The Use of Algorithms in Music Composition A Case Study of my piece 'on the Edge' fro Cello

1. The Use of Algorithms in Music
Composition
A Case Study of my piece 'On the Edge' for Cello
By Ali Riza SARAL
April 11, 2017

2. Creativity
• wikipedia
• Creativity is a phenomenon whereby
something new and somehow valuable is
formed. The created item may be intangible
(such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical
composition, or a joke) or a physical object
(such as an invention, a literary work, or a
painting).

3. Webster -Definition of creativity
• 1: the quality of being creative
• 2 : the ability to create
• her artistic creativity

4. Definition of create-transitive verb
• 1 : to bring into existence
• … God created the heaven and the earth. — Genesis 1:1
(AV)
• 2 a : to invest with a new form, office, or rank
• She was created a lieutenant.
• b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or
behavior
• Her arrival created a terrible fuss. create new jobs
• 3 : cause, occasion Famine creates high food prices.
• 4 a : to produce through imaginative skill
• create a painting
• b : design creates dresses

5. Definition of create-intransitive verb
• 1 : to make or bring into existence something
new
• an artist who is good at imitating but not
at creating
• 2 : to set up a scoring opportunity in
basketball
• create off the dribble

6. dilemma
• Computer aided design
• Vs
• Human Aided Computer Creativity

7. consciousness
• Is consciousness a prerequisite for creativity?

8. Consciousness vs subconsciousness
• The role of subconscious in creativity

9. consciousness
• Intention
• Task lists

10. Direction problem
• Creativity requires direction towards creating
a being, a unity
• Currently available functions such as random()
• Does not provide direction
• Even the random function requires a seed
value to create a random number.

11. Possible solution
• Random values and other direction markers
maybe automatically produced from other
material, similar style music pieces etc.
• These have to be provided and programmed
by the human, composer.

12. MuseScore & JFugue
• I created MIDI sequences using Jfugue.
• Then I exported the outputs as MIDI files.
• I imported the MIDI files to MuseScore.

13. JFugue phase
• This corresponds to the computer creativity
phase.
• I used random functions and note lists. The
computer chooses randomly which sounds to
play.
• My role as a composer is to limit and direct
the random behaviour of the computer.

14. At the Edge for Cello
At the Edge – Cello Suite (2016) by Ali R+ SARAL
Bagatelle, Barcarolle, Rhapsody
15 min. Long
Dedicated to Daria B. from Germany

15. BAGATELLE
• Analyze Jfugue codes for music generation
• produceMusic() subroutines
• String note[]=
{"C","C#","D","D#","G","G#","A","A#","B"};
• int seriesLength=9;
• Randomly play
• noteSeq=randomInteger(1,seriesLength-1);

16. produceMusic2()
• if (!existsPrev(playedNotes,note[noteSeq],
depthRepeat, currentPOS) || n==0){
• m+=" "+note[noteSeq]+"4s";
• playedNotes[n]=note[noteSeq]+"4s";

17. produceMusic2()
• octave =
randomInteger(spanBottom+1,spanBottom+span
Depth);
• if (!existsPrev(playedNotes,note[noteSeq],
depthRepeat, currentPOS) || n==0){
• m+=" "+note[noteSeq]+octave+"i";
• m="T60 V0 I[Cello] G5h D#4h G#3h T120";

18. produceMusic4()
• String tempi[] ={"T126","T120","T132","T144"};
• if (n % 4==0)
tempiSeq=randomInteger(1,tempiCount-1);
• if (!existsPrev(playedNotes,note[noteSeq],
depthRepeat, currentPOS) || n==0){
• sheetStr+=" "+note[noteSeq]+"i
"+tempi[tempiSeq];

19. produceMusic6()
• String note[]= {"E5", "F4", "F#3", "G5", "D#4",
"G#3", "A5", "C5", "B4", "C#4", "D3", "A#2"};
• int seriesLength=12;
• String note2[]= {"E2", "F2", "D#2", "C2"}; int
noteSeq2=-1;

20. produceMusic6()
• if (!existsPrev(playedNotes,note[noteSeq], depthRepeat,
currentPOS) || n==0){
• // m+=" "+note[noteSeq]+octave+"i";
• // playedNotes[n]=note[noteSeq]+octave+"i";
• sheetStr+=" "+note[noteSeq]+"i
"+tempi[tempiSeq];
• playedNotes[n]=note[noteSeq]+"i
"+tempi[tempiSeq];
• }
• else n=n-1;
• sheetStr+=" "+note2[noteSeq2]+"i ";
• playedNotes[n]=note[noteSeq2]+"i ";

21. BARCAROLLE
• Analysis of Jfugue sketches
• Analysis of their utilization in Barcarolle.

22. Rhapsody
• Listen Rhapsody.
• Find where computer generating is used.
• Human imitates computer and tries to find out
what could human assisted computer
creativity sound like.