"Daisy Bell" - synthetic speech and a space odyssey

As readers of this blog can tell, I'm very interested in the origins of just about everything, particularly when it relates to music.
The first electronically synthesized speech was created using an analog device, the "Voder", which was demonstrated at the 1939 World's Fair.

Digitally synthesized speech probably originated at Bell Labs in 1962 on the IBM 704 computer. These computers had an estimated 18 bytes of memory, and were the first to use core memory rather then tubes to store binary information.

The song "Daisy Bell", also known as "A Bicycle Built for Two", was digitally synthesized by John L. Kelly, with accompanying music by Max Mathews. It was a major moment in computer history.The writer Arthur C. Clarke was present at this demonstration, and used it in "2001: A Space Odyssey", when the HAL 9000 computer sang it.


The Wikipedia article on the IBM 704:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_704

An article by Bell Labs on text-to-speech synthesis:

http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1997/march/5/2.html


A photo of an IBM 704:



http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/704.html

Daisy Bell", "sung" by the IBM 704.




The notes here refer to the computer used as an IBM 7094, a later model. It seems that the IBM 704 however was in fact the computer used, since it's referred to that way in the Bell Labs article.

Computer speech from Bell Labs - this also includes "Daisy Bell"

http://www.wfmu.org/365/2003/062.shtml

Some music from the "Music for Mathematics LP". The cover for this LP was designed by Alex Steinweiss, the first album cover designer.


http://www.wfmu.org/365/2003/260.shtml

What did the songs of the Bible originally sound like?

One more post an ancient music, then on to something else. I've often wondered what the music of Biblical times sounded like. What did the Psalms, the Song of Songs, and other parts of the Bible sound like sound like when they were first sung?

At my Bar Mitzvah, I chanted my Torah and Haftorah portions as everyone does. The sounds of the notes though come from one of a series of oral traditions, and their relationship with the actual way these were originally sung is unclear.

Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, a French musician, began studying the cantillation marks, which appear both above and below the Hebrew text of the Masoretic Bible. This Bible was compiled over several centuries by scholars, and completed in the eleventh century. She concluded that the eight cantillation marks appearing below the Hebrew text (which are always present) represented a series of hand gestures that were used to indicate performance of a musical value. This is known as chironomy, and was used throughout the ancient world particularly in Egypt. Her work has had a mixed scholarly reception

Here's an overview of Haik-Vantoura's work, from NPR's "Morning Edition" (1986)



Psalm 23 from Haik-Vantoura's "Music of the Bible Revealed" (1982)



Many "Music of the Bible Revealed" clips are available here.


http://www.youtube.com/user/teamim

Psalm 29 in the Masoretic text:

http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/intro.htm

An article on chironomy in the ancient world:

\http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/chironomy.htm




Biblical style harps and lyres have been created by Harrari Harps.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126936


An ancient melody played on an ancient lyre.