MUSIC was a programming language developed by Max Mathews at Bell Labs in 1957. In this talk we’ll learn more about Max Mathews, the origins of computer music, and by building a compiler for MUSIC in JavaScript hear what some of the very first computer music compositions sounded like.

Chris Lowis is an invited expert on the W3C’s Audio Working group. He studied acoustics and signal processing at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research in Southampton, and recently worked at the R&D department at the BBC. He loves to use the Web Audio API to bring old synthesisers back to life, and to write about audio on the web in his newsletter Web Audio Weekly.