Alan C. Ashton's Ph.D Thesis

Two Options
When My father, Alan C. Ashton, was finishing his thesis he had two proposals for summer research grants. They were:
  1. Research on the computer music project.
  2. Research on designing a computer word processing system for the Computer Science Department.
His professor told him to work on the computer music project. It would be several more years before Alan could try out his computer word processing idea. Meanwhile he went to work on the music project. He along with others had connected an organ to a computer, so that the computer was the heart. The computer was used to control the organ by controlling the tones, stop settings, and the volume. They developed a linear music language that the computer could read and they transcribed many symphonies, fugues, concertos, preludes, and other pieces of music. They programmed the computer so that it would graph the music on a video display while the music was being played. They could view the music in three different views. With a flip of a switch they could transpose the music up or down to many different keys while the music was playing. They could even flip the music upside down, speed it up, or slow it down. My father was very entertained listening to the organ and playing with the computer. There is one night that he remembers distinctly. After he was finished for the evening with playing with the computer and was leaving he passed by the school's large main frame computer. It was enclosed behind a glass wall and inside there were many people moving around in white uniforms. They were carrying stacks of paper, and tapes to feed to the printers and disk drives. He had the thought that the people were "serving the computer" whereas where he was working the computer was "serving" him. Alan always worked so that the computer would serve him not so that he would have to serve the computer.

Alan received his Ph.D in computer science from the University of Utah in 1970. Later Alan was invited to Japan by Yamaha to show them his work with the organ. Alan went to Japan and it was not long before Yamaha came out with an electric keyboard that had some characteristics that were present in the organ Alan had created. Alan's Ph.D thesis was very creative. I don't think that anyone had created such an organ-computer interface that would allow the observer to manipulate the music like he did. It turned out to be a very valuable idea. It was probably instrumental in some new ideas for the beginnings of an electric keyboard. Alan wanted the computer to serve him. He felt that computers should be used to make life easier, not harder. He always tried to think up new ways the computer could be used to make life easier.

Sam's Homepage
The History of Communication
The Creativity of My Father, Alan C. Ashton
Why This Project is Creative