carlsson
Veteran Member
One of my aspirations is to be a symphonic hobby composer, i.e. I am totally self-trained when it comes to composing music and I'm only doing it on irregular basis.
I've thought that some day I should try to compose a suite of "serious" music, i.e. for symphonic orchestra or band. I know the instruments quite well when it comes to useful range and a little about technical difficulties. But to make a suite, I'm thinking that I need a theme to get inspired by.
Now, I don't know if any modern composer has already written works inspired by computing history, but no matter what, this was one idea that came to my mind last week. I could probably think both about computers, the conditions and environment around when it was made and much more.
Typically I think a suite should be about 3-5 movements (parts). Of course I should not take on a larger task than I could finish, but given those conditions, exactly what do you think should be covered? My thinking is something like this:
1. Babbage (Difference engine, analytic engine, Ada Lovelace etc)
2. ENIAC (or maybe that German computer that predated it?)
3. Cray (and/or PDP, something around the age of VLSI technology?)
4. Today? (IBM Blue Gene, advanced video games?)
Is there any important landmarks I have overlooked? Maybe something more about video gaming, like Pong / Atari 2600 / C64 / SNES etc?
I've thought that some day I should try to compose a suite of "serious" music, i.e. for symphonic orchestra or band. I know the instruments quite well when it comes to useful range and a little about technical difficulties. But to make a suite, I'm thinking that I need a theme to get inspired by.
Now, I don't know if any modern composer has already written works inspired by computing history, but no matter what, this was one idea that came to my mind last week. I could probably think both about computers, the conditions and environment around when it was made and much more.
Typically I think a suite should be about 3-5 movements (parts). Of course I should not take on a larger task than I could finish, but given those conditions, exactly what do you think should be covered? My thinking is something like this:
1. Babbage (Difference engine, analytic engine, Ada Lovelace etc)
2. ENIAC (or maybe that German computer that predated it?)
3. Cray (and/or PDP, something around the age of VLSI technology?)
4. Today? (IBM Blue Gene, advanced video games?)
Is there any important landmarks I have overlooked? Maybe something more about video gaming, like Pong / Atari 2600 / C64 / SNES etc?