OpenMusic 📖 Wikipedia

OpenMusic
A typical patch in OpenMusic
Stable release	8.0[1]  / 30 March 2026; 2 months ago (30 March 2026)
Operating system	Linux macOS Windows
License	GPLv3
Website	openmusic-project.github.io
Repository	github.com/openmusic-project/OM6

OpenMusic (OM) is an object-oriented visual programming environment for musical composition based on Common Lisp. It may also be used as an all-purpose visual interface to Lisp programming. At a more specialized level, a set of provided classes and libraries make it a convenient environment for music composition.^[2]

OpenMusic is the last in a series of computer-assisted composition software designed at IRCAM. Versions of OpenMusic are currently available for macOS (PowerPC, Intel, and Apple Silicon/ARM), Windows, and Linux. The source code has been released under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

Programs in OpenMusic are created by connecting together (a process known as "patching") either pre-defined or user-defined modules, in a similar manner to graphical signal-processing environments such as Max/MSP or Pure Data. Unlike such environments, however, the result of an OpenMusic computation will typically be displayed in conventional music notation, which can then be directly manipulated, if so required, via an editor. A substantial body of specialized libraries has been contributed by users, which extends OpenMusic's functionality into such areas as constraint programming, aleatoric composition, spectral music, minimalist music, music theory, fractals, music information retrieval, sound synthesis etc.

• Alain Bancquart
• Marc Battier
• Brian Ferneyhough
• Joshua Fineberg
• Karim Haddad
• Rozalie Hirs
• Eres Holz
• Michael Jarrell
• Fabien Lévy
• Magnus Lindberg
• Fang Man
• Philippe Manoury
• Tristan Murail
• Kaija Saariaho
• Marco Stroppa

• 
  Patches and scores in OM
• 
  Patches and maquettes in OM

• OpenMusic : Un langage visuel pour la composition musicale assistée par ordinateur, Carlos Agon, PhD Thesis, IRCAM—Univ. Paris 6.
• The OM Composer's Book 1, ed. Carlos Agon, Gérard Assayag and Jean Bresson, 2006, Editions Delatour/IRCAM; ISBN 2-7521-0027-2.
• The OM Composer's Book 2, ed. Jean Bresson, Carlos Agon and Gérard Assayag, 2008, Editions Delatour/IRCAM.
• The OM Composer's Book 3, ed. Jean Bresson, Carlos Agon and Gérard Assayag, 2016, Editions Delatour/IRCAM.
• Fabio Selvafiorita's Thesis in Italian, Selvafiorita, Fabio, .
• Composition assistée par ordinateur : techniques et outils de programmation visuelle pour la création musicale, Jean Bresson, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 2017.

• OpenMusic website, with full OM class and function reference, tutorials and instructions on building OM from source.