| I don’t think I need to repeat much of what has been said here, it is all true. We are
mourning the passing of one of the pioneers of computer music, whose contributions are
numerous and go well beyond Csound.
However, I would like to add one perspective that to me is fundamental, particularly in
relation to Csound, but also true of its predecessors. By all accounts, BV was actively interested
in the sharing of software. MUSIC 11 (as in Rick’s example from CARL) and MUSIC 360 were
provided to users outside MIT-EMS. The lab at Univ of Padova is a good example of a
place that ran the software allowing European composers (as well as immigrants from the US
like Dashow) to use it.
Csound and its longevity is partly due to BV’s generosity in sharing the source code
(famously at ftp.cecelia.media.mit.edu) and then let it go have a life of its own under
John’s dedicated curation at Bath. If compared to systems of the same vintage, and carl/cmusic is
a good example, it just grew and grew - instead of becoming an artefact of software
archaeology. Richard Dobson noted this here over twenty years ago: instead of being
personal property, it became the centre of a community. By the end of the 1990s, it was
the only game in town for sound synthesis/processing. A Free software lesson for us all.
I remember when he came to work on OLPC, BV was suspicious of Csound 5, and thought
his own Extended Csound-based port would do better, but in the end he was convinced and
contributed, together with Simon Schampijer, to code for network interaction that now lives
in the main repository. I can see it as a mark of his character that he could accept a argument
on the basis of its strength, against his own original position.
The Csound we have now is a product of a large collective effort, which started with BV way back
in 68 when he wrote the first version of MUSIC 360, through MUSIC 11 and MIT-EMS Csound.
RIP Barry Vercoe.
========================
Prof. Victor Lazzarini
Maynooth University
Ireland
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