The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research: A Proto-History

Author(s): Carlos Palombini

Source: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 10, Southern Cones: Music Out of Africa and South
America (2000), pp. 13-20
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1513371 .
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ORIGINS

The Brazilian Group for Computer

Music Research: A Proto-History
ABSTRACT

The BrazilianGroup for

CarlosPalombini Computer MusicResearch
(NUCOM) hasbecomerenowned
foritsannual Brazilian
Symposium
onComputer Music.Theauthor
recounts thegroup'sproto-his-
tory-theperiodofthe1970s
and1980s-withparticular refer-
Ac ademic research into computer music in Working under Os6rio, in Au- enceto theearlyworksofAluizio
Brazil started with Guido Stolfi and Celso de Oliveira, who, ArcelaandEduardo Miranda. The
gust 1983 Brandao presented his authorcontinueshisdiscussion to
early in 1975, built a synthesizer at the Polytechnic School of thesis, "Microcomputer-Con- focusonNUCOM, whichbeganto
Sao Paulo University (USP) (Fig. 1) [1]. This article discusses trolled Programmable Polyphonic takeshapein1993whenMiranda
the works of four researchers-Aluizio Arcela, Eduardo Synthesizer," which described a andGeberRamalho (oneof
Miranda, Geber Ramalho and Mauricio Loureiro-who gave microcomputer-controlled system Arcela's metinParis
students)
the Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research for the subtractive synthesis of anddecidedto launch a discus-
sionlistontheWeb.Thefollowing
(NUCOM) its initial impetus. four simultaneous sounds. The year,Mauricio Loureirochaired
hardware employed analog blocks theFirstBrazilian
Symposium on
that performed generating, filter- Computer Music,affiliating
RIO 1975-1984, BRASILIA1983-1989: NUCOM to theBrazilian
Computer
ing and shaping functions. A key-
ARCELAAND HIS GROUP board permitted real-time perfor- Society(SBC).
Arcela's research started in 1975 in the electrical engineering mance. The programming allowed
department of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de users to modify those blocks, de-
Janeiro (PUC-RJ),which awarded three relevant master's de- fining basic parameters that could be stored on floppy dis-
grees between 1976 and 1984 [2] to Arcela, David Simonetti kettes. Brandao designed hardware to allow the synthesis of the
Barbalho and Marcio Brandao. human voice, but the corresponding software, which would
Working under Paulo Leo Os6rio, in February 1977 Arcela have had recourse to a library of phonemes, was not actually
presented his thesis, "DynamicSpectra-Generating System for implemented. Arcela then transferred to the university'scom-
the Synthesis of Musical Signals" (Fig. 2). Arcela's thesis de- puter department, where he worked under Roberto Lins de
scribed a system for producing frequency spectra within the Carvalho to present his dissertation in June 1984: "Time Trees
range of humanly audible frequencies. A Fourier series gen- and the Genetic Configuration of Musical Intervals"(Fig. 3), in
erator consisting of frequency multipliers that employed which he investigated
phase-locked loops engendered harmonic or inharmonic the nature of informationhosted by the musicalinterval [4],
components whose phase could be controlled. The ampli- consideredas a physicalphenomenon modeled by the combi-
tude of each partial was modulated by curves that could take nation of periodic movements.Fromthis model, the lawsthat
on a variety of shapes. A time-generating system defined the governthe order of occurrenceand the spatialdistributionof
instants at which such curves should act. In addition, Arcela the self-intersectionsof the resulting trajectoryare inferred.
discussed problems arising from the displacement of spectra Throughsystematicobservationof the sequencesof durations
across the pitch field:
Fig. 1. Guido Stolfi and Celso de Oliveira built what was probably
The systemconsistedof a music machine that combined digi- the first Brazilian synthesizer in the Polytechnic School of Sio
tal and analogcircuits.In those days,microprocessorswerejust Paulo University early in 1975. (? Guido Stolfi)
startingto appear.And what was then called "logic"actually
were algorithmsimplementednot by a programbut by digital
circuits.Thus, for instance,the frequencymultiplicationalgo-
rithm actually consisted of groups of digital chips such as
counters, registers,and Boolean-logicgates, all connected to
analog deviceslike the VCO,operationalamplifiers,etc. [3].

Working under Arcela, in February 1979 Barbalho pre-

sented "Spectral Synthesis System by Means of Geometric
Character Programming"; his thesis described an electronic
machine for the synthesis of elementary sounds by means of
treatment of spectra. He developed a programming language
that generated geometric functions for the synthesis of sound
sequences by combination of formants.

Carlos Palombini (musicologist), Rua Cariri 386, Vila Assuncao, Porto Alegre, Rio
Grande do Sul 91900-560, Brazil. E-mail: <Palombini@usa.net>.

C 2000 ISAST Vol. 10, pp. 13-20, 2000

LEONARDOMUSICJOURNAL, 13

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 thus engendered, it becomes evident
thatthe aforementionedinformationis
structuredinto treesof numbers.These
trees can be generated by computable
functions, which prescind from the
phenomenon itselfand its simulation.I
describethe model, its algorithmsand
functional representation. From this
study,it emerges that the overallorga-
nization of such trees of intervals re-
flects the existence of naturalscoresin-
side the intervalitself [5].
In October 1983 the electrical engi-
neering department of Brasilia Univer-
sity (UnB) invited Arcela to set up a
graduate program in computing. No
computer department existed there at
that time-the capital was barely 23?/
years old-and the disciplines of engi-
neering and mathematics were both lay-
ing claim to the field. Arcela accepted
the engineering department's offer on
the conditions that (1) he would do re-
search into computer music, (2) he
would have a laboratory, (3) Brandao
would be hired as an electronic engi-
neer and (4) Francisco de Assis, a de-
partment technician, would be made
available to them. The engineering de-
partment agreed and, thus, attracted by
"the interdisciplinary lights of Brasilia
University" [6], the fulcrum of research
into computer music shifted from Rio to
Brasilia. According to Arcela,
In those days the making of computer
music demanded such [an interdisci-
plinary] team because things like D/A
converters needed to be built. We were
living in the pre-Sound Blaster era; the
PC was then the big novelty and,
though hugely expensive (as much as a
brand new car!), our great motivation
for setting up the lab. Computer music
has always required the exclusive use of
computing facilities. And only Max
Mathews had a whole mainframe just
to himself. Low-pass filters for digital-
to-analog conversion of sampled sig-
nals were yet another problem. Being
in a well-equipped department came in
handy. There were top quality filters
(e.g. 18-pole-per-channel Butterworth)
and various extremely useful gadgets
such as oscilloscopes, frequency
meters, decibel meters, plotters and
digital multimeters, as well as an excel-
lent depot stocked with a vast array of
electronic components [7].
Brasilia University supported Arcela
wholeheartedly, as did National Research
Council (CNPq) officers. During the first
half of 1984, Gentil Lucena, who worked
for the computer science commission of
CNPq, invited Ivan Moura Campos, one
of the CNPq directors, to pay a visit to the
team. The laboratory was to be named,
after the French and Italian nomencla-
tures, "the Musical Informatics Labora-
14 Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research
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tory."Within technology circles, however,
music was viewed not as a field of knowl-
edge but as a form of entertainment, and
music research, at best, as interesting but
undeserving of public funding in a third-
world country such as Brazil. Serendipity,
none the less, brought the following defi-
nition to Arcela's view: "music is spectral
processing."
Describedhere is the initial phase of a
laboratorydevoted to spectralprocess-
ing. It includes equipment availablein
the electricalengineering department,
plus the computer I am applying for.
Stresswill be initially laid on software
implementation,that is, basic software
and softwarefor spectral treatmentof
sound structures.Hardwareis specific
to the approximationbetweensoftware
and digital synthesis of signals. And
such a support guaranteesthe pursuit
of ArtificialIntelligence activities,par-
ticularlyas concerns formal languages
for the constructionof structuresbear-
ing a semanticcontent thatis graspable
by human perception. That is to say,
spoken word and sound aesthetics; a
field where the analysisof signalsis of
paramountimportance, provided it is
performed in accordance with the
theory that underpins the aforemen-
tioned language of sound-structure
construction.The mechanisms of this
language deal with the geometric na-
ture of spectral organizationand with
data structuresthat dwell in harmonic
interactions[8].
In July 1984 CNPq acknowledged re-
ceipt of the spectral processing labora-
tory research grant application. On 1
February 1985 Arcela was told in writ-
ing that 30,170,500 cruzeiros [9] had
been made available to him. Spectral
processing was music to the ears of sci-
ence and technology officers, and
Arcela's entrance to a treasure trove of
public funding in a period that came
immediately after the demise of the
military regime, which had set firmly in
place a policy of market reserve for
computing [10] and the ideology of na-
tional independence in the field as a
matter of national security. Accord-
ingly, science and technology agencies
had been-and, for a while, kept be-
endowed. From 1985 to
ing-richly
1987, the electrical engineering depart-
ment played host to Assis, Brandio,
Arcela and his students. Everything in
the Spectral Processing Laboratory re-
volved around the concept of time
trees. The lab ran Music V on PCs to
render audible spectral charts com-
puted by time trees. Brandao and Assis
developed a sound card. Vicente
Nogueira Filho, a research student,
sought to overcome Music V's deficien-
cies, thus doing groundwork for Som-A,
Arcela's own programming language
for additive synthesis [11]. Homero Pic-
colo, another research student, sought
to implement a graphic program to
compute geometries and lights from
time-tree scores (Color Plate B No. 1)
[12]. On 21 October 1986 Arcela pre-
sented "Time-Trees: the Inner Organi-
zation of Intervals" at the Twelfth Inter-
national Computer Music Conference,
in the Hague. In July 1987 he and his
team organized a panel on computer
music in the Thirty-Ninth Meeting of
the Brazilian Society for the Advance-
ment of Science (SBPC), in Brasilia.
Arcela spoke on algorithmic composi-
tion, Brandao on the controlling of syn-
thesizers by computers, Piccollo on Eu-
clidean representation of sounds
through computer graphics, and
Nogueira Filho on the performance of
polyphonic scores by means of a LISP
program. In 1988 Nogueira Filho and
Piccolo earned their degrees with their
theses "Modular Additive Synthesis: A
Programmable Spectral Machine" and
"Tridimensional Figure Editor En-
dowed with Interactive Polyhedral Op-
erations." In 1990 Ricardo de Sousa
Ribeiro Nascimento earned his own de-
gree with "Graphic Editor of Spectral
Envelopes Based on the Geometric Cor-
respondence between Curves."
In the second half of 1987, Crist6vam
Buarque, the principal of Brasilia Uni-
versity, invited Arcela to join a group of
lecturers in the creation of a computer
science department. Arcela made the
creation of a master's program in com-
puter music a condition of his transfer.
In the same year, the Spectral Processing
Laboratory moved to the computer sci-
ence department. By 1989 a master's
program in computer science with em-
phasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
research interests in sound computing,
computer graphics and non-conven-
tional architectures was in place.
AI was ... the only areawe could con-
vincinglyargue for. Emphasisareasare
registeredwithin the Office for Devel-
opment of Higher Education Person-
nel (CAPES),and we could not have
chosen an item that was not listed un-
der "computing"in the official reper-
tory of names. Computergraphicswas
a siblingof sound computing,and they
justified one another.As for "non-con-
ventional architectures," this was a
kind of concession to a staff member.
At the time we were only three Ph.D.s,
and this was one of the hardest nuts to
crack when it came to convincing
Brasilia University and CAPES [13].
 The degree included courses in ap-
plied formal logic, AI, languages for AI,
spectral information structures, compo-
sition of sound forms, spectral computer
graphics, treatment of images, non-con-
ventional architectures, languages for
concurrent programming, and distrib-
uted operational systems. There were
readings in sound and image perception
as well as further topics in AI, sound
computing and computer architectures.
The final dissertation could fall under
AI, sound computing, computer archi-
tectures or image processing. Eighty
candidates turned out to compete for
six places, which went to three com-
puter scientists, two musicians with
backgrounds in science and technology,
and a biologist.
PORTO ALEGRE, 1986-1988:
MIRANDA AND COLLEAGUES
The latter half of the 1980s saw experi-
mentation elsewhere, notably in Porto
Alegre and Salvador [14]. In 1986
Moyses Lopes Filho, a composition stu-
dent of Frederico Richter at the Federal
University of Santa Maria (UFSM), trans-
ferred to the degree program in guitar
performance of the Federal University of
Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where
Eduardo Miranda, who taught the C and
BASIC programming languages to stu-
dents in the National Service for Com-
mercial Learning (SENAC), was also
completing a degree in music. Sharing
an admiration for Qorpo Santo's and
Mario de Andrade's writings, and a dis-
dain towards what they perceived as the
facade modernism of the Musica Viva
(Living Music) and Misica Nova (New
Music) groups, Lopes Filho and Miranda
joined forces in the creation of
Tupiniqarte, a privately owned labora-
tory for computer music research, in the
earlier half of 1986.
We wanted to advance anew the na-
tional musicalvalues that had been ig-
nored by those "Misica This or That"
movements [15] of Rio deJaneiro and
Sao Paulo. Moyses, for instance,
wanted to take up Villa-Lobos'swork,
but with technological means. As for
myself, I took a more independent
stand.Wewere both after an evolution
of the musicallanguage, startingfrom
the use of new technologicalresources.
... So, we created that name combin-
ing the words tupiniquim(meaning In-
dians' thing) [16] and arte[art], but we
used the "q"without the "u," as in
QorpoSanto. We knew that, so far as
technological development was con-
cerned, we could not compete with
American centers or even with the
This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM
Fig. 2. From March to December 1975, Aluizio Arcela worked to design this spectra-gener-
ating system, which he built in the electrical engineering department of the Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro from January to December 1976. (? Aluizio Arcela)
Brasiliacenter. We then opted for go-
ing Native, making do with whatever
we had at hand, but in a very
anthropophagic[17] sense, in Oswald
de Andrade'sliteralsense [18].
Tupiniqarte was located above the Ca-
cique cinema, in Rua da Praia, once the
political and intellectual center of Porto
Alegre, the capital of the southernmost
Brazilian state. Using an electronic or-
gan [19], a Sinclair ZX-81 [20], and an
MSX [21] to which an external interface
[22] with MIDI in and out and some
simple FM capabilities was attached,
Lopes Filho and Miranda set to elabo-
rate programs for FM synthesis and algo-
rithmic composition (Fig. 4). On 23
April 1987, Tupiniqarte put on a multi-
media performance for the launching of
the ninth issue of the anarchopunk
magazine Cobra in the Teatro da
Companhia de Artes, in Rua da Praia.
The 40-minute concert was called
Apokalipse,in an allusion to issues con-
cerning the Y2K bug [23] and the mis-
use of technology. Miranda created the
music and did the sound diffusion.
Lopes Filho created the graphic work,
did the lighting and projected the video-
taped VDU images. Elton Scartazzini, a
Cobra editor, had developed his own
technique for playing the violin upside
down. He took the center stage. The un-
written violin part was largely impro-
vised, "similarly to a jazz piece, where
you know what to do at certain points,
but you seldom do the same all the
time" [24]. According to Miranda,
I particularly liked the Porto Alegre
show: it had a performance atmo-
Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research
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sphere to it; there was a reception af-
terwards,people were dressed up, etc.
True, it was a bit late in the eighties
(perhapsfiveyearsor so?), considering
what was going on in terms of elec-
tronic arts in Europe or the USA, but
we did it, unlike anybody else, either
before or even afterus! [25]
In September 1987 Miranda and
Scartazzini landed in Brasilia to present
an hour-long version of the Cobraperfor-
mance in the First Latin American Festi-
val of Art and Culture [26]. On the
evening of 21 September, the music audi-
torium of Brasilia University displayed
onstage a white screen flanked by two
loudspeakers; to one side before the
screen, a chair and a microphone; at
each corner of the auditorium, one loud-
speaker; and in the middle of the audi-
ence, the sound diffusion equipment.
The lights went off and electronically
treated samples of sermons by Brazilian
fanatics rose. The projection waxed and
waned. A heavy-metalbeat kicked in. Un-
noticed, Scartazzini entered the stage
and sat down. A spotlight faded in. The
upside-down violin soared from its chair
against a backcloth of synthesized sounds
and samples from telenovelas,radio sta-
tions and LPs. Afterwards, members of
the audience paid their compliments to
the artists backstage. Miranda recalled
that some of them were ufologists and
astrologists who ran some sort of new age
art exhibition [27]. Two days later, the
Shows column of Correiodo Brasil ran a
review,which said:
Few have dared to innovate or leave
aside the pre-establishedlanguagethat
defines what is or is not art. The
15

ElektroplastikKonsert[28] eschewsall
rules and will certainly remain as the
most commented event, given the
boldness with which it seeks to break
awayfrom tradition [29].
As room rental and equipment-main-
tenance bills got out of hand in mid-
1987, Tupiniqarte shut down, the equip-
ment was sold and Lopes Filho settled
into a career in law. Undaunted,
Miranda teamed up with Carlos Guerra,
a prospective electrical engineer with a
keen interest in electronic music, to cre-
ate a new computer music laboratory,
which would liaise with the UFRGS Arts
Institute and Data Processing Center.
The Arts Institute had just bought an
Apple II+ [30] for the library.
Since library staff apparently had no
wish to learn how to use it, Miranda re-
quested that machine and the director
approved its transferal with no further
ado. The team developed a MIDI inter-
face for the Apple II+ [31], obtained
funds through the music department
for printing the circuit and acquiring
the electronic components, got an en-
gineer in the Data Processing Center to
assemble the circuit and did the opera-
tional programming for the MIDI pro-
UnB
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Ei!trica. Fiosof a. MOtisca. PSLcoiO.,3a. L,nguwst$ca, Fismad.
f Ramalho's supervisor, and meet Gerard
Informag6es: Universidade cde Brasili;a
Instituto de Ciincias Exaatas
Departamento de Ci6ncia da ComputaaSo
Brasilia, DF - CEP 709110
Tel.: (061) 3468-2705
16 Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
:
tocol themselves. They soon managed
to buy a PC and Miranda started ex-
perimenting with music grammars, us-
ing the AI language PROLOG instead
of the LISP paradigm, which Arcela fa-
vored. Labirinto(1987), for six comput-
ers, sampler and percussion, is the
most significant piece of this period
[32].
Labirinto was performed 23 Septem-
ber 1988 during the First Meeting of
Composers from the Southern Region,
in Porto Alegre. The local press was not
amused. The artist
announced a twentyminute piece and
stayedonstagefor forty[33], playingthe
pianoand the soundsof the six comput-
ers and one samplerthatwerestoredin
and generatedbya quarter-inchtape re-
corder,while variouscolleagues of his
hit cans and iron pieces and even used
an electricsawto cut tin, thusproducing
an unbearablenoise [34].
Labirintowas pitched against "the tradi-
tional and pleasant SonatinaA ... ," "the
good Sonata B ... ," "the mature Suite C.
. . " "the interesting Monolith. . .," "the
beautiful Divertimento D . . ," "the most
beautiful Sonata E . . "the excellent
Duo F...," "the beautiful SonatinaG...."
:: . .:.
\L .
..,:
":
. ...
:: : .
? : ?
. : ::
. . :::
~ .:.
..c,B'ts .. .::.
? i ' ? ..i:
... .... . ..
Matecna
PARIS, 1993: MIRANDA
MEETS RAMALHO
One of the two musicians in the first
batch of graduate students at the com-
puter science department of Brasilia
University was Geber Lisboa Ramalho,
from Paraiba, the easternmost Brazilian
state. Having grown up to the sounds of
Geraldo Azevedo, Vital Farias, Sivuca
and his own cousins, Elba and Ze
Ramalho [35], who often performed
live at the family home, Geber Ramalho
learned to play the guitar from his fa-
ther, Luiz Ramalho, a regular partner of
Luiz Gonzaga [36], the King of Baiao
[37]. Geber Ramalho attended music
courses, enrolled in electrical engineer-
ing at the Federal University of Paraiba
(UFPB) and decided to train as a sound
engineer in the music industry. Elba
Ramalho, a PolyGram artist, introduced
him to Luigi Hoffer, the studio manager
in Rio. Ramalho was accepted to start
immediately. His scientific background
and willingness to do everything soon
earned him the trust of his colleagues
and the offer of a permanentjob, which
he declined. "It was by Aluizio's hands
that I got into computer music; nothing
as daring or glorious as with Eduardo or
Aluizio himself' [38]. Ramalho's profile
fulfilled Arcela's academic ideal:
"amongst all I have supervised, Geber
was probably the one who believed the
Fig. 3. A graphic most in my preaching (often in the wil-
representationof derness) on art, science and technology,
one of Arcela'stime
trees-the leitmotif
the one who succeeded best in putting
that preaching into practice" [39].
;: of his research.
(? Aluizio Arcela) In the early 1990s, Miranda was at-
.
tempting to make a digital sound-syn-
thesis system understand descriptions of
.!
sounds in natural language at the AI
and Music Group of Edinburgh Univer-
sity; Ramalho was researching automatic
accompaniment systems at the La-
boratoire Formes et Intelligence
Artificielle (LAFORIA) [40], Institut
.:
Blaise Pascal (IBP), Universit6 Pierre et
Marie Curie (Paris VI). Miranda and
Ramalho had met in 1986, during the
First National Meeting for Instrumental
Music, organized by the composer
.....
Toninho Horta in the historic town of
Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. In May 1993
Miranda set off to Paris to visit the re-
search team of Jean-Gabriel Ganascia,
Assayag and Gerhard Eckel, who were
conducting AI research at IRCAM.
Miranda stayed with Ramalho for a
couple of weeks. One evening, they
Y
J) asked themselves: "What can we do to

Fig. 4. EduardoMirandaand MoysesLopes Filho at workin their privatestudio,
Tupiniqarte. Because the composers knew that, so far as technologicaldevelopment
concerned, they could not compete withAmericancenters or even with Brasilia,they opted SBC's auspices. CNPq and the Minas
for "goingNative,"makingdo withwhateverthey had at hand. (Photo ? EvertonBalardin) Gerais State Research Foundation
foster computer music research in Bra-
zil?" They decided to post a call on the
Internet. On 7 July 1993 Miranda and
Ramalho launched the NUCOM on the
World Wide Web.
for mu-
Assessingprospects computer
sic researchin Brazil,we have come to
the conclusion that this is an appropri-
ate time to starta nucleus, which shall
function as both a point of reference
and a forum for researchersand inter-
ested parties.
We knowof people who alreadywork
or are starting to work on Computer
Musicat the Universityof Brasilia,the
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio
Grandedo Sul, the State Universityof
Campinas, and the Federal Universities
of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Maria,
Santa Catarina, Pernambuco, and
MinasGerais [41]. Manyof these uni-
versitieshave not only potential for in-
cluding Computer Music courses in
their undergraduateand graduatecur-
riculabut also the desire to do so. The
computer science department of
BrasiliaUniversityhas had a Master'sin
Computer Music going on for four
yearsand the Informaticsand Statistics
department of the Federal University
of SantaCatarinahas included a Com-
puter Musiccourse in its undergradu-
ate curriculum.
In addition, there are Braziliansdo-
ing Master's,Ph.D.s and post-docs in
relevant areas abroad, particularlyin
the U.S.A., the U.K., France, Canada,
the Netherlands and Austria, besides
the countless cases of composers and
interestedpartieswho are not affiliated
to anyacademicinstitution.As a matter
of fact, a growingnumberof Brazilians
is workingon ComputerMusic.Unfor-
tunately, these people rarely interact
and often do not even know each an-
This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM
Sound (OASIS). In the following year,
Mauricio Alves Loureiro, an aeronautics
engineer, a virtuoso clarinetist and
newly appointed lecturer at the Music
School of UFMG,joined OASIS. Chair-
ing the music section of the Twenty-
Fourth Winter Festival of UFMG in
1992, Loureiro invited Arcela, of whom
he had read in the pages of the Folha de
SdoPaulo newspaper, to conduct a com-
puter music workshop with OASIS in
Belo Horizonte. Arcela brought
Brandao, Anselmo Guerra de Almeida
and Ramalho with him. In the wake of
the 1993 Paris meeting, Miranda and
Ramalho contacted Arcela, Loureiro
and Paula Filho. Ramalho set up the
computer music discussion list on the
Esquina das Listas server of the State
University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Paula Filho and Loureiro secured
was NUCOM's welcome to convene under
(FAPEMIG)supported the event gener-
other. In our view,this situation is not ously. In a meeting at the University of
conduciveto the fast and efficient con-
solidation of Computer Music in the California, San Diego, Loureiro ob-
tained the support of a Rockefeller
country [42].
Foundation technology exchange pro-
They proposed (1) to foster ex- gram underway between two universities
changes between Brazilian researchers/ in California and one in Argentina [43].
composers; (2) to create an embryonic Over 100 people enrolled for the First
Brazilian Society for Computer Music; Brazilian Symposium on Computer Mu-
(3) to facilitateireintegration into the sic, chaired by Loureiro in the balneal
national scene of Brazilians doing re- town of Caxambu, in Minas Gerais state,
search abroad; (4) to organize the First 2-5 August 1994, in conjunction with the
Brazilian Symposium on Computer Mu- Fourteenth Conference of the Brazilian
sic; and (5) to promote publications,
Computer Society. On the eve of the
concerts and activities. To attain the first opening ceremony, Ivan Moura Campos,
goal, a catalog of researchers, compos- the Brazilian Officer for Information
ers and activities as well as a library of Technology, summoned Loureiro and
theses, articles and compositions were SBC president Ricardo Reis to a meet-
Miranda and Ramalho intuited ing. The Proceedingsof the First Brazilian
planned.
the advantages of affiliating NUCOM to Symposiumon ComputerMusic had con-
an umbrella organization such as a uni- vinced him that NUCOM met all re-
versity, the Brazilian Computer Society quirements for special committee status
(SBC), the Brazilian Society for the Ad- within SBC. In the opening roundtable,
vancement of Science (SBPC), the Bra- Reis presented a formal invitation. On 5
zilian Society for Acoustics (SOBRAC) August 1994, symposium participants
or even UNESCO. However, the initia- [44] voted for the creation of the Special
tive that would take NUCOM into the Committee on Computer Music of the
heart of SBC did not come from Paris Brazilian Computer Society.
but from Belo Horizonte instead. To date, NUCOM has staged seven
successive symposia on computer music,
BELO HORIZONTE, 1993- in the towns of Caxambu (1994), Canela
(1995), Recife (1996), Brasilia (1997),
1994: LOUREIRO MAKESIT Belo Horizonte (1998), Rio de Janeiro
HAPPEN (1999) and Curitiba (2000). Arcela and
In 1990 Wilson de Padua Paula Filho, a Loureiro are still lecturing in the Com-
lecturer in the computer science depart- puter Science Department of Brasilia
ment of the Federal University of Minas University and in the Music School of
Gerais (UFMG), created the Laboratory the Federal University of Minas Gerais,
for Analysis and Synthesis of Image and respectively; Miranda now does research
Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research 17
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
C
at the Sony Computer Science Labora-
tory of Paris; Ramalho has taken up a
lectureship at the Computer Center of
the Federal University of Pernambuco.
Acknowledgments
The present article derives from interviews con-
ducted with Aluizio Arcela, Mauricio Loureiro,
Eduardo Miranda, Geber Ramalho, Conrado Silva
and Guido Stolfi between 1 August 1999 and 7July
2000, as well as from copious written material
(newspaper clippings, collections of abstracts, cop-
ies of documents, personal communications, etc.)
and some photographs supplied by the interviewees
themselves-all in all, 223 pages of E-mail messages,
various attached files, photocopies and one inter-
view on tape. Excepting some messages originally
written in English by Miranda, all documents have
been translated from Portuguese by the author.
References and Notes
1. The results of Stolfi's research were presented in
the 1976 Congress of the Brazilian Society for the
Advancement of Science (SBPC), in Brasilia, and in
the 1979 Congress of the Acoustics Group of Latin
America (GALA), in Curitiba.
2. A. Arcela, "Computacao & Misica," Jornal de
Brasilia (23 November 1994);
<http://
primordial.cic.unb.br/lcmm/artigos/C&M.html>
and <ftp://lpel.cic.unb.br/pub/papers/C&M.doc>.
3. A. Arcela, "Re:eletr6nico/digital 2," E-mail mes-
sage, 5 October 1999.
4. Arcela explains: "Music can be described accord-
ing to data structures that dwell in its smaller par-
ticles, where time and space combine into a single
piece of information. This information represents a
sort of genetic code, whose interpretation provides
cues for explaining and building music itself. Musi-
cal events can be read from these well-formed data
structures, also known as time trees." A. Arcela, "Re:
artigo Leonardo," E-mail message, 3 July 2000. See
also Arcela, "Time Trees: The Inner Organization of
Intervals,"Proceedingsof the TwelfthInternationalCom-
puter Music Conference(San Francisco: Computer
Music Association, 1986) pp. 87-89; <http://
primordial.cic.unb.br/lcmm/artigos/artigos.html>;
<http://primordial.cic.unb.br/lcmm/artigos/
artigos.html>; "Time Trees as Virtual Worlds,"Anais
do XX CongressoNacional da SociedadeBrasileira de
Computaado Vol. 1 (Curitiba: Champagnat, 2000) p.
166 (abstract) and CD-ROM (full text); "As arvores
de tempos" <http://www.lpe.cic.unb.br/literat/
teoria/teoria.html>; <http://www.lpe.cic.unb.br/
literat/teoria/teoria.html> (Brasilia: Universidade
de Brasilia, 1996); "O objeto intervalar" <http://
primordial.cic.unb.br/oi640/oi640.html> (Brasilia:
Universidade de Brasilia, 1999).
5. A. Arcela, "As arvores de tempos e a
configuracio genetica dos intervalos musicais,"
Ph.D. dissertation, Computer Department, Pontifi-
cal Catholic University of Rio deJaneiro, 1984; For
a revised version, accounting for visual implemen-
tations, see <http://www.lpe.cic.unb.br/literat/
teoria/teoria.html>.
6. Arcela [2].
7. A. Arcela, "A Criacao do LPE,"written personal
communication, 9 September 1999.
8. A. Arcela, "Laborat6rio de Processamento
Espectral," research project, June 1984.
9. On 1 February 1985 the U.S. dollar was officially
rated at 3,567.00 and 3,585.00 cruzeiros (buying
and selling, respectively); in the black market, at
3,820.00 and 3,920.00 cruzeiros, respectively. Arcela
received the equivalent to about $8,000 U.S., which
was roughly the price of a new Ford Escort.
18 Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research
This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
10. Such a policy entailed subsidies to Brazilian
manufacturers, overtaxation of imported goods and
public funding for academic research in the field.
11. For a succinct description of Som-A, see E.
Miranda, ComputerSound Synthesisfor the Electronic
Musician (Oxford, U.K: Focal Press, 1998) pp. 40-
42; for a full description, see A. Arcela, "A
Linguagem SOM-A para Sintese Aditiva," Anais do
PrimeiroSimp6sioBrasileiro de Computacdoe Muisica
(Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Universidade Federal de
Minas Gerais, 1994) pp. 33-38; Available at <http:/
/primordial.cic.unb.br/lcmm/artigos/Som-
A.html>; ftp: <ftp://lpel.cic.unb.br/pub/papers/
Som-A.doc>. For installation procedures and the
manual see <http://www.lpe.cic.unb.br/literat/
servico/ftp/ftp-i.html#som-a>.
12. In the words of Arcela, "there exists a bi-univocal
relation between intervallic information and picto-
rial images; the form and disposition of visual ob-
jects, as well as their colors and textures, are calcu-
lated from the ensemble of physical magnitudes that
express themselves in the musical interval, with no
room for arbitrariness." A. Arcela, "Re: artigo
Leonardo," E-mail message, 3July 2000. For a gallery
of Arcela's time-tree computed images, see <http://
www.lpe.cic.unb.br/literat/acervo/acervo.html>.
13. A. Arcela, "Re: LPE,"E-mail message, 4 Novem-
ber 1999.
14. With help from Raimundo Cavalcante and
Jamary Oliveira, Celso Aguiar developed an experi-
mental digital synthesizer, the MS-80, at the Federal
University of Bahia (UFBA). See C. Aguiar,
"Sintetizador MS-80:Prototipos de Hardware e Soft-
ware," Opus 1 (1989) pp. 79-85; (review of the Na-
tional Association for Research and Postgraduate
Studies in Music [ANPPOM]); Aguiar, "Aspectos do
Projeto de um Sintetizador Digital Multi-Canais,"
Art 20 (1992) pp. 41-49 (Review of the Music
School of the Federal University of Bahia).
15. In 1937 German composer Hans-Joachim
Koellreutter, a former assistant of Scherchen,
brought the 12-tone technique to Brazil. In 1939 he
created Musica Viva, a concert society devoted to
the promotion of contemporary music, of which
distinguished Nationalist composers took part.
Little by little, younger composers started gather-
ing around Koellreutter's teaching in Rio. Claudio
Santoro was already experimenting with do-
decaphonism when he came to Koellreutter in
1940 and Cesar Guerra Peixe willingly disowned his
Nationalist creed in 1944 upon joining. The group
issued manifestos in 1940, 1944 and 1946. Misica
Viva accepted musical Nationalism but abhorred
"feelings of national superiority" and excessive for-
malism. However, because the group shared Com-
munist Party ideals, a confrontation loomed, as Na-
tionalist composers became gradually associated
with the increasingly fascist Getulio Vargas regime
(1930-1945). In fact, Santoro and Guerra Peixe
had already converted-or reconverted-to Na-
tionalism in 1950, when, in the national press, the
Nationalist composer Camargo Guarnieri savaged
dodecaphonism and Koellreutter in foul terms. It
was the Nationalist composers of the 1930s, 1940s
and 1950s who brought an indigenous brand of So-
cialist Realism to fruition.
The Musica Nova group, to which Gilberto
Mendes belonged, started gathering in Sao Paulo
around the concrete poets of the Noigandres group
in the 1950s. They "went to Darmstadt in 1962 'to
find out first hand what was happening in total
serialism, and were shocked to discover that Europe
had moved on,' a shock which caused two of the
four to abandon 'serious' music entirely." See P.
Mounsey, "Music in Brazil: Willy Corr&ade Oliveira
and Gilberto Mendes," Contact31 (1987) pp. 21-26.
Even so, they issued a manifesto inJune 1963.
16. The word tupiniquim-etymologically, "branch
of the Tupi Indians"-designates an individual from
a tribe of the Porto Seguro coast; as an adjective, it
acquires the derogatory meaning of "typically Bra-
zilian." See F.S. Bueno, Grandediciondrioetimologico
da lingua portuguesa(Brasilia: Santos, 1974); and A.
Ferreira, Novo DiciondrioAurilio da lingua portuguesa
(Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1986).
17. The first bishop of Brazil, Dom Pero Fernandes
Sardinha, did not approve of what he perceived as
the Jesuits' leniency towards native South American
mores. In 1556 he went to Portugal for an audience
with the king. That ship sank and Dom Pero
Sardinha swam ashore only to be devoured by
members of the Caete tribe. In 1928 the Brazilian
intellectual Oswald de Andrade (1890-1954) en-
shrined the swallowing of Dom Pero Sardinha in
Brazilian culture as the founding act of national
modernism. For a critical reading of de Andrade's
anthropophagism, see H. de Hollanda, "The Law of
the Cannibal or How to Deal with the Idea of 'Dif-
ference' in Brazil," <http://acd.ufrj.br/pacc/
literaria/paperlhelo.html>; <http://acd.ufrj.br/
pacc/paperl.html>, originally a talk given at New
York University, May 1998.
18. E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," E-mail message, 9
November 1999.
19. A SAEMAorgan, hugely popular among rumba
and bolero bands active in local barbecue restau-
rants. "It was tawdry to the highest degree: scream-
ing red and full of white knobs. We sampled it with
a microphone." E. Miranda, "Re: trifles," E-mail
message, 25 November 1999.
20. Mirandawrites on the ZX-81:"The Sinclair ZX-81
was a very small computer; it had lk RAM (I'm not
saying 'Kb,' it's 'k' really). This machine was pro-
duced by a British maker, but I think some Brazilian
company was licensed to manufacture it, as I remem-
ber reading everything in Portuguese. I used it as a
controller for an electronic synthesizer that my father
had made for the studio (as you may know, he's an
electronic technician!). It never worked too well, but
that's research, I suppose." From E. Miranda, "Re:old
machines," E-mail message, 10 November 1999. For
more information on and photographs of the ZX-81,
see Carlson's Obsolete Computer Museum <http://
www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/zx81.html>.
21. Miranda notes on the MSX: "The MSX was a
Japanese computer. Much as we now have Amiga,
Atari, PC, Sun, Mac, Silicon Graphics, etc., then we
had the MSX, which was very popular in Brazil. Bra-
zil actually happened to manufacture the MSX, and
Yamaha even launched an MSX for music pur-
poses, which was the first commercial workstation
for computer music (ours was nonetheless the stan-
dard MSX and not Yamaha's). The interesting
things about the MSX were the ease of program-
ming and the fact that it came with a sound chip
that could be programmed in BASIC. The sound
chip was very simple. It could generate up to three
simultaneous waveforms from a choice of sine,
sawtooth, square and ramp, and combining these
in different ways one could obtain a variety of
sounds. I think the output was 8-bit, as compared to
the 32 you can get today. The sound was no big deal
but it was possible to do things that sounded terrific
in those days." From E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," E-
mail message, 9 November 1999.
This machine had remarkable graphic capabili-
ties. For a history of the MSX, see <http://
www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/1687/
eng.html>; for the Yamaha MSX, see <http://
www.tni.nl/msxbanzai/computers/yamaha.html>;
for the Sony MSX, see <http://www.tni.nl/
msxbanzai/computers/sony.html>; for images of an
MSX prototype, see <http://www.geocities.com/
TimesSquare/Alley/1687/protot.htm>; for a his-
tory of the MSX with particular reference to its Bra-
zilian career, see <http://www.geocities.com/
TimesSquare/Alley/4939/hist.htm>.
22. The MSX's interface was obtained from a local
engineer who built a circuit that did the same job
as Yamaha's SFG05 MIDI interface. "This happened
because in 1986 we were living in the market re-
serve for informatics era. Don't even think of im-
porting: it was either do it yourself or copy from
abroad." M. Lopes Filho, cited by E. Miranda,
"informacoes adicionais," E-mail message, 24 No-
vember 1999.
23. "We did not know that this bug would be thus
named or that there would be all this fuss about it.
We were simply referring to a possible catastrophic
computer crash due to the problem of dates. I be-
came aware of it when a SENAC student asked me
why databases employed only two digits for the year
and I simply replied: 'to save memory.' 'Well,' she
retorted, 'what will happen in the turn of the mil-
lennium?"' E. Miranda, "Re: Paris/LMJ," E-mail
message, 9 December 1999.
24. E. Miranda, "performance duration," E-mail
message, 29 November 1999.
25. E. Miranda, "Re: 23 de abril de 1987," E-mail
message, 24 November 1999.
26. "It was funny because they received me there
with the same pomp they accorded to Hermeto
Pascoal and Tim Rescala, and I was more famous in
Brasilia than in Porto Alegre, mind you. There
were a photographer and a journalist waiting for
me in the airport for an interview to the Correio
Braziliense."E. Miranda, "Re: draft II," E-mail mes-
sage, 9 November 1999.
27. E. Miranda, "Re: response," E-mail message, 29
November 1999.
28. Miranda recollects: "While in Brasilia, Elton and
I went to the Portuguese Embassy to see the Ambas-
sador. How petulant of us! Elton had written a trea-
tise to change the orthography of the Portuguese
language according to which "k"sounds should be
written "k,""z"sounds should be written "z,"etc. (as
in muzikaelektroplastika [elektroplastik muzik]). The
ambassador obviously did not receive us but we were
directed to a cultural attache or the like who lis-
tened very carefully, although I believe that at heart
he couldn't care less. It was naive of us but I still
laugh to myself when I remember this." E. Miranda,
"Re:one date," E-mail message, 20 November 1999.
29. "Do you know what an elektroplastik muzik
konsert is? Well, for those who have not seen it, this
was a piece of music presented on Monday in the
music auditorium of Brasilia University, which has
played host to various stars since the beginning of
the First Latin American Festival of Art and Cul-
ture. In reality, what we have seen thus far are good
shows and excellent musicians, but all within the
conventional boundaries, the jazz as usual kind of
thing. Few have dared to innovate or leave aside the
pre-established language, which defines what is or
is not art. The Elektroplastik Konsert eschews all
rules and will certainly remain as the most com-
mented event, given the boldness with which it
seeks to break away from tradition." Anonymous,
"Espetaculos: revisitando partituras," Correio do
Brasil (23 September 1987).
30. Carlson writes on the Apple II+: "Partof the his-
toric Apple II line, the Apple II+ filled the gap be-
tween the Apple II and the more capable Apple IIe
and Apple IIc. The twin drives each hold around
140k-160k, depending on whom I ask. The Apple II
line-up was a staple of school for years .... [It] was
enormously popular in its heyday. After a few
stumbles, namely the Apple III and the Lisa, the
Apple II line led to the equally impressive
Macintosh line, starting with the Mac 128k." See
Carlson's Obsolete Computer Museum <http://
www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/
appleiip.html>. For front and back views of the
Apple II+ see Carlson, <http://www.obsolete
and
computermuseum.org/appleiip/appleiip.jpg>
<http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/
appleiip/appleii2.jpg>, respectively.
31. Unlike the MSX's (see [21]), the Apple II+'s in-
terface was made from scratch.
32. "The piece consists of a main sound plane,
PLANE A, and two sub-planes, MIRROR 1 and
MIRROR 2. PLANE A is made up of six cells, each
corresponding to a sine wave generated by a micro-
This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Sun, 19 May 2013 20:39:07 PM
processor. MIRROR 1 is made up of five events ob-
tained by digital sampling. Sampled material
[reverbed, chorused and flanged] is of electronic
origin. Events are saturated with partials [i.e. they
are very noisy]. MIRROR 2 is made up of m events
of undetermined pitch and various origins in the
realm of percussed metallic materials. The cells of
PLANE A and the events of MIRROR 1 follow the
execution and order procedures established by the
score. The events of MIRROR 2 are elaborated by
the interpreters, who play percussion instruments
according to a free reading of the graphic schemes
of PLANE A. The events of MIRROR 2 happen in
accordance with the interpreters' aesthetic sensibil-
ity and formal conception. The events of MIRROR
1 are recorded on magnetic tape. Attached to the
graphics of the cells of PLANE A one will find the
musical theorems and the BASIC programming
that will generate them in an Apple microcom-
puter." E. Miranda, Labirinto,8-page score (1987).
33. Miranda explains: "The playback speed of the
machine we were supplied did not match the speed
of our recording, and there was no facility for alter-
ing it. As a result, the tape played half as fast as it
should have played, that is, one octave lower, and
the performance lasted twice as long as it should
have lasted. I almost stopped it at the outset, but
then I liked the transposition and, besides, the guys
onstage were all so excited about the whole thing-
there were eight of them-that we just carried on."
E. Miranda, "Re:Paris/LMJ," E-mail message, 9 De-
cember 1999.
34. G. Eitelvein, "Mfsica erudita precisa avancar,"
ZeroHora, Segundo Caderno (Porto Alegre, 26 Sep-
tember 1988).
35. Geraldo Azevedo, Vital Farias, Elba Ramalho
and Ze Ramalho belong to a particular brand of
Brazilian musicians who blend northeastern musics
with pop styles. Sivuca, a composer and multi-in-
strumentalist, evokes Brazilian traditions in jazz
performances.
36. Luiz Ramalho cultivated musical partnerships
with various Brazilian artists, most constantly with
Luiz Gonzaga, who has been credited with co-au-
thorship of about a dozen compositions that, in re-
ality, are by Ramalho alone. A lawyer by profession
("my dad always thought he'd have more freedom
to compose what he wished if he didn't have to
earn his living from music"), Luiz Ramalho died
from leukemia in 1981, when his musical career
was starting to take off. G. Ramalho, "Re: para
Geber," E-mail message, 7January 2000.
37. In the nineteenth century the baiao was a favorite
dance among the lower classes of the Brazilian north-
east. In 1946 it started becoming widely known across
the country through 78 RPM disks and the Rio de
Janeiro radio stations in the voice of Luiz Gonzaga, a
composer, accordionist and singer from the
Pernambuco state who modified it under the influ-
ence of the Brazilian samba and Cuban conga. See L.
da Camara Cascudo, Diciondrio do folclore brasileiro
(Sao Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1980) pp. 95-97.
38. G. Ramalho, "Re: draft," E-mail message, 6 No-
vember 1999.
39. A. Arcela, "respostas," E-mail message, 9 Sep-
tember 1999.
40. Now known as Laboratoire d'Informatique de
Paris 6 (LIP6).
41. It is interesting to compare this list to the one
Arcela draws 1?/2 years later: "Other than Brasilia
University, one may cite the Federal Universities of
Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo
and Bahia, as well as Sao Paulo University and the
Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, as the
Brazilian institutions where computer music is be-
ing practiced today."Arcela [2].
42. E. Miranda and G. Ramalho, "NUCOM: Nucleo
Brasileiro de Pesquisa em Computacao e Musica,"
E-mail message, 7July 1993.
Palombini, The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
43. The Center for Computer Research in Music
and Acoustics (CCRMA,Stanford) sent DavidJaffe,
Fernando L6pez-Lezcano, Dexter Morril and
Xavier Serra; the Laboratorio de Investigaci6n y
Producci6n Musical (LIPM, Buenos Aires) sent
Francisco Kroepfl; the Center for Research in Com-
puting and the Arts (CRCA, San Diego) sent Rob-
ert Willey. Stephen Travis Pope arrived from the
Center for New Music and Audio Technology
(CNMAT, Berkeley), as a Symposium guest to de-
scribe musical applications of computer science to
1,000 members of the SBC audience.
44. Aluizio Arcela, Rodolfo Caesar, Regis Faria,
Osman Gioia, Ricardo Jacobi, Mauricio Loureiro,
Jose Augusto Mannis, J6natas Manzolli, Silvia
Matheus, Eduardo Miranda, Axel Mulder, Jamary
Oliveira, Wilson de Paula Filho, Ricardo Reis,
Conrado Silva, Francisco Kroepfl, Robert Willey,
Bernadete Zagonel and others.
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19
e

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Webliography
Celso Aguiar homepage: <http://cm.stanford.edu/
-aguiar/>.
Aluizio Arcela homepage: <http://www.lpe.cic.
unb.br/literat/servico/document/arcela-p.html>.
Tom Carlson, "Obsolete Computer Museum":
<http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/>.
Laboratory for Analysis and Synthesis of Image and
Sound (OASIS), Federal University of Minas Gerais
(UFMG), website: <http://kirk.dcc.ufmg.br/oasis/>.
Eduardo Miranda homepage: <http://
website.lineone.net/~edandalex/index2.htm>.
Paulo Motta, "BrazilianElectroacoustic Music"
<http://www.artnet.com.br/-pmotta/
meletbra.htm>.
Music,Musicologyand AppliedTechnologyGroup
(GMT), Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB),
website:<http://www.liaa.ch.ufpb.br/~gmt/>.
NUCOMweb site:<http://primordial.cic.unb.br/
nucom/>.
Geber Ramalho homepage: <http://
www.cin.ufpe.br/~glr/>.
Robert Willey, "Computer Music in Brazil" <http:
//www-crca.ucsd.edu/-bobw/brazil.html>.
A specialist in the writings ofPierre Schaeffer
Carlos Palombini has participated in the ac-
tivities of the Brazilian Groupfor Computer
r
Music Research since 1998. His articles have
appeared in Computer Music Journal,
Music and Letters, MikroPolyphonie,
Organised Sound, Electronic Musico-
logical Review, Synteesi, Leonardo,
Leonardo Music Journal and Leonardo
Electronic Almanac.

Laboratory of Multimedia Computing (formerly,

Spectral Processing Laboratory), Brasilia Univer-
sity, website: <http://www.lpe.cic.unb.br/>. Manuscript received 17 March 2000.

20 Palombini,The Brazilian Group for Computer Music Research

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