Larry Polansky

about

Born in 1954, Larry Polansky has a master's degree in mathematics and a PhD in music. One of the most talented composers currently working with computers in music, he pioneered the use of computer programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s to compose music and to interact with composers in generating music in real time. Polansky created the FORTH variant HMSL (Hierarchical Music Specification Language) which allows musical structures to be specified, generated and altered in real time. Recently he has rewritten HMSL as JMSL using the Javascript language so that it can be used on a wide variety of computers. Polansky belongs to a group of computer-oriented West Coast composers who have found themselves drawn to extended just intonation. (That is, to music created using small integer ratios beyond 5 or 7. Larry Polansky has gone up to 17 in his various tunings.) Although Polansky currently works at Dartmouth, his crucial developmental period occurred at Mills College in the San Francisco contemporary music community. Polansky is married to the noted contemporary American gamelan expert Jody Diamond, and Polansky has mixed elements of non-Western music in his compositions for many years. Polansky has been closely associated with world music aficioandos like Lou Harrison (who built the first U.S. gamelan at Mills College, tuned to a just intonation approximation of Javanese tunings) but Larry adds a computer twist to the mix. Many of his compositions consist of algorithmic mo

top songs

albums

Four-Voice Canons

Larry Polansky: The Theory Of Impossible Melody

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Larry Polansky: The World's Longest Melody

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$100 Guitar Project

The World's Longest Melody

The Theory Of Impossible Melody

Music From Mills

Polansky: 4-Voice Canons

Larry Polansky: Lonesome Road

Larry Polansky: freeHorn

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Tellus #14 'Just Intonation'

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The Frog Peak Collaborations Project

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