Library Person
Curtis Roads
American composer and researcher who first programmed Xenakis's theory of granular synthesis, later formalizing it in Microsound.
Born May 9, 1951, in Cleveland, Ohio, Curtis Roads studied composition at CalArts, UC San Diego, and Paris 8 University. He first heard of granular synthesis at a course Iannis Xenakis gave at Indiana University in 1972; enrolling at UCSD two years later, Roads used research grants to run Xenakis’s theory on the campus mainframe, the first time it had ever actually been programmed. He went on to edit Computer Music Journal for MIT Press from 1978 to 2000, cofounded the International Computer Music Association in 1979, and spent 28 years on the faculty of UC Santa Barbara’s Media Arts and Technology program. His 2001 book Microsound became the standard text on composing with granular synthesis, alongside the widely adopted textbook The Computer Music Tutorial (1996).
Works in the Library
Curtis Roads CONCEPT
Building sound from many brief grains of audio, reassembled with independent control over density, pitch, and position.
COMPUTATION SOUND TIME