I was a MA/MST student at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Accoustics.
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In 154 we read "Why Computer Music Sucks" and "Who Cares if You Listen?" Both very interesting, and thought-provoking. I want to amend my statement from yesterday's post about music being a "pure expression of emotion." There are other perfectly valid ways of coming up with music - such as sonification, mathematics, algorithmic generation, etc. I have heard some very interesting results here from these efforts and even tried using these techniques myself. Even though these processes are arguably devoid of emotion they do produce a musical result. It's often difficult for me to explain what exactly it is we do here at CCRMA, and I've talked with other MSTs who have the same problem. Maybe the best answer is "I don't know... yet." If we are researchers pushing the boundary of computer music then that seems like a valid answer. When I first came here I expected to get a lot of training, get up to speed on the state-of-the-art in computer music, and then go on my merry way. But now I'm finding that I'm starting to rethink some things I took for granted about music. I think that's a good thing; maybe after more time thinking and experimenting I will be able to evolve as a composer in some way. But in the meantime I'll keep on doing whatever it is that I do.