David Wessel—The IRCAM years

Abstract

David Wessel was a musical visionary who combined scientific rigor, technological savvy, and sonic adventure to powerfully influential the formative years of Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris. Wessel was trained in mathematics and percussion, receiving a Stanford Ph.D. in musical psychoacoustics. He brought these specialties to computer music at the crucial moment when real-time digital synthesis was being developed. His Antony (1977) was the first musical work to use Giuseppe di Giugno’s 4A machine, and his Timbre Maps (1978) demonstrated for the first time that sonority alone could produce structural relationships. Wessel brought free-jazz principles to live computer music performance, and was a pioneer in understanding and influencing the development of MIDI. Wessel became IRCAM’s Director of Pedagogy in 1980, and in that role inspired a generation of international composers, technologists and scientists, a veritable Who’s Who of today’s most prominent creators. As a member of IRCAM’s Artistic Committee, Wessel influenced the selection of artists for IRCAM residences and helped to invent a successful model for combining pedagogy, research and creation. Above all, David Wessel’s omnivorous love of all kinds of music, and his deep generosity, brought an unequaled spark of humanity to the world of man, music, and machines.