Computers are commonly believed to modify how we do traditional tasks, amplifying or extending our capabilities, with the assumption that these tasks stay essentially the same (Pea, 1985). According to this amplification metaphor, technologies amplify our powers, allowing us to accomplish activities more efficiently and in less time, but without changing the nature of these activities. The term amplification, in the scientific sense, refers precisely to the intensification of a signal (e.g., acoustic, electronic), which does not undergo change in its basic structure.
    A primary role for computers, however, is changing the tasks we do by reorganizing our mental functioning, not only by amplifying it (Pea, 1985). According to Salomon (199 1), the reorganization metaphor suggests that the partnership with computers affords the opportunity to engage in new tasks that involve mental operations that could not have been employed without it. Therefore, it might be said that the real power of technology is in its ability to redefine and fundamentally restructure what we do and how we do it.
    Thanks to recent advances in computer technology, for instance, the traditional distinction between the act of composing and performing are becoming blurred in the field of interactive composition (Rowe, 1993). No doubt, emerging ways of creating music with computers will compel researchers involved in the study of children's composition to examine not only how the computer extends or amplifies children's compositional abilities -in the traditional sense but also how the technology modifies and transforms the activity of composing itself.
    In this conference, I will present a custom composition program for children which integrates some of the aspects of interactive composition. This computer program, named MAXime (MAX for Interactive Music Education), is currently developed using the MAX programming environment. I will first present basic features and selected objects in MAX, and show how, by connecting objects together, it is possible to create programs that work in real time, therefore allowing interactive music making. This will be followed by a brief definition of the concept of interactive composition and, finally, a presentation of MAXime.

The MAX programming environment
    MAX is a graphical programming environment developed at the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) at Paris. It was commercialized by the company Opcode in the early 1990s. ( The name of the program is in honor of Max Mathews, considered a father of computer music.)
    MAX does not use a linguistic metaphor and is thus more adequately described as a graphical programming environment, instead of a programming language. Programs are written in MAX by placing graphical objects in a Patcher window and connecting them with patch cords to make "patches". A patch is a basic structure in MAX. It is constituted form a series of selected objects logically (and artistically) connected together.
    Objects appear on the computer screen as boxes that contain either text or icon. Typically, objects have inlets at the top, used to receive information from other objects, and outlets at the bottom, used to send information to other objects in the patcher. Objects are connected together (with a patch cord) simply by dragging from the outlet of one object over to the inlet of the other object.(2A few objects lack either inlets or outlets, because they receive or send information directly from MIDI, from somewhere outside of the patch that contains them. For instance, the "NoteIn" object has no inlet because it receives the information (note number and velocity) directly from the MIDI controller being played.)
    MAX has more than 100 built-in objects, each of which performs one or more specific tasks. The actual function performed by an object box depends on the name typed into it. The name (or the symbol as +, =, <) is like a verb describing what the object will do. Other objects are user interface objects such as buttons, dials, sliders and keyboard. In addition, there are external objects that can be loaded into MAX when it is running, and it is possible to create custom objects that can be used inside any other programs.
    MAX allows one to develop real-time music applications. Because of its speed, this programming environment enables developers to write interactive programs which generate music instantly based on what is it played, or which modify the performance as it is realized. Professional programmers can write specialized objects in MAX (in C language) and, in the spirit of HyperCard's external commands (xcmd), powerfully extend the initial environment. MAX is currently MIDI oriented, but coming versions should integrate both MIDI and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities (Rowe, 1993).

Interactive composition
    Interactive composition, a term coined by one of the pioneers of this field, Joel Chadabe, is a sort of hybrid creative process between composition and improvisation (Yavelow 1992). In interactive systems, the composer organizes not a musical structure in itself (an independent unity as in traditional composition), but rather a mode of functioning that generates new structures in every performance. In one of the Chadabe's interactive compositions entitled "Echoes", the sounds played by the performer (or improviser) are delayed a few seconds. After having been transformed by a sound processing system, they are played back to the performer (as distant echoes) to which the performer reacts in deciding, in real time, how to play the next notes. The system thus uses the performer's action as partial control for the music, generates musical events not assumed by the performer, and directs the sound devices in generating sounds (Chadabe, 1989).
    Unlike algorithmic compositions, which reinforce the formal aspect of computers with complex sets of rules and procedures, interactive systems qualitatively change the nature of experimentation with compositional algorithms (Rowe, 1993). Because interactive composition integrates the act of performing, the composition process is not left entirely to the algorithms programmed in the system, but leaves room for musical decision-making based on human criteria, including intuition, feeling and tacit knowledge. For this reason in particular, I believe that interactive composition has great potential for music education.

MAX for Interactive Music Education (MAXime)
    A composition is traditionally defined as a fixed series of pitches and durations that can be replicated integrally. MAXime is based on a different conception of composing which has been partially inspired by the concept of interactive composition.
    Composing with MAXime involves two distinct phases. In the first phase, the child is invited to create a melodic/rhythmic structure. This melody, represented by graphic notation, provides the basic structure of the composition (see the window "NewMelody" in Figure 1). Unlike the traditional way of composing, though, this structure is not viewed as a final product but rather as the basic structure to be modified and transformed in real-time.
    The second phase consists of selecting the loop option (so that the melody repeats itself until the stop button is pressed) and then to perform the melody by modifying it on the fly (in real time) using the many options available: changing the volume, the tempo, the pitch level (transposition); playing the melody in retrograde, in mirror, in retrograde/mirror; adding parallel voices, playing these voices in canon, changing the timbre of each voice; and so on.
    While the basic melody created during the first phase of the composing process remains the same, the interaction with the melody (played in loop) during the performing phase of the task generates new musical structures in every performance. In this perspective, MAXime integrates the concept of interactive composition as defined by Chadabe (1989).
    Composing with MAXime, thus, includes both the construction of a new melodic line, which is constantly repeated (loop), and its transformation with the options available. There is also the possibility of recording all the operations done on the melody in real time, and to save the resulting music for additional editing (in a sequencer program, for instance). In this regard, MAXime becomes a collaborator in the composing process.

Coda
    The development of MAXime is based on the notion that music educators should play a leading role in the design of music software. This belief was partially inspired by Reimer's suggestion (1989) that music educators should assume a proactive role in the computer revolution, and Webster's description (1992) of a new stage in technological innovation in which art educators should not merely react to commercial products, but assume a central role by developing custom software.

Figure 1. An overview of MAXime.

References

Chadabe, J. (1989). Interactive composing: An overview. In C. Roads (Ed.), The Music Machine. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Pea. R. (1985). Beyond amplification: Using the computer to reorganize mental functioning. Educational Psychologist, 20 (4), 167-182.

Reimer. B. (1989, March). Music education as aesthetic education: Toward the future. Music Educators Journal, 26-32.

Rowe, R. (1993). Interactive music systems: Machine listening and composing. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Salomon, G. (1991). On the Cognitive Effects of Technology. In Landsman, L. (Ed.), Culture, Schooling, and Psychological Development. Norwood, New Jersey: Alex Publishing Corporation.

Webster, P. (1992, July/August). Custom-designed software in the arts: The educator as expert. Design for Arts in Education, 37-44.

Yavelow, C. (1992). MacWorld Music and Sound Bible. San Mateo: IDG Books Worldwide Inc.