Illiac Suite (later retitled String Quartet No. 4)Andrew Stiller, "Hiller, Lejaren (Arthur)", Grove Music Online (reviewed December 3, 2010; accessed December 14, 2014). is a 1957 composition for string quartet which is generally agreed to be the first score composed by an electronic computer.Denis Baggi, "The Role of Computer Technology in Music and Musicology ", lim.dico.unimi.it (December 9, 1998). Lejaren Hiller, in collaboration with Leonard Isaacson, programmed the ILLIAC I computer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (where both composers were professors) to generate compositional material, marking an early use of algorithmic composition.
The piece consists of four movements, corresponding to four experiments: the first is about the generation of cantus firmi; the second generates four-voice segments with various rules; the third deals with rhythm, dynamics, and playing instructions; and the fourth with Markov chains.Lejaren A. Hiller and Leonard M. Isaacson, Experimental Music: Composition With an Electronic Computer, second edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959): 5–7. Reprinted, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979. .
References
External links December 4, 2011. See also: 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.