Five-movement opus programmed onto a tiny 8-MHz, 8-KB microchip
I have blogged a “bit” on this guy before, but here’s some more details:
Tristan Perich, a New York composer of experimental music, wanted to see how small he could make big philharmonic pieces. His new release, 1-Bit Symphony, is a 40-minute, five-movement opus programmed onto a tiny 8-MHz, 8-KB microchip in super-efficient assembly language. The dinky chip containing this program (source code included in the liner notes) is installed in a CD jewel case and wired to a watch battery, volume knob, and headphone jack. Order the assembly at bangonacan.org, hit the On button, and the music flows through your earbuds.
“I wanted to pare things down as much as possible and remove all of those extra layers,” Perich says. “Ultimately, the lowest you can go is 1 bit.” He couldn’t get quite that small; but still, at under 8 KB, the richness of his composition, which sounds like a grand polyphonic score performed in pulsing Nintendo bleeps and bloops, is surprising. And so is its conclusion: The final movement of 1-Bit Symphony is programmed never to end—the last tone simply goes on forever, or at least until the 3-volt watch battery runs out.
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