[LAD] Max V. Mathews (1926-2011)

[Paul Davis]

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 11:31 PM, Geoff Beasley
<geoff at laughingboyrecords.com> wrote:
> On 04/22/2011 01:28 PM, gene heskett wrote:
>>
>> We all should all hold a moment of respectful silence, both
>> for the man, and the legacy of his work.

and to add to some sense of his legacy:

  * if there was no max mathews, there would be no music N languages
  * if there was no music N languages, there would be no Csound
  * if there was no Csound, I would never have listened in awe to a
composition created with it in 1997 on a 486
  * if that hadn't happened there would be no Quasimodo (*)
  * if there was no Quasimodo, there would be no Ardour

so those of you who perhaps can't understand how mathew's academic
noodlings could possibly affect anything that is common today, please
think again. i had the pleasure of meeting max once, for about 10
minutes. the man is a giant. maybe there would have been other giants
that stood in his place had he not been here, but max was the giant we
got, and we are better for it.

--p

(*) and yes, there is no quasimodo anyway, but you get the point