Igor Engraver (1996–2001)
Ooloi originates in earlier work on professional music notation software developed between 1996 and 2001 under the name Igor Engraver.
Igor Engraver was designed and implemented in Common Lisp by a team of twelve, led by Peter Bengtson. Over its lifetime, the project represented an investment of approximately USD 7.5 million (2024 equivalent).
The system explored approaches to notation, engraving, and playback that differed substantially from other software of its time. It emphasised direct musical input, semantic representation of notation, and expressive playback. Igor Engraver was used by professional musicians and attracted a dedicated user base.
The project was discontinued in the early 2000s. Its termination was not the result of technical failure. A detailed account of how and why Igor Engraver was lost – including organisational, financial, and human factors – is documented separately.
No code from Igor Engraver is used in Ooloi.
Igor Engraver was designed and implemented in Common Lisp by a team of twelve, led by Peter Bengtson. Over its lifetime, the project represented an investment of approximately USD 7.5 million (2024 equivalent).
The system explored approaches to notation, engraving, and playback that differed substantially from other software of its time. It emphasised direct musical input, semantic representation of notation, and expressive playback. Igor Engraver was used by professional musicians and attracted a dedicated user base.
The project was discontinued in the early 2000s. Its termination was not the result of technical failure. A detailed account of how and why Igor Engraver was lost – including organisational, financial, and human factors – is documented separately.
No code from Igor Engraver is used in Ooloi.
After Igor
The loss of Igor Engraver left several architectural questions unresolved:
For many years, these questions remained open.
- how musical structure should be represented internally
- how engraving decisions can be made deterministically
- how large scores can be edited without performance collapse
- how specialised functionality can be added without destabilising a core system
For many years, these questions remained open.
Naming and Conceptual Lineage
Igor Engraver was named after Igor Stravinsky, with a deliberate nod to Igor in Young Frankenstein (“everyone should have an assistant named Igor”).
FrankenScore was an internal working name used during an intermediate phase, reflecting an attempt to reassemble and test ideas from earlier work. As the architecture matured and the components began to interact coherently, that name no longer described what the system was becoming.
The name Ooloi was adopted later. In Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, the Ooloi are genetic architects: entities that enable synthesis and coordination between otherwise incompatible forms. The name reflects a conceptual shift in the project—from assembling parts toward defining structures that allow complex behaviour to emerge without manual intervention.
FrankenScore was an internal working name used during an intermediate phase, reflecting an attempt to reassemble and test ideas from earlier work. As the architecture matured and the components began to interact coherently, that name no longer described what the system was becoming.
The name Ooloi was adopted later. In Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, the Ooloi are genetic architects: entities that enable synthesis and coordination between otherwise incompatible forms. The name reflects a conceptual shift in the project—from assembling parts toward defining structures that allow complex behaviour to emerge without manual intervention.
Ooloi
Ooloi is a new system.
It shares no implementation with earlier software.
It is built on architectural assumptions that were not practical in the late 1990s, including immutable data structures, transactional concurrency, modern rendering pipelines, and commodity parallel hardware.
Where Igor Engraver explored what was musically possible, Ooloi focuses on what can now be made structurally inevitable.
It shares no implementation with earlier software.
It is built on architectural assumptions that were not practical in the late 1990s, including immutable data structures, transactional concurrency, modern rendering pipelines, and commodity parallel hardware.
Where Igor Engraver explored what was musically possible, Ooloi focuses on what can now be made structurally inevitable.
Next: Project Goals