Making Music with Clojure – An Introduction to MIDI by @taylodl’s.
From the post:
This post takes a break from Functional JavaScript and has a little fun making music. We’re going to be using Clojure, a Lisp language for the JVM, so that we can utilize the JVM’s MIDI implementation. No experience with music or MIDI is required though a familiarity with Clojure or any other Lisp is helpful.
I’m using Clojure for its functional similarities to JavaScript—the syntax of the languages are different but the underlying programming philosophies are similar. For this post I’m assuming you already have Clojure and Leiningen installed on your system. See Clojure Quick Start for everything you need to get Clojure and Leiningen installed and running on your system.
Once you have everything installed you can create a new midi-sequencer project by executing:
…
Accessibility, that is what I like about this post. Being innocent of any musical playing ability, the history of music remains silent for me unless I can find a recording. Or program a computer to perform it.
MIDI production isn’t the same thing as a live or recorded performance by a real musician, but it is better than a silent page.
Enjoy!
PS: Not all extant music is recorded or performed. Some resources to explore:
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
Music Manuscripts (British Library)
Music Manuscripts Online (The Morgan Library & Museum, 42,000 pages)