Technologies and Music: The Department of Computerization of Musical Activities at the Novosibirsk Conservatory

Abstract

A new wave of historical development, which defined itself in the second half of the previous century with the advent of computer technology, has brought a number of experimental initiatives to the art of music, education and scholarship. Some of them remained in the history of music as bright artistic projects that have not received any continuation subsequently. Others have become firmly established in the daily practice of performing musicians, teachers, and researchers. One of the largest regional methodological centers for the study of computer technologies in the musical sphere has been the Novosibirsk Conservatory, which opened first a computer laboratory, and then the first department of computerization of musical activities in Russia. The issues of the history of the department at the Novosibirsk Conservatory have been insufficiently brought up in musicological literature. In some sources, the chronology of the history of the department is limited merely to the phenomena of the turn of the centuries. The aim of this article is to actualize the data on the Department of Computerization. The main directions of its activities are outlined, and information is provided about the people who have influenced the formation of this new research center for music scholarship. The role is determined of cooperation between different conservatory departments in the formation of the concept of the work of the Department of Computerization and the search for the vectors of the future development of technological processes.