Generative Tools for Interactive Composition: Real-Time Musical Structures Based on Schaeffer's TARTYP and on Klumpenhouwer Networks

Interactive computer music is comparable to improvisation because it includes elements of real-time composition performed by the computer. This process of real-time composition often incorporates stochastic techniques that remap a predetermined fundamental structure to a surface of sound processing. The hierarchical structure is used to pose restrictions on the stochastic processes, but, in most cases, the hierarchical structure in itself is not created in real time. This article describes how existing musical analysis methods can be converted into generative compositional tools that allow composers to generate musical structures in real time. It proposes a compositional method based on generative grammars derived from Pierre Schaeffer's TARTYP, and describes the development of a compositional tool for real-time generation of Klumpenhouwer networks. The approach is based on the intersection of musical ideas with fundamental concepts in computer science including generative grammars, predicate logic, concepts of structural representation, and various methods of categorization.

Hysteria at the Musical Surface

The recent debate in Music Theory Online over the nature and efficacy of Klumpenhouwer Networks in the analysis of post-tonal music is representative of and, indeed, instructive in its engagement with methodological anxiety. In four short meditations, this commentary engages implicit ideological frameworks articulated by various positions in the K-net debate, problematizes their assumptions and proposes ways in which future work on K-nets might proceed.

Embracing Relational Abundance

This brief essay addresses some concerns raised by Michael Buchler in “Reconsidering Klumpenhouwer Networks” (MTO 13.2) regarding the alleged promiscuity of K-nets and their use in music analyses.