Kristen Roos

In 1984, Joel Chadabe founded Intelligent Computer Music Systems Inc, known simply as Intelligent Music. Chadabe was a musician and educator, and an early champion of interactive computer music and composition. In a short period of time (1986-1990) Intelligent Music published a series of MIDI sequencing software titles that would have rippling effects throughout the music world. These programs were a reflection of Chadabe’s desire to create intelligent, algorithmic tools that allowed users to adjust aspects of their music while a computer algorithm was composing it (M, Jam Factory, UpBeat, MidiDraw, Ovaltune, Realtime, as well as an unreleased first version of Miller Puckette’s Max). Intelligent compositional tools for computers had been floating around for decades in mainframe computer labs (particularly in the work of Max Mathews and Laurie Spiegel at Bell Labs), but they had largely only been accessible to people working in academic or corporate laboratories. With the birth of Intelligent Music, these tools became available to anyone with a home studio.

As the personal computers of this era had become less expensive and more accessible, they had also grown exponentially in processing power and seeming intelligence. Many wondered if machine consciousness couldn’t be far behind. In the music press from this time, we find the same two words used again and again to describe algorithmic computer systems: smart and intelligent. The tone of such articles may seem quaint by today’s standards, when AI and algorithmic control underpin so much of our technology, but the question of machine intelligence remains.