The first songs created through a computer have come back to life thanks to the work of two New Zealand researchers. The music was created by Turing in 1951
After several years of work, two New Zealand scholars, Jack Copeland (of Chistchurch University in New Zealand) and composer Jason Longv, have succeeded in restoring the first songs produced by a computer.
Turing comes back to life. The work created by scientist and mathematician Alan Turing, who became famous in the last year for being the protagonist of the film Imitation Game, nominated for an Oscar for best film of the year, was found by chance by some researchers in Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. L’acetato (una sorta di vinile) era stato registrato dalla BBC nel 1951 a Manchester, all’interno del Computer Machine Laboratory, la stanza dove Turing aveva messo in piedi il suo gioiello tecnologico.
Il restauro
Alan Turing
Ci sono voluti diversi mesi per recuperare le musiche realizzate da Turing, il vinile era in condizioni pessime e i due ricercatori hanno sfruttato tutti i sistemi che la moderna tecnologia mette a disposizione. Alla fine sono riusciti a recuperare i tre brani: l’inno inglese God Save The Queen, la filastrocca Baa baa black sheep e il pezzo jazz di Glenn Miller In the mood. La registrazione dei brani è inframmezzata dai commenti del giornalista della BBC, preoccupato dai continui errori nella riproduzione delle canzoni. In fact, Alan Turing's goal was not the perfect reproduction of music, but to be able to program the algorithms to make the musical notes.
The role of Christopher Strachey
The work of the two New Zealand scholars, allows us to recover the great contribution that Turing made to music, for too long underestimated. Of vital importance to the British scholar was the help of Christopher Strachey, a computer scientist and programmer who was responsible for putting the songs in order.