(Photo courtesy of Sali Ariel)
When I published the original four-part “Bringing dry bones back to life” series where I shared 10 pieces of previously-lost computer programs developed by Yaakov Kirschen, I couldn’t include “Magic Harp,” his original Amiga-based “artificial creativity” music composing software.
At the time, Kirschen’s wife, Sali Ariel, believed that it was likely gone forever, because she had thrown out all their 3.5″ disks in the 2010s.
But while preparing to move to a new home in Israel in early 2023, Ariel found an overlooked bundle of 17 Amiga disks, wrapped in paper and labeled “BeatleOdeon JFY backup set,” which had somehow survived the earlier purge.
Ariel sent the Amiga disks to me. I am still curating them, but the two most interesting pieces of software are ready to be released now:
- “Computer Composer” demo (Probably early or mid-1986)
-
“Magic Harp” baroque (Probably late 1986 or early 1987)
My earlier blog post on “The Music Creator” already provided an extensive background on the algorithmic music project, including Magic Harp, so I won’t repeat that history in this new post. It is fascinating, though, so be sure to check it out! Instead, we’ll get right to the software and disk images.
This software was rescued from 3.5″ floppy disks, sent to Josh Renaud by Kirschen’s wife, Sali Ariel. The disks were imaged by Josh Renaud in 2023, using hardware loaned by Dan Hevey and Scott Duensing.
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The software
COMPUTER COMPOSER (demo)
“Computer Composer” is a colorful early demo of Kirschen’s process to generate new music by recombining patterns extracted from existing music. Unlike the later “Magic Harp”, which featured large (silent) animated “artificial personalities,” this demo uses speech synthesis to announce when it is “writing an original composition.” It was probably intended to be shown by Kirschen at technology and music trade shows in summer 1986. This software was created on an Amiga 1000.
This demo allows the user to generate or play music in four styles: “Maharishi Madness,” “Saxman Rock,” “Peruvian Indian,” and “Bugle Boy Blues.”
Disk images:
Credits shown in the program:
Sneak Preview
Computer Composer
(c) 1986 Just For You Inc.
Videos of the software
This video shows an emulated session playing Ya’akov Kirschen’s “Computer Composer” demo on the Commodore Amiga 1000 computer. This video demonstrates software being generated in the “Saxman Blues” and “Maharishi Madness” styles.
MAGIC HARP (baroque)
Kirschen originally intended to create 6 to 10 “Magic Harp” disks, each with a different musical genre or theme. But only two seem to have been produced — “pop” or “Beatles”, as well as “baroque.” As of January 2024, no copy of the “pop” Magic Harp has been found.
This disk image contains a beta version of the “baroque” Magic Harp. The interface includes a large Bach-like “artificial personality” who moves his hands and blinks while composing new music. This beta is likely a later version of the software than what is shown in the photo at the top of this blog post. This software was created on an Amiga 1000, probably around December 1986.
Disk images:
Credits shown in the program:
(c) 1986 Just For You, Inc.
Beta Version
NOT FOR SALE
Videos of the software
This video shows an emulated session playing Ya’akov Kirschen’s “Magic Harp” software (“Baroque” edition) on the Commodore Amiga 1000 computer. This video demonstrates the “Top Ten” module of the software, where the user can play an album of pre-generated music.
More videos
* “Magic Harp” (baroque), generate module
* “Magic Harp” (baroque), studio module
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