[Csnd] John ffitch has passed away

The Csound Mailinglist
1

Dear Csounders,

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news with you that John ffitch passed away in the hospital this past Thursday.

Although Barry Vercoe wrote Csound, few of us would have spent the past 40+ years working, discovering, exploring, learning, teaching, creating, and growing with Csound were it not for John’s work, gift, and commitment to supporting all of our dreams, especially mine.

I am headed to London in a week to demo “Csound’s Brain” with a 16-year-old student at NIME. And, as always, I am using dozens of his opcodes and tricks to make it sound magical and work beautifully! In fact, I added extra days to the trip so I could go to Bath, visit him, and help him with his Linux and sound systems. I have a mixer in my bag for him and a Quest 3, too, so he could jam in the MetaVerse with me in my studio and him in from home. Now, he will just live in my music and be a part of every performance and will not need a Quest3 for that!

I have lost such a dear friend. We have all lost a dear friend. He gave us all so very much.

As we continue to share the beauty, power, elegance, and possibilities of Csound with our students and each other, we now have a patron saint who is teaching Csound to the angels. (And maybe adding some new opcodes for them too, but probably not AutoTune.)

I love you, John, and have been so blessed to work with you, study with you, learn from you, hang with you, play with you, publish with you, compose with you, and perform with you!

There is a huge empty space in my heart that I will fill every day with gratitude for all the blessings that I continue to receive from you.

Do give Barry Vercoe a hug for me, and for all of us csounders, too.

I can’t begin to imagine the sounds and music that the two of you are making possible up there.

Gsound?

  • Rick

- Dr.B

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2

Rest in peace John! And thank you Richard for sharing the news with us. John has given immeasurable good to Csound and the community. Beyond being clever and involved, he was kind and gentle. The only face to face meeting I had with him has greatly impressed me. He gave courage and inspiration to that little chiclet, as I'm sure he gave to many others, chiclet or not. And all of that will remain. A treasure vey well worth maintaining and taking to heart.

Best wishes,

Jeanette

Dr. Richard Boulanger, Jun 14 2026:

3

Noooooo,… Emoji
One of the keys of world here.

-Partev

4

Good sentiment. Emoji

-Partev

Thanks. Gratitude.
May your days be filled with negative delay times.
Øyvind

5

Yes, the Obi Wan of Csound (*.csd), save and close file. Emoji
Much missed. Emoji

-P

Wizard Emeritus of Csound

6

Devastating news. Rest in peace John.

7

What a terrible loss for all the Csound community, his friends, and family.
Rest in peace.

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8

I was very sorry to hear about John's passing. I am deeply grateful for all he did for the community. Rest in peace.
I always found his regular emails encouraging. 'The Csound list welcomes posts from people with ALL levels of skill...'

Tetsuya Miwa

2026/06/15 1:09、Dr. Richard Boulanger <00001600c4df7cd8-dmarc-request@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE>のメール:

Dear Csounders,

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news with you that John ffitch passed away in the hospital this past Thursday.

Although Barry Vercoe wrote Csound, few of us would have spent the past 40+ years working, discovering, exploring, learning, teaching, creating, and growing with Csound were it not for John's work, gift, and commitment to supporting all of our dreams, especially mine.

I am headed to London in a week to demo "Csound's Brain" with a 16-year-old student at NIME. And, as always, I am using dozens of his opcodes and tricks to make it sound magical and work beautifully! In fact, I added extra days to the trip so I could go to Bath, visit him, and help him with his Linux and sound systems. I have a mixer in my bag for him and a Quest 3, too, so he could jam in the MetaVerse with me in my studio and him in from home. Now, he will just live in my music and be a part of every performance and will not need a Quest3 for that!

I have lost such a dear friend. We have all lost a dear friend. He gave us all so very much.

As we continue to share the beauty, power, elegance, and possibilities of Csound with our students and each other, we now have a patron saint who is teaching Csound to the angels. And maybe adding some new opcodes for them too, but probably not AutoTune\.

I love you, John, and have been so blessed to work with you, study with you, learn from you, hang with you, play with you, publish with you, compose with you, and perform with you!

There is a huge empty space in my heart that I will fill every day with gratitude for all the blessings that I continue to receive from you.

Do give Barry Vercoe a hug for me, and for all of us csounders, too.

I can't begin to imagine the sounds and music that the two of you are making possible up there.

Gsound?

- Rick

- Dr.B

Dr. Richard Boulanger
Professor
Electronic Production and Design
Berklee College of Music
Professional Writing & Technology Division

https://richardboulanger.com
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9

i was afraid to read this subject line since john, due to his desease, more and more became silent and absent on this list.

so now it happened ......

yes, sad and grateful. and i would add: admiring john as a person who was working for others, with such a responsability, reliability, being the well-accepted "root" of csound for decades. how many hours he spent in reading the code, fixing bugs, writing new code .....

it is not only thanks to john that we all can use csound, it is also thanks to him that he established an atmosphere in which different developers joined the project. there is an anarchic part in csound which i personally like and estimate very much (like a plant which does not only grow straight ahead but in different directions), and i think this quality is also present because of john. he allowed developments very different from his own way to develop, and thus established a really liberal, libre atmosphere and collaboration.

i remember a sentence from a self-biography: "looks like a hippie, but is not a hippie." his unconventional appearance was mixed with a british sense of humor ("this is american, not british", he said in the first csound conference when a term was discussed), and a real kindness, from inside out. never putting his person in front, but simply contributing ...... for all .....

as a real mathematician, he was thinking and speaking precisely, without too much words, and getting to the core of a problem in discussing. "do you want arrays of signals, or arrays of instruments?" "do you really want random access to each line in the new opcode to read text files?" but he was missing the cold strictness of some mathematicians; instead he was very cautious, giving doubts a big space, asking instead of claiming: "i believe i fixed this but ..."

thanks, rick, for letting us know about his passing, and for your warm-hearted words and memories, shared here on this list. your online meeting with john on the csound conference in vienna was a wonderful idea, and a real memorable event. i hope that john felt in the last part of his life our gratefulness, and was perhaps proud about himself for making this collaborative software possible and fruitful.

one of the most sigificant contributions to the atmosphere of this community are, no were, john's monthly "Administrivia". the main paragraph was:
"The Csound list welcomes posts from people with ALL levels of skill, from the newest newbie to the most serious hacker or established composer. The subject and tenor of the posts varies dramatically depending on what the current concerns are. Newbies are sometimes afraid to post because they read discussions about the incomprehensible deep inner workings, and all they want to know is how to get a sound to come out of their computer, or advice on how to get mobile sounds. Rest assured that your questions will be answered quickly, and (usually) in a helpful and courteous manner. We have all been there. Please post."

  joachim