Many exciting pieces are now performed digitally. Chowning's FM algorithms and the advent of fast, inexpensive, digital chips made real-time possible, and equally important, made it affordable. Starting with the Groove program in 1970, my interests have focused on live performance and what a computer can do to aid a performer. I made a controller, the radio-baton, plus a program, the conductor program, to provide new ways for interpreting and performing traditional scores. In addition to contemporary composers, the radio-baton has been used by soloists as a way of playing orchestral accompaniments.
Singers often prefer to play their own accompaniments.
The original conductor program could only interpret a precomposed score. Recently I have added improvisational options which make it possible to write compositional algorithms. These can involve precomposed sequences, random functions, and live performance gestures. The algorithms are written in the C language. I have taught a course in this area to Stanford undergraduates for three years.