Lejaren Hiller
American composer and chemist; pioneer of computer-composed music, founder of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios.
Lejaren Hiller (1924–1994), trained as a chemist, used the University of Illinois’s ILLIAC I computer with Leonard Isaacson to generate the Illiac Suite (1957) for string quartet — generally considered the first score composed by computer — before founding the university’s Experimental Music Studios in 1958 and directing its Electronic Music Studio until 1968. He later collaborated with John Cage on HPSCHD (1967–69), a work for harpsichords and computer-generated tape combining Cage’s chance procedures with Hiller’s programming.
Works in the Library
Lejaren Hiller CONCEPT
Composing via algorithms or formal rule systems, from computer-generated scores to live coding.
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Lejaren Hiller ORGANIZATION
University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios
Founded 1958 by Lejaren Hiller, arguably the first electronic/computer music studio in the Western Hemisphere.
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