My research for the "performance" principle of digital sound composition was quickly deflated. I owe much of this to Steven Travis Pope, who kindly spoke with me on a few occasions with regard to his craft. As the above picture indicates, to approach the question of performance would be to conform the assemblage of discourse and technique that currently goes into "computer music." With the MAT lab here on campus as a great example, engineering, programming, musicology, cognitive science, and even physics claim a piece of the pie. I have even been told that math professor here on campus is writing a book entitled Music of the Primes--an exploration of the how prime numbers produce interesting patters for digital sound synthesis.

The task of understanding the complexity and heterogeneity at work in contemporary digital music is daunting. When a numerical, abstract function is capable of transforming a sound microtonally, it's clear that we have gone well beyond the understanding of musicology and the musical referent.

Musicians have always been involved with advancing their knowledge of technological tools. The history of tuning and temperament is long and storied, with musicians needing to learn mathematics in order to gain more control over the production of sounds. JS Bach, for example, had a piece called Well Tempered Clavier that was distinguished for its innovative use of "well tempered tuning."

In this portion of my project I will offer a synopsis of computer music through four decades, articulating the trends that the technological innovations impacted. Digital, computational sound creation rose out of two competing movements in the 1950s: musique concrete and electronische musik. However, purely computational music operated without these two historical forces guiding their process. Rather, with John Chowning as a pioneer of FM synthesis, the thrust of computer music was towards creating unique sounds and psychoacoustic effects.

So what can digital computation allow a composer? The answer to the question appears to be "anything." From perfecting precision over harmonic tones, to gaining more control over the acoustics of a performance, technology seems to fit within the already existent discourses of music production. We find the same debates that took place in the 60s are relevant today. Kim Cascone sees "the poles of performance" in the digital field in much the same way earlier Experimental musicians did:

"1) The role of the individual in the performance of electronic music. 2) The migration of electronic music to pop culture. 3) Acousmatic music presentation in academic music culture and... 4) The expectations of an audience in various cultural settings. "(8)

Therefore I ask, what has been experimental about some of the digital compositions being done today? If digital music is no longer tied to a referent other than the performance of its code and the interaction between composer and system, then what artists are worth taking a look at?