Pietro Grossi's Live Coding. An Early Case of Computer Music Performance

Pietro Grossi has been one of the first pioneers in computer music in Italy. His work, however, is still quite underconsidered because his art’s concepts was judged utopistic, without a connection with contemporary cultural manifestations and harshly anti-academic. Instead, in my opinion, it seems to be now the right moment to revalue his work, in order to understand from where some computer music practices have their roots. In this article, I compare the concepts and the work methods developed by Grossi to those employed by live coders. My aim is to demonstrate that the Italian composer’s concepts were not only ahead of his time but also anticipatory of future developments.