Career
Best known for her use of interactive and algorithmic logic as part of the compositional process, Spiegel worked with Buchla and Electronic Music Laboratories synthesizers and subsequently many early, often experimental and prototype-level music and image generation systems, including GROOVE system (1973-78), Alles Machine (1977) and Max Mathews's RTSked and John R. Pierce tunings (1984, later known as the Bohlen–Pierce scale) at Bell Labs, the alphaSyntauri for Apple II (1978-81), the McLeyvier (1981-85).
Spiegel's best known and most widely used software was "Music Mouse - An Intelligent Instrument" (1986) for Macintosh, Amiga and Atari computers. The "intelligent instrument" name refers to the program's built-in knowledge of chord and scale convention and stylistic constraints. Automating these processes allows the user to focus on other aspects of the music in real time. In addition to improvisations using this software, Spiegel composed several works for "Music Mouse", including "Cavis muris" in 1986, "Three Sonic Spaces" in 1989, and "Sound Zones" in 1990. She continued to update the program through Macintosh OS 9, and as of 2012, it remained available for purchase or demo download from her website.
In addition to electronics and computer-based music, Spiegel's opus includes works for piano, guitar and other solo instruments and small orchestra, as well as drawings, photography, video art, numerous writings and computer software. In the visual domain, Spiegel wrote one of the first "drawing" or "painting" programs at Bell Labs, which she expanded to include interactive video and synchronous audio output.
Pursuing her concept of "visual music", she was a Video Artist in Residence at The Experimental Television Lab at WNET/Thirteen in New York (1976). She composed series music for the TV Lab's weekly "VTR - Video and Television Review" and audio special effects for their 2-hour science fiction film The Lathe of Heaven, both under direction of David Loxton.
During the 1970s Spiegel supported herself by both teaching and soundtrack composition, having steady work at Spectra Films, Valkhn Films, the TV Lab and for various individual video artists, animators and film makers. Spiegel did much less accompanitive music in the 1980s, focusing on creating music software and consulting in the music technology field, as well as additional teaching at Cooper Union and NYU.
Read more about this topic: Laurie Spiegel
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