John Chowning
John MacLeod Chowning (born August 22, 1934 in Salem , New Jersey ) is an American composer.
Live and act
After serving in the army in the early 1950s, during which he studied at the Navy School of Music , he went to Wittenberg University in Ohio, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He continued his training with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and then studied with Leland Smith at Stanford University , where he received his doctorate in 1966.
In 1964 he developed a computer program for generating sounds with Max Mathews from Bell Telephone Laboratories and David Poole from Stanford University at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratories . In 1967 he invented a digital algorithm for frequency modulation synthesis, which he worked on making usable for music in the following years. This made complex transient processes of instrument-like sounds possible. Analog FM synthesis was already possible with Moog and Buchla modular systems.
In 1973 the Yamaha Corporation acquired the patent for FM synthesis from Stanford University and built the first digital synthesizer with the MAD . The synthesizers GS-1 and GS-2 as well as the popular Yamaha DX-7 , which appeared in 1983, were also based on FM synthesis .
Chowning, dismissed from Stanford University because of his inadequate activities as a teacher and composer, was reinstated as a research associate at Yamaha after the success of his invention . He became head of the Center for Computer Research and Musical Acoustics , which he himself had founded in 1974 with John Gray, James Moorer , Loren Rush and Leland Smith , and received the title of Professor in 1979.
In 1988 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , Wittenberg University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1990, and the University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II (2002), Queen's University Belfast (2010) and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama ( 2016). In 1993 he received the SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award . The French Ministry of Education awarded him the Officer's Cross des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1995 . As a composer, Chowning's main focus was on computer music, with works such as Sabelithe (1971), Turenas (1972), Stria (1977) and Phone (1981).
Web links
- IEEE Global History Network - John Chowning
- Allmusic - John Chowning
- san francisco electronic music festival - John M. Chowning
- Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics - John Chowning
- Folkwang University - John Chowning - The FM singing
Individual evidence
- ↑ WDR 3 open: Studio Electronic Music - September 24, 2014: profile 48: John Chowning ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chowning, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chowning, John MacLeod |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American composer and inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 22, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Salem, New Jersey |