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Computer music is the application of
computing technology Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...
in
music composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called c ...
, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with
algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
programs. It includes the theory and application of new and existing computer software technologies and basic aspects of music, such as
sound synthesis A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...
,
digital signal processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are ...
,
sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...
, sonic diffusion,
acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...
,
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
psychoacoustics Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychophysics involving the scientific study of sound perception and audiology—how humans perceive various sounds. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological responses associated wit ...
. The field of computer music can trace its roots back to the origins of
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
, and the first experiments and innovations with electronic instruments at the turn of the 20th century.


History

Much of the work on computer music has drawn on the relationship between
music and mathematics Music theory analyzes the pitch, timing, and structure of music. It uses mathematics to study elements of music such as tempo, chord progression, form, and meter. The attempt to structure and communicate new ways of composing and hearing mus ...
, a relationship which has been noted since the
Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
described the "
harmony of the spheres The ''musica universalis'' (literally universal music), also called music of the spheres or harmony of the spheres, is a philosophical concept that regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies – the Sun, Moon, and planets – as a f ...
". Musical melodies were first generated by the computer originally named the CSIR Mark 1 (later renamed
CSIRAC CSIRAC (; ''Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer''), originally known as CSIR Mk 1, was Australia's first digital computer, and the fifth stored program computer in the world. It is the oldest surviving first-gene ...
) in Australia in 1950. There were newspaper reports from America and England (early and recently) that computers may have played music earlier, but thorough research has debunked these stories as there is no evidence to support the newspaper reports (some of which were obviously speculative). Research has shown that people ''speculated'' about computers playing music, possibly because computers would make noises, but there is no evidence that they actually did it. The world's first computer to play music was the CSIR Mark 1 (later named CSIRAC), which was designed and built by
Trevor Pearcey Trevor Pearcey (5 March 1919 – 27 January 1998) was a British-born Australian scientist, who created CSIRAC, one of the first stored-program electronic computers in the world. Born in Woolwich, London, he graduated from Imperial College in 194 ...
and Maston Beard from the late 1940s. Mathematician Geoff Hill programmed the CSIR Mark 1 to play popular musical melodies from the very early 1950s. In 1950 the CSIR Mark 1 was used to play music, the first known use of a digital computer for the purpose. The music was never recorded, but it has been accurately reconstructed. In 1951 it publicly played the "
Colonel Bogey March The "Colonel Bogey March" is a British march that was composed in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881–1945) (pen name Kenneth J. Alford), a British Army bandmaster who later became the director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymout ...
" of which only the reconstruction exists. However, the CSIR Mark 1 played standard repertoire and was not used to extend musical thinking or composition practice, as
Max Mathews Max Vernon Mathews (November 13, 1926 in Columbus, Nebraska, USA – April 21, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA) was a pioneer of computer music. Biography Mathews studied electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and the Ma ...
did, which is current computer-music practice. The first music to be performed in England was a performance of the British National Anthem that was programmed by
Christopher Strachey Christopher S. Strachey (; 16 November 1916 – 18 May 1975) was a British computer scientist. He was one of the founders of denotational semantics, and a pioneer in programming language design and computer time-sharing.F. J. Corbató, et al. ...
on the
Ferranti Mark 1 The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...
, late in 1951. Later that year, short extracts of three pieces were recorded there by a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
outside broadcasting unit: the National Anthem, "
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" is an English nursery rhyme, the earliest printed version of which dates from around 1744. The words have not changed very much in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody '' Ah! vous di ...
", and "
In the Mood "In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by E ...
"; this is recognised as the earliest recording of a computer to play music as the CSIRAC music was never recorded. This recording can be heard at th
this Manchester University site
Researchers at the
University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...
, Christchurch declicked and restored this recording in 2016 and the results may be heard on
SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
. Two further major 1950s developments were the origins of digital sound synthesis by computer, and of
algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
programs beyond rote playback. Max Mathews at Bell Laboratories developed the influential
MUSIC I Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
program and its descendants, further popularising computer music through a 1963 article in ''Science''. Amongst other pioneers, the musical chemists
Lejaren Hiller Lejaren Arthur Hiller Jr. (February 23, 1924, New York City – January 26, 1994, Buffalo, New York)Lejaren Hi ...
and Leonard Isaacson worked on a series of algorithmic composition experiments from 1956-9, manifested in the 1957 premiere of the ''Illiac Suite'' for string quartet. In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when
Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...
professor Sekine and
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
engineer Hayashi experimented with the computer. This resulted in a piece entitled ''TOSBAC Suite'', influenced by the ''Illiac Suite''. Later Japanese computer music compositions include a piece by Kenjiro Ezaki presented during Osaka Expo '70 and "Panoramic Sonore" (1974) by music critic Akimichi Takeda. Ezaki also published an article called "Contemporary Music and Computers" in 1970. Since then, Japanese research in computer music has largely been carried out for commercial purposes in
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
, though some of the more serious Japanese musicians used large computer systems such as the '' Fairlight'' in the 1970s. Early computer-music programs typically did not run in real time, although the first experiments on
CSIRAC CSIRAC (; ''Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer''), originally known as CSIR Mk 1, was Australia's first digital computer, and the fifth stored program computer in the world. It is the oldest surviving first-gene ...
and the
Ferranti Mark 1 The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...
did operate in real time. From the late 1950s, with increasingly sophisticated programming, programs would run for hours or days, on multimillion-dollar computers, to generate a few minutes of music. One way around this was to use a 'hybrid system' of digital control of an
analog synthesiser An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...
and early examples of this were Max Mathews' GROOVE system (1969) and also MUSYS by
Peter Zinovieff Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer. In the late 1960s, his company, Electronic Music Studios (EMS), made the VCS3, a synthesizer used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd ...
(1969). Until now partial use has been exploited for musical research into the substance and form of sound (convincing examples are those of Hiller and Isaacson in Urbana, Illinois USA;
Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...
in Paris and
Pietro Grossi Pietro Grossi (15 April 1917, in Venice – 21 February 2002, in Florence) was an Italian composer pioneer of computer music, visual artist and hacker ahead of his time. He began experimenting with electronic techniques in Italy in the early sixt ...
in Florence, Italy). In May 1967 the first experiments in computer music in Italy were carried out by the ''S 2F M studio'' in Florence in collaboration with ''General Electric Information Systems'' Italy. ''Olivetti-General Electric GE 115'' (
Olivetti S.p.A. Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been part ...
) is used by Grossi as a ''performer'': three programmes were prepared for these experiments. The programmes were written by Ferruccio Zulian and used by
Pietro Grossi Pietro Grossi (15 April 1917, in Venice – 21 February 2002, in Florence) was an Italian composer pioneer of computer music, visual artist and hacker ahead of his time. He began experimenting with electronic techniques in Italy in the early sixt ...
for playing Bach, Paganini, and Webern works and for studying new sound structures. In the late 1970s these systems became commercialised, notably by systems like the
Roland MC-8 Microcomposer The Roland MC-8 MicroComposer by the Roland Corporation was introduced in early 1977 at a list price of US$4,795 (¥1,200,000 JPY). It was one of the earliest stand-alone microprocessor-driven CV/Gate music sequencers, following EMS '' Sequencer ...
, where a
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
-based system controls an
analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...
, released in 1978.
John Chowning John M. Chowning (; born August 22, 1934 in Salem, New Jersey) is an American composer, musician, discoverer, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University, the founding of CCRMA - Center for Computer Research in Music and Acou ...
's work on
FM synthesis Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of a waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. The frequency of an oscillator is altered "in accordance with the amplitud ...
from the 1960s to the 1970s allowed much more efficient digital synthesis, eventually leading to the development of the affordable FM synthesis-based
Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...
digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digit ...
, released in 1983. In addition to the Yamaha DX7, the advent of inexpensive digital
chips ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...
and
microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
s opened the door to real-time generation of computer music. In the 1980s, Japanese personal computers such as the NEC PC-88 came installed with FM synthesis
sound chip A sound chip is an integrated circuit (chip) designed to produce audio signals through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics. Sound chips are typically fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) mixed-signal chips that process ...
s and featured
audio programming language This is a list of notable programming languages optimized for sound production, algorithmic composition, and sound synthesis. * ABC notation, a language for notating music using the ASCII character set * ChucK, strongly timed, concurrent, and on ...
s such as
Music Macro Language Music Macro Language (MML) is a music description language used in sequencing music on computer and video game systems. Background Early automatic music generation functions were used in arcade games, which used many computer sounds. An exampl ...
(MML) and
MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
interfaces, which were most often used to produce
video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...
, or
chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...
s. By the early 1990s, the performance of microprocessor-based computers reached the point that real-time generation of computer music using more general programs and algorithms became possible.
Interesting sounds must have a fluidity and changeability that allows them to remain fresh to the ear. In computer music this subtle ingredient is bought at a high computational cost, both in terms of the number of items requiring detail in a score and in the amount of interpretive work the instruments must produce to realize this detail in sound.


Advances

Advances in computing power and software for manipulation of digital media have dramatically affected the way computer music is generated and performed. Current-generation micro-computers are powerful enough to perform very sophisticated audio synthesis using a wide variety of algorithms and approaches. Computer music systems and approaches are now ubiquitous, and so firmly embedded in the process of creating music that we hardly give them a second thought: computer-based synthesizers, digital mixers, and effects units have become so commonplace that use of digital rather than analog technology to create and record music is the norm, rather than the exception.


Research

There is considerable activity in the field of computer music as researchers continue to pursue new and interesting computer-based synthesis, composition, and performance approaches. Throughout the world there are many organizations and institutions dedicated to the area of computer and electronic music study and research, including the ICMA (International Computer Music Association), C4DM (Centre for Digital Music),
IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...
, GRAME,
SEAMUS Seamus may refer to: * Séamus, a male first name of Gaelic origin Film and television * Seamus (''Family Guy''), a character on the television series ''Family Guy'' * Seamus, a pigeon in '' Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore'' * Seamus Mc ...
(Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States), CEC (Canadian Electroacoustic Community), and a great number of institutions of higher learning around the world.


Music composed and performed by computers

Later, composers such as
Gottfried Michael Koenig Gottfried Michael Koenig (5 October 1926 – 30 December 2021)"In Memoriam Got ...
and
Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...
had computers generate the sounds of the composition as well as the score. Koenig produced
algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
programs which were a generalisation of his own serial composition practice. This is not exactly similar to Xenakis' work as he used mathematical abstractions and examined how far he could explore these musically. Koenig's software translated the calculation of mathematical equations into codes which represented musical notation. This could be converted into musical notation by hand and then performed by human players. His programs Project 1 and Project 2 are examples of this kind of software. Later, he extended the same kind of principles into the realm of synthesis, enabling the computer to produce the sound directly. SSP is an example of a program which performs this kind of function. All of these programs were produced by Koenig at the
Institute of Sonology The Institute of Sonology is an education and research center for electronic music and computer music based at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands. Background The institute was founded at Utrecht University in 1960 under the n ...
in
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
in the 1970s. In the 2000s,
Andranik Tangian Andranik Semovich Tangian (Melik-Tangyan) (Russian: Андраник Семович Тангян (Мелик-Тангян)); born March 29, 1952) is a Soviet Armenian-German mathematician, political economist and music theorist. Tangian is known ...
developed a computer algorithm to determine the time event structures for rhythmic canons and rhythmic fugues, which were then "manually" worked out into harmonic compositions ''Eine kleine Mathmusik I'' and ''Eine kleine Mathmusik II'' performed by computer; for scores and recordings see.


Computer-generated scores for performance by human players

Computers have also been used in an attempt to imitate the music of great composers of the past, such as
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
. A present exponent of this technique is
David Cope David Cope (born May 17, 1941 in San Francisco, California) is an American author, composer, scientist, and former professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). His primary area of research involves artificial intellige ...
, whose computer programs analyse works of other composers to produce new works in a similar style. Cope's best-known program is
Emily Howell Emily Howell is a computer program created by David Cope, a music professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Emily Howell is an interactive interface that "hears" feedback from listeners, and builds its own musical compositions from a so ...
.
Melomics Melomics (derived from "genomics of melodies") is a computational system for the automatic composition of music (with no human intervention), based on bioinspired algorithms. Technological aspects Melomics applies an evolutionary approach t ...
, a research project from the
University of Málaga The University of Málaga (UMA, ''Universidad de Málaga'') is a public university ranked 23 among all Spanish universities and 683 in the world. It was established in 1972 and has, as of 2016, 30,203 Bachelor students and 2576 on a Master's pr ...
(Spain), developed a computer composition cluster named
Iamus In Greek mythology, Iamus (Ancient Greek: Ἴαμος) was the son of Apollo and Evadne, a daughter of Poseidon, raised by Aepytus. Mythology Evadne loved Apollo and by him she became pregnant, but was shamed by Aepytus for her pregnancy. When ...
, which composes complex, multi-instrument pieces for editing and performance. Since its inception,
Iamus In Greek mythology, Iamus (Ancient Greek: Ἴαμος) was the son of Apollo and Evadne, a daughter of Poseidon, raised by Aepytus. Mythology Evadne loved Apollo and by him she became pregnant, but was shamed by Aepytus for her pregnancy. When ...
has composed a full album in 2012, appropriately named
Iamus In Greek mythology, Iamus (Ancient Greek: Ἴαμος) was the son of Apollo and Evadne, a daughter of Poseidon, raised by Aepytus. Mythology Evadne loved Apollo and by him she became pregnant, but was shamed by Aepytus for her pregnancy. When ...
, which ''
New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...
'' described as "the first major work composed by a computer and performed by a full orchestra". The group has also developed an
API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
for developers to utilize the technology, and makes its music available on its website.


Computer-aided algorithmic composition

Computer-aided algorithmic composition (CAAC, pronounced "sea-ack") is the implementation and use of
algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
techniques in software. This label is derived from the combination of two labels, each too vague for continued use. The label ''computer-aided composition'' lacks the specificity of using generative algorithms. Music produced with notation or sequencing software could easily be considered computer-aided composition. The label ''algorithmic composition'' is likewise too broad, particularly in that it does not specify the use of a computer. The term
computer-aided Computer-aided or computer-assisted is an adjectival phrase that hints of the use of a computer as an indispensable tool in a certain field, usually derived from more traditional fields of science and engineering. Instead of the phrase computer-a ...
, rather than computer-assisted, is used in the same manner as
computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
.


Machine improvisation

Machine improvisation uses computer algorithms to create
improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
on existing music materials. This is usually done by sophisticated recombination of musical phrases extracted from existing music, either live or pre-recorded. In order to achieve credible improvisation in particular style, machine improvisation uses
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...
and
pattern matching In computer science, pattern matching is the act of checking a given sequence of tokens for the presence of the constituents of some pattern. In contrast to pattern recognition, the match usually has to be exact: "either it will or will not be ...
algorithms to analyze existing musical examples. The resulting patterns are then used to create new variations "in the style" of the original music, developing a notion of stylistic reinjection. This is different from other improvisation methods with computers that use
algorithmic composition Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music. Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoin ...
to generate new music without performing analysis of existing music examples.


Statistical style modeling

Style modeling implies building a computational representation of the musical surface that captures important stylistic features from data. Statistical approaches are used to capture the redundancies in terms of pattern dictionaries or repetitions, which are later recombined to generate new musical data. Style mixing can be realized by analysis of a database containing multiple musical examples in different styles. Machine Improvisation builds upon a long musical tradition of statistical modeling that began with Hiller and Isaacson's ''Illiac Suite for String Quartet'' (1957) and Xenakis' uses of
Markov chains A Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic process, stochastic model describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally, this may be thought ...
and
stochastic processes In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that appe ...
. Modern methods include the use of
lossless data compression Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistic ...
for incremental parsing, prediction suffix tree, string searching and more. Style mixing is possible by blending models derived from several musical sources, with the first style mixing done by S. Dubnov in a piece NTrope Suite using Jensen-Shannon joint source model. Later the use of factor oracle algorithm (basically a ''factor oracle'' is a finite state automaton constructed in linear time and space in an incremental fashion) was adopted for music by Assayag and Dubnov and became the basis for several systems that use stylistic re-injection.


Implementations

The first implementation of statistical style modeling was the LZify method in Open Music, followed by the Continuator system that implemented interactive machine improvisation that interpreted the LZ incremental parsing in terms of
Markov models In probability theory, a Markov model is a stochastic model used to model pseudo-randomly changing systems. It is assumed that future states depend only on the current state, not on the events that occurred before it (that is, it assumes the Marko ...
and used it for real time style modeling developed by
François Pachet François Pachet (born 10 January 1964) is a French scientist, composer and director of the Spotify Creator Technology Research Lab. Before joining Spotify he led Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. He is one of the pioneers of computer m ...
at Sony CSL Paris in 2002. Matlab implementation of the Factor Oracle machine improvisation can be found as part of
Computer Audition Computer audition (CA) or machine listening is the general field of study of algorithms and systems for audio interpretation by machines. Since the notion of what it means for a machine to "hear" is very broad and somewhat vague, computer audition a ...
toolbox. There is also an NTCC implementation of the Factor Oracle machine improvisation. OMax is a software environment developed in IRCAM. OMax uses
OpenMusic 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 Max. It is based on researches on stylistic modeling carried out by Gerard Assayag and
Shlomo Dubnov Shlomo Dubnov is an American-Israeli computer music researcher and composer. He is a Professor in the Music Department and Affiliate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and a founding faculty of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute ...
and on researches on improvisation with the computer by G. Assayag, M. Chemillier and G. Bloch (a.k.a. the ''OMax Brothers'') in the Ircam Music Representations group. One of the problems in modeling audio signals with factor oracle is the symbolization of features from continuous values to a discrete alphabet. This problem was solved in the Variable Markov Oracle (VMO) available as python implementation, using an information rate criteria for finding the optimal or most informative representation.


Live coding

Live coding (sometimes known as 'interactive programming', 'on-the-fly programming', 'just in time programming') is the name given to the process of writing software in realtime as part of a performance. Recently it has been explored as a more rigorous alternative to laptop musicians who, live coders often feel, lack the charisma and pizzazz of musicians performing live.


See also

*
Acousmatic music Acousmatic music (from Greek ἄκουσμα ''akousma'', "a thing heard") is a form of electroacoustic music that is specifically ''composed'' for presentation using speakers, as opposed to a live performance. It stems from a compositional trad ...
*
Adaptive music In video games, adaptive music (also called dynamic or interactive music) is background music whose volume, rhythm or tune changes in response to specific events in the game. History Adaptive music was first used in the video game ''Frogger'' by ...
*
Chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...
*
Comparison of audio synthesis environments Software audio synthesis environments typically consist of an audio programming language (which may be graphical) and a user environment to design/run the language in. Although many of these environments are comparable in their abilities to prod ...
*
Csound Csound is a domain-specific computer programming language for audio programming. It is called Csound because it is written in C, as opposed to some of its predecessors. It is free software, available under the LGPL-2.1-or-later. Csound was or ...
*
Digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...
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Digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digit ...
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Electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
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Emily Howell Emily Howell is a computer program created by David Cope, a music professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Emily Howell is an interactive interface that "hears" feedback from listeners, and builds its own musical compositions from a so ...
* Fast Fourier transform *
Human–computer interaction Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design tec ...
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Laptronica Live electronic music (also known as live electronics) is a form of music that can include traditional electronic sound-generating devices, modified electric musical instruments, hacked sound generating technologies, and computers. Initially the pr ...
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List of music software This is a list of software for creating, performing, learning, analyzing, researching, broadcasting and editing music. This article only includes software, not services. For streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, Prime Music, and Spotify, ...
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Module file Module file (MOD music, tracker music) is a family of music file formats originating from the MOD file format on Amiga systems used in the late 1980s. Those who produce these files (using the software called music trackers) and listen to them ...
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Music information retrieval Music information retrieval (MIR) is the interdisciplinary science of retrieving information from music. MIR is a small but growing field of research with many real-world applications. Those involved in MIR may have a background in academic musicol ...
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Music Macro Language Music Macro Language (MML) is a music description language used in sequencing music on computer and video game systems. Background Early automatic music generation functions were used in arcade games, which used many computer sounds. An exampl ...
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Music notation software A scorewriter, or music notation program is software for creating, editing and printing sheet music. A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text, in that they typically provide flexible editing and automatic layout, and p ...
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Music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Cont ...
* New Interfaces for Musical Expression *
Physical modeling synthesis Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally cons ...
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Programming (music) Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices and computer software, such as sequencers and workstations or hardware synthesizers, sampler and sequencers, to generate sounds of musical instruments. These mus ...
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Sampling (music) In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalized, sped up or ...
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Sound and music computing Sound and music computing (SMC) is a research field that studies the whole sound and music communication chain from a multidisciplinary point of view. By combining scientific, technological and artistic methodologies it aims at understanding, model ...
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Vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator music, elevator, contemporary ...
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Video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...
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Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...


References


Further reading

* Ariza, C. 2005.
Navigating the Landscape of Computer-Aided Algorithmic Composition Systems: A Definition, Seven Descriptors, and a Lexicon of Systems and Research
" In ''Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference''. San Francisco: International Computer Music Association. 765–772. * Ariza, C. 2005.
An Open Design for Computer-Aided Algorithmic Music Composition: athenaCL
'. PhD Dissertation, New York University. * * Chadabe, Joel. 1997. ''Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music''. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. * Chowning, John. 1973. "The Synthesis of Complex Audio Spectra by Means of Frequency Modulation". ''
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products ...
'' 21, no. 7:526–534. * * * Doornbusch, P. 2015.
A Chronology / History of Electronic and Computer Music and Related Events 1906–2015
* * * * Perry, Mark, and Thomas Margoni. 2010.
From Music Tracks to Google Maps: Who Owns Computer-Generated Works?
. '' Computer Law & Security Review'' 26: 621–629. * * * {{Authority control Computer music software