An interesting reply to an article in the University of Southern California's "Networker Magazine" April 1997, Vol7 #4

Mozart unmatched

I was reading your article about musical software ("Liszt Servers," p.35, January/February 1997, Networker. I'm a bit concerned about such a blasé attitude about the ability of computers. Do you actually know of a program that can do what Mozart did? I'm working on a program for real-time pitch analysis - and it only works for one note at a time. I doubt "it's a piece of cake." If you can document a program that can extract a score from a recording, I'll be most surprised. Incidentally, the story about Mozart [accurately transcribing a work he had heard only once] is much better documented than "legend." The "Miserere" of Allegri was guarded as a special secret by the Vatican. Mozart heard it during a service and wrote out the score afterwards. It has nothing very unusual in terms of composition to make it so special - part of the magic of the piece came from the particulars of the performance, instructed by the composer and passed down as a living tradition. Even a score cannot capture that. Certainly a MIDI file, lifeless as it is, cannot. You brought out that idea forcefully at the end of the article.

Michael Zarky Programmer and harpsichord maker

Editor's Note: We didn't expect anyone to take quite so literally the analogy between Mozart's uncanny aural memory and music software's pyrotechnics. True, no known software can pluck notes out of the air and set them down as a score. However, programs like Digital Performer can extract keystrokes on a synthesizer - improvised or played from memory - and automatically translate them into a clean score. This ability, while not the same as that demonstrated by Mozart in Rome, is nonetheless one that astounds and liberates musicians. The fact that programmers like Zarky are working to develop software to perform real-time pitch analysis suggests that like the once-matchless moves of chess master Gary Kasparov, Mozart's transcribing trick may one day be topped by a machine.

CASE award

Congratulations to you and the editorial staff of the USC technology news magazine, Networker, for winning a silver medal for "Most-Improved Magazine" in the prestigious 1997 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards program. Please pass along my appreciation to all for a job well done!