Editing Computer Music Center

{{Short description|Columbia University electronic music research facility established in 1959}}
{{For|the 1964 album|Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center (album){{!}}''Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center'' (album)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2018}}
The '''Computer Music Center''' ('''CMC''') at [[Columbia University]] is the oldest center for [[electronic music|electronic]] and [[computer music]] research in the [[United States]]. It was founded in the 1950s as the '''Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center'''.

== Location ==
The CMC is housed in [[Prentis Hall]], 632 West 125th Street, [[New York City]], across the street from Columbia's 17-acre [[Manhattanville, Manhattan|Manhattanville]] campus. The facility consists of a large graduate research facility specializing in computer music and multimedia research, as well as [[musical composition|composition]] and [[recording studio]]s for student use. Projects to come out of the CMC since the 1990s include:

* [[ArtBots]]
* [[dorkbot]]
* [[PeRColate]]
* [[Real-Time Cmix]]

The director of the CMC is [[Seth Cluett]], and the CMC offers classes taught by [[George E. Lewis]], [[Seth Cluett]], [[David Soldier]], Anna Meadors, and [[Ben Holtzman]], as well as visiting faculty who give seminars every year. In collaboration with the Visual Arts Program in the Columbia University School of the Arts, the Computer Music Center offers a Sound Art MFA Program directed by [[Miya Masaoka]]. The program was founded in 2014 by Douglas Repetto who served as Director until 2016.

==History==
The forerunner of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center was a studio founded in the early 1950s by [[Columbia University]] professors [[Vladimir Ussachevsky]] and [[Otto Luening]], and [[Princeton University]] professors [[Milton Babbitt]] and [[Roger Sessions]]. Originally concerned with experiments in music [[musical composition|composition]] involving the new technology of reel-to-reel [[tape music|tape]], the studio soon branched out into all areas of electronic music research. The center was officially established with a grant from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] in 1959 which was used to finance the acquisition of the [[RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer]] from its owner, RCA.

[[File:RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, Computer Music Center at Columbia University, NIME2007.jpg|thumb|right|300px|RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, Computer Music Center at Columbia University]]
The center's flagship piece of equipment, the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, was delivered in 1957 after it was developed to Ussachevsky and Babbitt's specifications. The RCA (and the center) were re-housed in [[Prentis Hall]], a building off the main Columbia campus on 125th Street. Significant pieces of electronic music realized on the Synthesizer included Babbitt's ''Vision and Prayer'' and [[Charles Wuorinen]]'s ''[[Time's Encomium]]'', which was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 1964 [[Columbia Records]] released an album titled simply ''[[Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (album)|Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center]]'', which was produced principally on the RCA synthesizer.

[[File:RCA Mark II victor - closeup (1).jpg|thumb|right|300px|The "Victor" (nickname of RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer) at the CMC was one of the first synthesizers. Exponents thought it would replace the orchestra, but it turned out to be difficult to keep consistent. Instead it was given to Columbia which used it to teach [[avant-garde]] electronic musicians.]]
Most of the luminaries in the field of electronic music (and [[avant-garde]] music in general) visited, worked, or studied at the Electronic Music Center, including [[Edgard Varèse]], [[Chou Wen-chung]], [[Halim El-Dabh]], [[Michiko Toyama]], [[Bülent Arel]], [[Mario Davidovsky]], [[Charles Dodge (composer)|Charles Dodge]], [[Pril Smiley]], [[Alice Shields]], [[Wendy Carlos]], Dariush Dolat-Shahi, [[Kenjiro Ezaki]] and [[Luciano Berio]]. The center also acted as a [[Consultant|consulting]] agency for other electronic music studios in the [[Western Hemisphere]], giving them advice on optimum studio design and helping them purchase equipment.

The staff engineers at the center under [[Peter Mauzey]] developed customized equipment to solve the needs of the composers working at the center. These include early prototypes of [[delay (audio effect)|tape delay]] machines, [[quadraphonic]] mixing consoles, and analog [[trigger pad|trigger]]s designed to facilitate [[interoperability]] between other (often custom-made) synthesizer equipment. The center also had a large collection of [[Buchla]], [[Moog synthesizer|Moog]], and [[Serge Modular]] synthesizers.

By the late 1970s the Electronic Music Center was rapidly nearing obsolescence as its classical [[analog tape]] techniques were being surpassed by parallel work in the field of [[computer music]]. By the mid-1980s the Columbia and Princeton facilities had ceased their formal affiliation, with the Princeton music department strengthening its affiliation with [[Bell Labs]] and founding a computer music studio under [[Godfrey Winham]] and [[Paul Lansky]] (see [[Princeton Sound Lab]]).

The original Columbia facility was re-organized in 1995 under the leadership of [[Brad Garton]] and was renamed the Columbia University Computer Music Center. Garton served as Director from 1995 until 2021, when [[Seth Cluett]] became Director joined by [[Anna Meadors]] as Assistant Director.

== Associates ==
* Seth Cluett, Director, Lecturer in Computer Music and Sound Studies
* Anna Meadors, Assistant Director
* [[Brad Garton]], Director Emeritus, Professor of Music
* [[Miya Masaoka]], Director of the Sound Arts MFA Program
* [[Fred Lerdahl]], Professor of Music
* [[Chou Wen-chung]], Professor of Music
* [[George E. Lewis]], Professor of Music
* Zosha Di Castri, Assistant Professor of Music

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
* [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7222/full/456576a.html "Q&A: electronic music comes of age"] (interview with director of research [[Douglas Repetto]]), by Daniel Cressey, ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', Vol. 456, N° 7222, December 4, 2008, pg. 576; {{doi|10.1038/456576a}}, {{OCLC|277860870|297908483|4654412850}}, {{ISSN|0028-0836}}

==External links==
* [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/cpemc.html Columbia history of the Electronic Music Center]
* [http://www.furious.com/perfect/ohm/columbiaprinceton.html Ohm site on the Electronic Music Center]
* [http://music.columbia.edu/cmc The Computer Music Center, Columbia University]
* [http://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/ Princeton Sound Lab]
*{{cite web|last=Obourn |first=Nick |title=Center for Computer Music: 60 Years of Revolutionary Sound |url=http://news.columbia.edu/oncampus/2626 |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |access-date=2011-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108064704/http://news.columbia.edu/oncampus/2626 |archive-date=2012-01-08 |url-status=dead }}
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_10827735 Finding aid to the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

{{Computer music}}{{Columbia University}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Electronic music organizations]]
[[Category:Information technology organizations based in North America]]
[[Category:Experimental Music Studios]]
[[Category:Columbia University]]