On Composers and Computers

The chapter describes the manifold interactions between composers and computers in the creative process. Over time, this dialogue dating back to the 1950s has transcended the paradigm of the traditional compositional process and lead to a number of interesting implications and side effects in the context of current trends in algorithmic composition, generative music, and computational creativity. It is not just the computer but also the choice of software and a specific view on the musical material that are the decisive factors in generative and analytical approaches (which are often interlinked), where strategies of musical representation and the choice of a particular mapping are of crucial importance. Finally, the chapter examines how creativity can be defined and located in this interaction between human and machine.

Using Formal Grammars as Musical Genome

In this paper, we explore a generative music method that can compose atonal and tonal music in different styles. One of the main differences between regular engineering problems and artistic expressions is that goals and constraints are usually ill-defined in the latter case; in fact the rules here could or should be transgressed more regularly. For this reason, our approach does not use a pre-existing dataset to imitate or extract rules from. Instead, it uses formal grammars as a representation method than can retain just the basic features, common to any form of music (e.g., the appearance of rhythmic patterns, the evolution of tone or dynamics during the composition, etc.). Exploring different musical spaces is the responsibility of a program interface that translates musical specifications into the fitness function of a genetic algorithm. This function guides the evolution of those basic features enabling the emergence of novel content. In this study, we then assess the outcome of a particular music specification (guitar ballad) in a controlled real-world setup. As a result, the generated music can be considered similar to human-composed music from a perceptual perspective. This endorses our approach to tackle arts algorithmically, as it is able to produce novel content that complies with human expectations.

The Sweet Sounds of Syntax: Music, Language, and the Investigation of Hierarchical Processing

Language and music are uniquely human faculties, defined by a level of sophistication found onlyin our species. The ability to productively combine contrastive units of sound, namely words inlanguage and notes in music, underlies much of the vast communicative and expressive capacities ofthese systems. Though the intrinsic rules of syntax in language and music differ in many regards,they both lead to the construction of complex hierarchies of interconnected, functional units. Muchresearch has examined the overlap, distinction, and general neuropsychological nature of syntaxin language and music but, in comparison to the psycholinguistic study of sentence processing,musical structure has been regarded at a coarse level of detail, especially in terms of hierarchicaldependencies. The current research synthesizes recent ideas from the fields of generative music theory,linguistic syntax, and neurolinguistics to outline a more detailed, hierarchy-based methodology forinvestigating the brain’s processing of structures in music.

Reflection and practice on generative music structuring: the formal problem of ergodicity

This article approaches the subject of musical form from the standpoint of an algorithmic composition practice. It introduces the problem of ergodicity in music, a formal situation at which music development is perceived as static. The concepts of ​General Periodicity by Henri Pousseur and ​Temporal Gestalt by James Tenney gave support to a reflection on the nature of the problem, as well as to formulate a twofold structuring procedure based on ideas of continuity and segmentation of the musical course. The devised method was implemented as a computer program to produce entire pieces of music.

Generative Music with the Living Machine: Using Rule-Based Improvisation to Generate Narrative and Soundtrack

This paper proposes the term generative improvisation to describe free improvisations that are constrained by a set of human-determined limits. The purpose of this term is to emphasize the way that rules limit performer choices and define the meanings of different musical gestures to generate specific kinds of performances. By examining Narrative Generator (for Living Machine), a rule-based improvisation for narrator, instruments, and electronics, I demonstrate that generative improvisation can be used to produce a performance of a coherent improvised narrative and soundtrack by basing the rules of the work on the theories and practices employed in film and video games. From there, the paper examines the relationships between different performers, the performers and the composer, and the composer, performer, and audience in the work, discussing the potential impacts of these relationships. Finally, I consider the role accessibility plays in spreading these potential impacts to a broader audience.