Earliest Recorded Computer Music Restored

Earliest Recorded Computer Music Restored article tells that researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand have just restored what is probably the oldest piece of recorded, computer-generated music. Recorded in 1951, the rendition of “God Save The King”, “Baa-Baa Black Sheep” and “In The Mood” was produced by a computer built by none other Alan Turing and other researchers at the Computing Machine Research Laboratory in Manchester. The sounds were captured by the BBC for broadcast on an acetate disk.

Restoring the first recording of computer music article gives more details on the restoration and pictures of the computers used. It was a challenge to write routines that would keep the computer tolerably in tune, since the Mark II could only approximate the true pitch of many notes.

Here is the complete recording: First recorded computer music – Copeland-Long restoration