Computer Music 291 - February 2021 -content-
In a typical year, a course titled “Computer Music 291” might focus on the technical bedrock of digital audio: sampling theory, FFT analysis, granular synthesis, and perhaps introductory Max/MSP or SuperCollider programming. However, the February 2021 context forces a deeper question:
The designation “Computer Music 291 – February 2021 – CONTENT” reads less like a simple syllabus header and more like a historical artifact. To study or teach Computer Music in February 2021 was to operate at a unique crossroads: between the mature, software-defined studio of the 2010s and the isolated, latency-ridden reality of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Computer Music 291 February 2021 -CONTENT-
By February 2021, AI-assisted composition (OpenAI’s Jukebox, Magenta’s Piano Genie) was no longer science fiction. CM 291’s “content” would logically include critical discussions of generative models . But with social isolation, the algorithm also filled a psychological role: a non-judgmental, always-available improvisation partner. Students likely grappled with whether a Markov chain or a GAN could replace the missing energy of a live ensemble. In a typical year, a course titled “Computer
Real-time network performance (e.g., using JackTrip or SoundJack) became a sudden necessity. The “content” of the course would have had to address networked music performance —not as a fringe experimental topic, but as the only way to play together. Students learned that 20ms of latency is a technical flaw; 50ms is a groove. The computer, in this sense, ceased to be a tool for synthesis and became a mediator of human time. Students likely grappled with whether a Markov chain
Before 2020, computer music pedagogy relied on communal listening—the critical A/B test in a treated room. In February 2021, students were listening on laptop speakers, Zoom-compressed audio, and mismatched earbuds. The “content” of CM 291 thus shifted from perfecting stereo imaging to understanding codec compression and perceptual audio coding as creative constraints. Assignments likely asked: How does music behave when it knows it is being heard through an algorithm?
The phrase “Computer Music 291 February 2021 - CONTENT -” is ultimately a time capsule. It represents a moment when the field’s technical core (synthesis, sampling, spatial audio) collided with brutal logistical realities. The true content of that course was not a set of lectures, but a lesson in resilience: how to make music when the only available concert hall is a patch of Cat 6 Ethernet cable and a pair of headphones. For students and instructors alike, February 2021 was not just about making computer music—it was about proving that music could still happen when all the doors closed, leaving only the glowing screen and the quiet hum of a CPU fan.
The “CONTENT” of February 2021 was defined by three overlapping realities:
