Fugue: a functional language for sound synthesis

A description is given of Fugue, a language that lets composers express signal processing algorithms for sound synthesis, musical scores, and higher level musical procedures all in one language. Fugue provides functions to create and manipulate sounds as abstract, immutable objects. The interactive language supports behavioral abstraction, so composers can manage complex musical structures. Fugue´s capabilities and an example of a score it generated are examined. The implementation of Fugue in a combination of C and XLisp, to run on Unix workstations, is discussed. An example of how Fugue´s implementation of lazy evaluation works is given. Future extensions and applications of Fugue are indicated.<>