James Randall, a pioneer in computer music and professor of music emeritus at Princeton, died of heart failure May 28, 2014. He was 84.
Randall graduated from Columbia in 1955, earned a master’s degree from Harvard in 1956, and then received an MFA degree in music from Princeton in 1958. He joined the Princeton faculty that year and retired in 1991. At Princeton, he taught courses in composition and theory, analysis, ensemble performance, and improvisation.
With other professors, Randall developed the Princeton Music IV Facility, a comprehensive music-production system involving an IBM supercomputer. According to the Princeton University Bulletin, this “led to the development of a highly flexible music-performing program, enabling musicians to design their own ‘instruments’ and assemble whatever ‘orchestra’ they needed for a given work.” His 1968 Lyric Variations for Violin and Computer is regarded as “one of the early masterpieces of the genre.”
Randall’s works for voice, instrumental ensembles, and computers have been performed worldwide. His widely published efforts included contributions to the journal Perspectives of New Music, Journal of Music Theory, Music Review, and the Journal of the National Association for Music Education.
He is survived by Ruth, his wife of 62 years; three children; and seven grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.