What was the impact of the development of computer science on music composition practices since the mid-20th century ? What are the links between computer programming and music composition?
We will discuss the genealogical succession of informatics languages and softwares used for music composition in «art music» and the way both were implemented and used by computer engineers and composers, in a interactive and cross-fertilised movement.
In this study, we firstly consider the growth of an «invisible college». From a small community of music-loving computer engineers, composers seeking solutions or inspiration in informatics languages joined the community. Both composers and engineers contributing to a common work through their various competences and needs, a cross-fertilised movement arose from this intellectual symbiosis. This movement was reinforced by academic institutions. An «invisible college» early springs up at the end of the 1960's, in a strong interaction with IT networks and leads to the rise of a specific «epistemic community».
More precisely, we will discuss how informatics shaped music composition and how related composition issues lead up to new intellectual and creative dynamics among this community. While studiing several piece of art we will deeply focus on specific time dynamics of both informatics and music composition. Indeed lags and convergence of this two technical an esthetic historicities gave birth to creativity in this two fields.
This study is conducted by using several engineers' and composers' testimonies extracted from specific books, specialized music reviews and scientific conferences's proceedings, and secondary sources which conduct analysis of musical works.