Earliest computer music recovered—BBC was making chiptunes in 1951

The BBC says that it's recovered the earliest computer music ever recorded, renditions of Baa Baa Black Sheep and In the Mood from more than half a century ago.

The songs were captured by the BBC in the Autumn of 1951 during a visit to the University of Manchester.

The recording has been unveiled as part of the 60th Anniversary of "Baby", the forerunner of all modern computers.

The tunes were played on a Ferranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of the Baby Machine.

The Beeb thinks it now hold a record previously attributed to IBM and Bell Labs, for a recording made in 1957.
Follow the link for samples, including a horrendous version of God Save the Robot Masters.

'Oldest' computer music unveiled [BBC]

[#1 posted by Anonymous , June 17, 2008 10:57 PM]

A bit off topic, but I love how the volume controls for the new video players on BBC News's website go to 11. Cheeky.

[#2 posted by annoyingmouse , June 18, 2008 6:09 AM]

This is surely a bit misleading, is it not? I mean granted it's the first "computer" music in the modern sense of the word but if you consider the definition of what a computer is then this is not even remotely the first "computer music". I mean just off the top of my head the pianola/player piano could be considered "computer music" given that it is essentially a programmed musical device.

Sorry just a bit of daily nerd pedantry.