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Oldest Recording of Computer Music Uncovered

by Terrence O'Brien on June 18, 2008 at 03:03 PM


Computer-based music had its humble beginnings, it turns out, as a rather tuneless scratchy recording of a melody featuring 'God Save the King,' 'Baa Baa Black Sheep,' and 'In the Mood' performed by a Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercially available general purpose computer. The performance was recorded in 1951, six years earlier than the previous oldest recording of computer music, performed by an IBM mainframe.

The recording was by the BBC for a show called 'Children's Hour' after it had discovered that programmers had coaxed computers to play music. The performance doesn't sound much better than a 6-year-old kid blowing into a bass kazoo, but it's nonetheless historic as it is currently the oldest recording of its type.

Still, the BBC tune is by no means the oldest instance of computer-based music. That honor goes to the CSIRAC, a Australian computer, which was the first computer to play music, beating the Ferranti by no more than a few months, but no recording of its performance has yet been unearthed.

The Ferranti Mark 1 is a direct descendant of Baby, the forefather of all modern computers, which the BBC is celebrating this month in honor of its 60th anniversary. [Source: BBC]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, first, music, oldest, recordings, retro, synthesizer

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