Speaker: Peter Blasser, MA Candidate in Music
Title: Algorithms for Pipe Organ
Abstract: Peter Blasser will present the last two years worth of work in programming the Wesleyan
pipe organ, using the computer music program Supercollider. He bases this work on prior experience in
computer music, years of experience apprenticing to pipe organ builders, and his main employment, a
business selling analog synthesizers. Emulation of analog and vice versa is the philosophical underpinning to
this integrative science of composition, as his experience managing transistors, current flows, and oscillator
topographies informs the aesthetic decisions of an abstracted musical system such as MIDI (musical
instrument digital interface) that the organ uses. He will present some of his past work in instrument
building: squishable analog organs, gesture interfaces, and a newest project based on “the numerical
materials of electronics” themselves.
*Open to the whole Wesleyan community*
*Lunch will be provided*
