Lejaren Hiller

Lejaren Hiller was an avant-garde composer. In 1956, he composed "Illiac Suite," the "first substantial piece of music composed on a computer." [1]

Hiller was born in New York City in 1924. He attended Princeton University, studying chemistry but also taking lessons in music composition. He was employed as a research chemist during the late 1940's, and was hired as part of the Science department at the University of Illinois in 1952. "For his scientific work, Mr. Hiller had access to the university's room-size Illiac computer, and in the mid-1950's he and Leonard Isaacson began investigating the system's musical possibilities. Using the computer to make certain compositional decisions, they collaborated on the "Illiac Suite" for string quartet, a work that attracted considerable attention, particularly among Serial composers who saw in the computer new ways to free their imaginations from the pull of conventional tonality and timbre." [2]

Until 1968, he was the Director of the Electronic Music Studio at the University of Illinois. In the late 1960's, he collaborated with John Cage on one of Cage's most well-known  works, "HPSCHD." Soon after, he left the University of Illinois to join the faculty at the University at Buffalo. He died in 1994 in Buffalo, New York.

[1], [2] "Lejaren Hiller, 69, First Composer To Write Music With a Computer." New York Times, February 1, 1994.  http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/01/obituaries/lejaren-hiller-69-first-composer-to-write-music-with-a-computer.html