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Memorial Tributes Volume 16 (2012) / Chapter Skim
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MAX V. MATHEWS
Pages 168-173

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From page 169...
... He attended high school in Peru, Nebraska, where his father taught physics and his mother taught biology at the state teachers college there. Peru High School was the training school for the college.
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From page 170...
... And so the computer became the great research tool for speech coding.1 Max's serendipitous transition to music occurred through John R Pierce, who headed Bell Telephone Laboratories: Although I'm not a musician -- I'm an engineer -- I love music, and I learned to play the violin, and I still love to play the violin, whether or not I can play it very well.
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From page 171...
... It was written in the 1980s and named in honor of Mathews. Max recalled the famous song "A Bicycle Built for Two," which was accompanied by synthesized singing that John Kelly provided.
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From page 172...
... In the online version of the Computer History Museum Revolution Exhibit, Max gives a fine demonstration of the batons for controlling an orchestral piece in much the same fashion as a conductor.3 From 1974 to 1980, Mathews was scientific adviser to the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris, a center founded by composer/conductor Pierre Boulez and devoted to research into the science of music, sound, and avant-garde electro-acoustical music.
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From page 173...
... We managed several trips with our friend Derek Scovil, sailing in Puget Sound and the Gulf Islands of Western Canada. Max hadn't done any skiing in Nebraska, but when we married he took it up to humor me, and we had many fine ski vacations with our children in New England, Eastern Canada, Austria, Switzerland, and the Sierras of California.
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Key Terms

  • john pierce
  • computer research
  • laptop computer
  • bicycle built
  • oral history

  • history museum
  • human mind
  • computer history
  • audio engineering
  • included john

  • teachers college
  • music occurred
  • john kelly
  • synthesized singing
  • serendipitous transition

  • bell telephone
  • father taught
  • computer generated
  • batons providing
  • orchestral piece

  • output operations
  • providing six
  • kelly provided
  • founder john
  • taught physics

  • six grandchildren
  • fine ski
  • bell laboratories
  • friend derek
  • existing communication


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