphone; at each corner of the auditorium, one loudspeaker; and in the middle of the audience, the sound diffusion equipment. The lights went off and electronically treated samples of sermons by Brazilian fanatics rose. The projection waxed and waned. A heavy-metalbeat kicked in. Unnoticed, Scartazzini entered the stage and sat down. A spotlight faded in. The upside-down violin soared from its chair against a backcloth of synthesized sounds and samples from telenovelas,radio stations and LPs. Afterwards, members of the audience paid their compliments to the artists backstage. Miranda recalled that some of them were ufologists and astrologists who ran some sort of new age art exhibition [27]. Two days later, the Shows column of Correiodo Brasil ran a review,which said: Few have dared to innovate or leave aside the pre-establishedlanguagethat defines what is or is not art. The

Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

15

:

ElektroplastikKonsert[28] eschewsall rules and will certainly remain as the most commented event, given the boldness with which it seeks to break awayfrom tradition [29]. As room rental and equipment-maintenance bills got out of hand in mid1987, Tupiniqarte shut down, the equipment was sold and Lopes Filho settled into a career in law. Undaunted, Miranda teamed up with Carlos Guerra, a prospective electrical engineer with a keen interest in electronic music, to create a new computer music laboratory, which would liaise with the UFRGS Arts Institute and Data Processing Center. The Arts Institute had just bought an Apple II+ [30] for the library. Since library staff apparently had no wish to learn how to use it, Miranda requested that machine and the director approved its transferal with no further ado. The team developed a MIDI interface for the Apple II+ [31], obtained funds through the music department for printing the circuit and acquiring the electronic components, got an engineer in the Data Processing Center to assemble the circuit and did the operational programming for the MIDI pro-

tocol themselves. They soon managed to buy a PC and Miranda started experimenting with music grammars, using the AI language PROLOG instead of the LISP paradigm, which Arcela favored. Labirinto(1987), for six computers, sampler and percussion, is the most significant piece of this period [32]. Labirinto was performed 23 September 1988 during the First Meeting of Composers from the Southern Region, in Porto Alegre. The local press was not amused. The artist announced a twentyminute piece and stayedonstagefor forty[33], playingthe pianoand the soundsof the six computers and one samplerthatwerestoredin and generatedbya quarter-inchtape recorder,while variouscolleagues of his hit cans and iron pieces and even used an electricsawto cut tin, thusproducing an unbearablenoise [34]. Labirintowas pitched against "the traditional and pleasant SonatinaA ... ," "the good Sonata B ... ," "the mature Suite C.

. . " "the interesting Monolith. . .," "the

beautiful Divertimento D . . ," "the most "the excellent beautiful Sonata E . .

Duo F...," "the beautiful SonatinaG...."

UnB a N1 ^CIA EMCIE MESTRADO _-NCIA DACOMPUTA)IjQ . .:: :: \L .

Areade:Conrcentraao

.

Fig. 3. A graphic representationof one of Arcela'stime trees-the leitmotif of his research.

;:

(? Aluizio Arcela)

.:.

. .!

..,: ":

INTELUGNCIAARTIFICIA :

.

. ... :: :

.

LinhasdeoPesqiisa : : ?

?

COMPUTA(AO ScNIC/ .:

. : :: .

. ::: ~

COMPUTA?AO GRAFIC

ARQUITETURASNAO CONVENFs A:i. ... Para Alunos

.:

.:.

.. .::.

..c,B'ts

i ' ? ..i:

?

....

.

..

.....

emCia cam Bacharelado ncva da Computaido Matecna Ei!trica. Fiosof a. MOtisca. PSLcoiO.,3a. L,nguwst$ca, Fismad.

f Informag6es: Universidade cde Brasili;a Instituto de Ciincias Exaatas Departamento de Ci6ncia da ComputaaSo Brasilia, DF - CEP 709110 Tel.: (061) 3468-2705 J) Y

16

PARIS, 1993: MIRANDA MEETS RAMALHO One of the two musicians in the first batch of graduate students at the computer science department of Brasilia University was Geber Lisboa Ramalho, from Paraiba, the easternmost Brazilian state. Having grown up to the sounds of Geraldo Azevedo, Vital Farias, Sivuca and his own cousins, Elba and Ze Ramalho [35], who often performed live at the family home, Geber Ramalho learned to play the guitar from his father, Luiz Ramalho, a regular partner of Luiz Gonzaga [36], the King of Baiao [37]. Geber Ramalho attended music courses, enrolled in electrical engineering at the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB) and decided to train as a sound engineer in the music industry. Elba Ramalho, a PolyGram artist, introduced him to Luigi Hoffer, the studio manager in Rio. Ramalho was accepted to start immediately. His scientific background and willingness to do everything soon earned him the trust of his colleagues and the offer of a permanentjob, which he declined. "It was by Aluizio's hands that I got into computer music; nothing as daring or glorious as with Eduardo or Aluizio himself' [38]. Ramalho's profile fulfilled Arcela's academic ideal: "amongst all I have supervised, Geber was probably the one who believed the most in my preaching (often in the wilderness) on art, science and technology, the one who succeeded best in putting that preaching into practice" [39]. In the early 1990s, Miranda was attempting to make a digital sound-synthesis system understand descriptions of sounds in natural language at the AI and Music Group of Edinburgh University; Ramalho was researching automatic accompaniment systems at the Laboratoire Formes et Intelligence Artificielle (LAFORIA) [40], Institut Blaise Pascal (IBP), Universit6 Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI). Miranda and Ramalho had met in 1986, during the First National Meeting for Instrumental Music, organized by the composer Toninho Horta in the historic town of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. In May 1993 Miranda set off to Paris to visit the research team of Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, Ramalho's supervisor, and meet Gerard Assayag and Gerhard Eckel, who were conducting AI research at IRCAM. Miranda stayed with Ramalho for a couple of weeks. One evening, they asked themselves: "What can we do to

Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Sound (OASIS). In the following year, Mauricio Alves Loureiro, an aeronautics engineer, a virtuoso clarinetist and newly appointed lecturer at the Music School of UFMG,joined OASIS. Chairing the music section of the TwentyFourth Winter Festival of UFMG in 1992, Loureiro invited Arcela, of whom he had read in the pages of the Folha de SdoPaulo newspaper, to conduct a computer music workshop with OASIS in Belo Horizonte. Arcela brought Brandao, Anselmo Guerra de Almeida and Ramalho with him. In the wake of the 1993 Paris meeting, Miranda and Ramalho contacted Arcela, Loureiro and Paula Filho. Ramalho set up the computer music discussion list on the Esquina das Listas server of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). Paula Filho and Loureiro secured Fig. 4. EduardoMirandaand MoysesLopes Filho at workin their privatestudio, was NUCOM's welcome to convene under Because knew so far as the that, development Tupiniqarte. composers technological concerned, they could not compete withAmericancenters or even with Brasilia,they opted SBC's auspices. CNPq and the Minas for "goingNative,"makingdo withwhateverthey had at hand. (Photo ? EvertonBalardin) Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG)supported the event generfoster computer music research in Braother. In our view,this situation is not ously. In a meeting at the University of conduciveto the fast and efficient conzil?" They decided to post a call on the California, San Diego, Loureiro obsolidation of Computer Music in the Internet. On 7 July 1993 Miranda and tained the support of a Rockefeller [42]. country Ramalho launched the NUCOM on the Foundation technology exchange proWorld Wide Web. They proposed (1) to foster ex- gram underway between two universities between Brazilian researchers/ in California and one in Argentina [43]. changes for muAssessingprospects computer Over 100 people enrolled for the First sic researchin Brazil,we have come to composers; (2) to create an embryonic the conclusion that this is an appropriBrazilian Society for Computer Music; Brazilian Symposium on Computer Muate time to starta nucleus, which shall (3) to facilitateireintegration into the sic, chaired by Loureiro in the balneal function as both a point of reference national scene of Brazilians doing re- town of Caxambu, in Minas Gerais state, and a forum for researchersand intersearch abroad; (4) to organize the First 2-5 August 1994, in conjunction with the ested parties. We knowof people who alreadywork Brazilian Symposium on Computer Mu- Fourteenth Conference of the Brazilian or are starting to work on Computer sic; and (5) to promote publications, Computer Society. On the eve of the Musicat the Universityof Brasilia,the concerts and activities. To attain the first opening ceremony, Ivan Moura Campos, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio goal, a catalog of researchers, compos- the Brazilian Officer for Information Grandedo Sul, the State Universityof ers and activities as well as a library of Technology, summoned Loureiro and and the Federal Universities Campinas, of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Maria, theses, articles and compositions were SBC president Ricardo Reis to a meetSanta Catarina, Pernambuco, and Miranda and Ramalho intuited ing. The Proceedingsof the First Brazilian planned. MinasGerais [41]. Manyof these unithe advantages of affiliating NUCOM to Symposiumon ComputerMusic had conversitieshave not only potential for inan umbrella in Music courses organization such as a uni- vinced him that NUCOM met all recluding Computer their undergraduateand graduatecurversity, the Brazilian Computer Society quirements for special committee status riculabut also the desire to do so. The (SBC), the Brazilian Society for the Ad- within SBC. In the opening roundtable, computer science department of vancement of Science (SBPC), the Bra- Reis presented a formal invitation. On 5 BrasiliaUniversityhas had a Master'sin zilian Society for Acoustics (SOBRAC) August 1994, symposium participants Computer Music going on for four or even UNESCO. However, the initia- [44] voted for the creation of the Special yearsand the Informaticsand Statistics tive that would take NUCOM into the Committee on Computer Music of the department of the Federal University of SantaCatarinahas included a Comheart of SBC did not come from Paris Brazilian Computer Society. puter Musiccourse in its undergradubut from Belo Horizonte instead. To date, NUCOM has staged seven ate curriculum. successive symposia on computer music, In addition, there are Braziliansdoin the towns of Caxambu (1994), Canela ing Master's,Ph.D.s and post-docs in BELO HORIZONTE, 1993relevant areas abroad, particularlyin (1995), Recife (1996), Brasilia (1997), the U.S.A., the U.K., France, Canada, 1994: LOUREIRO MAKESIT Belo Horizonte (1998), Rio de Janeiro the Netherlands and Austria, besides HAPPEN (1999) and Curitiba (2000). Arcela and the countless cases of composers and interestedpartieswho are not affiliated In 1990 Wilson de Padua Paula Filho, a Loureiro are still lecturing in the Comto anyacademicinstitution.As a matter lecturer in the computer science depart- puter Science Department of Brasilia of fact, a growingnumberof Brazilians ment of the Federal University of Minas University and in the Music School of is workingon ComputerMusic.UnforGerais (UFMG), created the Laboratory the Federal University of Minas Gerais, these interact tunately, people rarely and often do not even know each anfor Analysis and Synthesis of Image and respectively; Miranda now does research

Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

17

C

at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory of Paris; Ramalho has taken up a lectureship at the Computer Center of the Federal University of Pernambuco. Acknowledgments The present article derives from interviews conducted with Aluizio Arcela, Mauricio Loureiro, Eduardo Miranda, Geber Ramalho, Conrado Silva and Guido Stolfi between 1 August 1999 and 7July 2000, as well as from copious written material (newspaper clippings, collections of abstracts, copies of documents, personal communications, etc.) and some photographs supplied by the interviewees themselves-all in all, 223 pages of E-mail messages, various attached files, photocopies and one interview on tape. Excepting some messages originally written in English by Miranda, all documents have been translated from Portuguese by the author.

References

and Notes

1. The results of Stolfi's research were presented in the 1976 Congress of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), in Brasilia, and in the 1979 Congress of the Acoustics Group of Latin America (GALA), in Curitiba. 2. A. Arcela, "Computacao & Misica," Jornal de Brasilia November (23 1994); and . 3. A. Arcela, "Re:eletr6nico/digital 2," E-mail message, 5 October 1999. 4. Arcela explains: "Music can be described according to data structures that dwell in its smaller particles, where time and space combine into a single piece of information. This information represents a sort of genetic code, whose interpretation provides cues for explaining and building music itself. Musical events can be read from these well-formed data structures, also known as time trees." A. Arcela, "Re: artigo Leonardo," E-mail message, 3 July 2000. See also Arcela, "Time Trees: The Inner Organization of Intervals,"Proceedingsof the TwelfthInternationalComputer Music Conference(San Francisco: Computer Music Association, 1986) pp. 87-89; ; ; "Time Trees as Virtual Worlds,"Anais do XX CongressoNacional da SociedadeBrasileira de Vol. 1 (Curitiba: Champagnat, 2000) p. Computaado 166 (abstract) and CD-ROM (full text); "As arvores de tempos" ; (Brasilia: Universidade de Brasilia, 1996); "O objeto intervalar" (Brasilia: Universidade de Brasilia, 1999). 5. A. Arcela, "As arvores de tempos e a configuracio genetica dos intervalos musicais," Ph.D. dissertation, Computer Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio deJaneiro, 1984; For a revised version, accounting for visual implementations, see . 6. Arcela [2]. 7. A. Arcela, "A Criacao do LPE,"written personal communication, 9 September 1999. 8. A. Arcela, "Laborat6rio de Processamento Espectral," research project, June 1984. 9. On 1 February 1985 the U.S. dollar was officially rated at 3,567.00 and 3,585.00 cruzeiros (buying and selling, respectively); in the black market, at 3,820.00 and 3,920.00 cruzeiros, respectively. Arcela received the equivalent to about $8,000 U.S., which was roughly the price of a new Ford Escort.

18

10. Such a policy entailed subsidies to Brazilian manufacturers, overtaxation of imported goods and public funding for academic research in the field.

da lingua portuguesa(Brasilia: Santos, 1974); and A. Ferreira, Novo DiciondrioAurilio da lingua portuguesa (Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1986).

11. For a succinct description of Som-A, see E. Miranda, ComputerSound Synthesisfor the Electronic Musician (Oxford, U.K: Focal Press, 1998) pp. 4042; for a full description, see A. Arcela, "A Linguagem SOM-A para Sintese Aditiva," Anais do PrimeiroSimp6sioBrasileiro de Computacdoe Muisica (Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 1994) pp. 33-38; Available at ; ftp: . For installation procedures and the manual see .

17. The first bishop of Brazil, Dom Pero Fernandes Sardinha, did not approve of what he perceived as the Jesuits' leniency towards native South American mores. In 1556 he went to Portugal for an audience with the king. That ship sank and Dom Pero Sardinha swam ashore only to be devoured by members of the Caete tribe. In 1928 the Brazilian intellectual Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954) enshrined the swallowing of Dom Pero Sardinha in Brazilian culture as the founding act of national modernism. For a critical reading of de Andrade's anthropophagism, see H. de Hollanda, "The Law of the Cannibal or How to Deal with the Idea of 'Difference' in Brazil," ; , originally a talk given at New York University, May 1998.

12. In the words of Arcela, "there exists a bi-univocal relation between intervallic information and pictorial images; the form and disposition of visual objects, as well as their colors and textures, are calculated from the ensemble of physical magnitudes that express themselves in the musical interval, with no room for arbitrariness." A. Arcela, "Re: artigo Leonardo," E-mail message, 3July 2000. For a gallery of Arcela's time-tree computed images, see . 13. A. Arcela, "Re: LPE,"E-mail message, 4 November 1999. 14. With help from Raimundo Cavalcante and Jamary Oliveira, Celso Aguiar developed an experimental digital synthesizer, the MS-80, at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). See C. Aguiar, "Sintetizador MS-80:Prototipos de Hardware e Software," Opus 1 (1989) pp. 79-85; (review of the National Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Music [ANPPOM]); Aguiar, "Aspectos do Projeto de um Sintetizador Digital Multi-Canais," Art 20 (1992) pp. 41-49 (Review of the Music School of the Federal University of Bahia). 15. In 1937 German composer Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, a former assistant of Scherchen, brought the 12-tone technique to Brazil. In 1939 he created Musica Viva, a concert society devoted to the promotion of contemporary music, of which distinguished Nationalist composers took part. Little by little, younger composers started gathering around Koellreutter's teaching in Rio. Claudio Santoro was already experimenting with dodecaphonism when he came to Koellreutter in 1940 and Cesar Guerra Peixe willingly disowned his Nationalist creed in 1944 upon joining. The group issued manifestos in 1940, 1944 and 1946. Misica Viva accepted musical Nationalism but abhorred "feelings of national superiority" and excessive formalism. However, because the group shared Communist Party ideals, a confrontation loomed, as Nationalist composers became gradually associated with the increasingly fascist Getulio Vargas regime (1930-1945). In fact, Santoro and Guerra Peixe had already converted-or Nareconverted-to tionalism in 1950, when, in the national press, the Nationalist composer Camargo Guarnieri savaged dodecaphonism and Koellreutter in foul terms. It was the Nationalist composers of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s who brought an indigenous brand of Socialist Realism to fruition. The Musica Nova group, to which Gilberto Mendes belonged, started gathering in Sao Paulo around the concrete poets of the Noigandres group in the 1950s. They "went to Darmstadt in 1962 'to find out first hand what was happening in total serialism, and were shocked to discover that Europe had moved on,' a shock which caused two of the four to abandon 'serious' music entirely." See P. Mounsey, "Music in Brazil: Willy Corr&ade Oliveira and Gilberto Mendes," Contact31 (1987) pp. 21-26. Even so, they issued a manifesto inJune 1963. 16. The word tupiniquim-etymologically, "branch of the Tupi Indians"-designates an individual from a tribe of the Porto Seguro coast; as an adjective, it acquires the derogatory meaning of "typically Brazilian." See F.S. Bueno, Grandediciondrioetimologico

18. E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," E-mail message, 9 November 1999. 19. A SAEMAorgan, hugely popular among rumba and bolero bands active in local barbecue restaurants. "It was tawdry to the highest degree: screaming red and full of white knobs. We sampled it with a microphone." E. Miranda, "Re: trifles," E-mail message, 25 November 1999. 20. Mirandawrites on the ZX-81:"The Sinclair ZX-81 was a very small computer; it had lk RAM (I'm not saying 'Kb,' it's 'k' really). This machine was produced by a British maker, but I think some Brazilian company was licensed to manufacture it, as I remember reading everything in Portuguese. I used it as a controller for an electronic synthesizer that my father had made for the studio (as you may know, he's an electronic technician!). It never worked too well, but that's research, I suppose." From E. Miranda, "Re:old machines," E-mail message, 10 November 1999. For more information on and photographs of the ZX-81, see Carlson's Obsolete Computer Museum . 21. Miranda notes on the MSX: "The MSX was a Japanese computer. Much as we now have Amiga, Atari, PC, Sun, Mac, Silicon Graphics, etc., then we had the MSX, which was very popular in Brazil. Brazil actually happened to manufacture the MSX, and Yamaha even launched an MSX for music purposes, which was the first commercial workstation for computer music (ours was nonetheless the standard MSX and not Yamaha's). The interesting things about the MSX were the ease of programming and the fact that it came with a sound chip that could be programmed in BASIC. The sound chip was very simple. It could generate up to three simultaneous waveforms from a choice of sine, sawtooth, square and ramp, and combining these in different ways one could obtain a variety of sounds. I think the output was 8-bit, as compared to the 32 you can get today. The sound was no big deal but it was possible to do things that sounded terrific in those days." From E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," Email message, 9 November 1999. This machine had remarkable graphic capabilities. For a history of the MSX, see ; for the Yamaha MSX, see ; for the Sony MSX, see ; for images of an MSX prototype, see ; tory of the MSX with particular reference to its Brazilian career, see . 22. The MSX's interface was obtained from a local engineer who built a circuit that did the same job as Yamaha's SFG05 MIDI interface. "This happened because in 1986 we were living in the market reserve for informatics era. Don't even think of importing: it was either do it yourself or copy from abroad." M. Lopes Filho, cited by E. Miranda,

Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"informacoes adicionais," E-mail message, 24 November 1999. 23. "We did not know that this bug would be thus named or that there would be all this fuss about it. We were simply referring to a possible catastrophic computer crash due to the problem of dates. I became aware of it when a SENAC student asked me why databases employed only two digits for the year and I simply replied: 'to save memory.' 'Well,' she retorted, 'what will happen in the turn of the millennium?"' E. Miranda, "Re: Paris/LMJ," E-mail message, 9 December 1999. 24. E. Miranda, "performance duration," E-mail message, 29 November 1999. 25. E. Miranda, "Re: 23 de abril de 1987," E-mail message, 24 November 1999. 26. "It was funny because they received me there with the same pomp they accorded to Hermeto Pascoal and Tim Rescala, and I was more famous in Brasilia than in Porto Alegre, mind you. There were a photographer and a journalist waiting for me in the airport for an interview to the Correio Braziliense."E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," E-mail message, 9 November 1999. 27. E. Miranda, "Re: response," E-mail message, 29 November 1999. 28. Miranda recollects: "While in Brasilia, Elton and I went to the Portuguese Embassy to see the Ambassador. How petulant of us! Elton had written a treatise to change the orthography of the Portuguese language according to which "k"sounds should be written "k,""z"sounds should be written "z,"etc. (as in muzikaelektroplastika [elektroplastik muzik]). The ambassador obviously did not receive us but we were directed to a cultural attache or the like who listened very carefully, although I believe that at heart he couldn't care less. It was naive of us but I still laugh to myself when I remember this." E. Miranda, "Re:one date," E-mail message, 20 November 1999. 29. "Do you know what an elektroplastik muzik konsert is? Well, for those who have not seen it, this was a piece of music presented on Monday in the music auditorium of Brasilia University, which has played host to various stars since the beginning of the First Latin American Festival of Art and Culture. In reality, what we have seen thus far are good shows and excellent musicians, but all within the conventional boundaries, the jazz as usual kind of thing. Few have dared to innovate or leave aside the pre-established language, which defines what is or is not art. The Elektroplastik Konsert eschews all rules and will certainly remain as the most commented event, given the boldness with which it seeks to break away from tradition." Anonymous, "Espetaculos: revisitando partituras," Correio do Brasil (23 September 1987). 30. Carlson writes on the Apple II+: "Partof the historic Apple II line, the Apple II+ filled the gap between the Apple II and the more capable Apple IIe and Apple IIc. The twin drives each hold around 140k-160k, depending on whom I ask. The Apple II line-up was a staple of school for years .... [It] was enormously popular in its heyday. After a few stumbles, namely the Apple III and the Lisa, the Apple II line led to the equally impressive Macintosh line, starting with the Mac 128k." See Carlson's Obsolete Computer Museum . For front and back views of the Apple II+ see Carlson, , respectively. 31. Unlike the MSX's (see [21]), the Apple II+'s interface was made from scratch. 32. "The piece consists of a main sound plane, PLANE A, and two sub-planes, MIRROR 1 and MIRROR 2. PLANE A is made up of six cells, each corresponding to a sine wave generated by a micro-

processor. MIRROR 1 is made up of five events obtained by digital sampling. Sampled material [reverbed, chorused and flanged] is of electronic origin. Events are saturated with partials [i.e. they are very noisy]. MIRROR 2 is made up of m events of undetermined pitch and various origins in the realm of percussed metallic materials. The cells of PLANE A and the events of MIRROR 1 follow the execution and order procedures established by the score. The events of MIRROR 2 are elaborated by the interpreters, who play percussion instruments according to a free reading of the graphic schemes of PLANE A. The events of MIRROR 2 happen in accordance with the interpreters' aesthetic sensibility and formal conception. The events of MIRROR 1 are recorded on magnetic tape. Attached to the graphics of the cells of PLANE A one will find the musical theorems and the BASIC programming that will generate them in an Apple microcomputer." E. Miranda, Labirinto,8-page score (1987). 33. Miranda explains: "The playback speed of the machine we were supplied did not match the speed of our recording, and there was no facility for altering it. As a result, the tape played half as fast as it should have played, that is, one octave lower, and the performance lasted twice as long as it should have lasted. I almost stopped it at the outset, but then I liked the transposition and, besides, the guys onstage were all so excited about the whole thingthere were eight of them-that we just carried on." E. Miranda, "Re:Paris/LMJ," E-mail message, 9 December 1999. 34. G. Eitelvein, "Mfsica erudita precisa avancar," ZeroHora, Segundo Caderno (Porto Alegre, 26 September 1988). 35. Geraldo Azevedo, Vital Farias, Elba Ramalho and Ze Ramalho belong to a particular brand of Brazilian musicians who blend northeastern musics with pop styles. Sivuca, a composer and multi-instrumentalist, evokes Brazilian traditions in jazz performances. 36. Luiz Ramalho cultivated musical partnerships with various Brazilian artists, most constantly with Luiz Gonzaga, who has been credited with co-authorship of about a dozen compositions that, in reality, are by Ramalho alone. A lawyer by profession ("my dad always thought he'd have more freedom to compose what he wished if he didn't have to earn his living from music"), Luiz Ramalho died from leukemia in 1981, when his musical career was starting to take off. G. Ramalho, "Re: para Geber," E-mail message, 7January 2000. 37. In the nineteenth century the baiao was a favorite dance among the lower classes of the Brazilian northeast. In 1946 it started becoming widely known across the country through 78 RPM disks and the Rio de Janeiro radio stations in the voice of Luiz Gonzaga, a composer, accordionist and singer from the Pernambuco state who modified it under the influence of the Brazilian samba and Cuban conga. See L. da Camara Cascudo,

Diciondrio do folclore brasileiro

(Sao Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1980) pp. 95-97. 38. G. Ramalho, "Re: draft," E-mail message, 6 November 1999. 39. A. Arcela, "respostas," E-mail message, 9 September 1999. 40. Now known as Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris 6 (LIP6). 41. It is interesting to compare this list to the one Arcela draws 1?/2 years later: "Other than Brasilia University, one may cite the Federal Universities of Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo and Bahia, as well as Sao Paulo University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, as the Brazilian institutions where computer music is being practiced today."Arcela [2]. 42. E. Miranda and G. Ramalho, "NUCOM: Nucleo Brasileiro de Pesquisa em Computacao e Musica," E-mail message, 7July 1993.

43. The Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA,Stanford) sent DavidJaffe, Fernando L6pez-Lezcano, Dexter Morril and Xavier Serra; the Laboratorio de Investigaci6n y Producci6n Musical (LIPM, Buenos Aires) sent Francisco Kroepfl; the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA, San Diego) sent Robert Willey. Stephen Travis Pope arrived from the Center for New Music and Audio Technology (CNMAT, Berkeley), as a Symposium guest to describe musical applications of computer science to 1,000 members of the SBC audience. 44. Aluizio Arcela, Rodolfo Caesar, Regis Faria, Osman Gioia, Ricardo Jacobi, Mauricio Loureiro, Jose Augusto Mannis, J6natas Manzolli, Silvia Matheus, Eduardo Miranda, Axel Mulder, Jamary Oliveira, Wilson de Paula Filho, Ricardo Reis, Conrado Silva, Francisco Kroepfl, Robert Willey, Bernadete Zagonel and others.

Bibliography Andrade, Oswald de. "Manifesto antrop6fago," Revista de antropofagia1 (1928). Arcela, Aluizio, and Ramalho, Geber. "A Formal Composition System Based on the Theory of Time Trees," Proceedings of the SeventeenthInternational ComputerMusic Conference(Montreal: International Computer Music Association, 1991) pp. 246-249; . Loureiro, Mauricio Alves. "O NUCOM e a pesquisa em computacao e musica no Brasil," written personal communication, 1999. Maues, Igor Linz. "Misica eletroacuistica no Brasil: Composicao utilizando o meio eletr6nico, 19561981," master's dissertation, School of Communications and Arts, University of Sao Paulo, 1989. Neves, Jose Maria. MzusicaBrasileira Contempordnea (Sao Paulo: Ricordi Brasileira, 1982). Silva de Marco, Conrado. "Musica eletroacfistica na America Latina," Art 13 (1985) pp. 105-115. Review of the Music School of the Federal University of Bahia.

Discography Arcela, Aluizio. /cartas/rs95.car, on CD accompanying Proceedingsof the SecondBrazilian Symposiumon Brasileira de Computer Music (Sociedade Computacao, Brazil, 1995). Miranda, Eduardo. ElectroacousticSambaII and III, on CulturesElectroniques,Srie IMEB/UNESCO/CIME, Vol. 12, Mnemonsyne CD LDC 278068/69 (1999), France. SambaX, on 0.0. Miranda, Eduardo. Electroacoustic Discs CD oo45 (1998), U.S.A. Miranda, Eduardo. Goma Ardbica on Musica Eletroacuistica Brasileira,Vol. 1, (Sociedade Brasileira de Mfsica Eletroacfistica CD SBME 001, Brazil, 1996). Miranda, Eduardo. Olivine Trees,on CD accompanying Proceedingsof the SecondBrazilian Symposiumon Brasileira de Computer Music (Sociedade Computacao, Brazil, 1995). Miranda, Eduardo. Requiem per una veu perduda (movements III and IV), on CD accompanying OrganisedSound 3, No. 3 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998).

Scores Miranda, Eduardo. Entre I'Absurdeet le Mystere,instrumentation: chamber orchestra (Brazil: Edicoes Musicais Goldberg,2001). N.B.: composition based on cellular automata.

Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

19

e

Miranda, Eduardo. WeeBatucada Scotica,instrumentation: string quartet (Brazil: Edicoes Musicais Goldberg, 1999). N.B.: second movement algorithmically generated.

Webliography

Eduardo Miranda homepage: . Paulo Motta, "BrazilianElectroacoustic Music" .

A specialist in the writings ofPierre Schaeffer Carlos Palombini has participated in the ac-

tivities of the Brazilian Groupfor Computer r

Music Research since 1998. His articles have appeared in Computer Music Journal, Music and Letters, MikroPolyphonie, Organised Sound, Electronic Musico-

Aluizio Arcela homepage: .

Music,Musicologyand AppliedTechnologyGroup (GMT), Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB), website:. NUCOMweb site:.

Leonardo, logical Review, Synteesi, Leonardo Music Journal and Leonardo

Tom Carlson, "Obsolete Computer Museum": .

Geber

Electronic Almanac.

www.cin.ufpe.br/~glr/>.

Celso Aguiar homepage: .

Laboratory for Analysis and Synthesis of Image and Sound (OASIS), Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), website: . Laboratory of Multimedia Computing (formerly, Spectral Processing Laboratory), Brasilia University, website: .

20

Ramalho

homepage:


Robert Willey, "Computer Music in Brazil" .

Manuscript received 17 March 2000.

Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions