Computer Music Research Articles

George Perle’s Twelve–Tone Tonality: Some Developments for CAC using PWGL

This paper presents a description and some developments on Perle’s theory and compositional system known as Twelve-Tone Tonality, a system that, because of its characteristics and fundamentals, is currently associated with Schoenberg dodecaphonic system. Some research has been made in the last few decades in order to develop his model in a Computer Assisted Composition (CAC) environment. After some efforts in order to analyse these prototypes, we realize that in general they were discontinued or outdated. A three-scope proposal is so outlined: Firstly, to simplify the grasp of a system that presents an easily understandable starting premise but afterwards enters a world of unending lists and arrays of letters and numbers; Secondly, to present the implementation process already started using PWGL [1] (see Laurson, 1996; Laurson, 2003; Laurson, 2009). Finally, the model is applied in a short original compositional work, and it is presented and analysed emphasizing the standpoints properties of the system. Some further considerations were made regarding the continuity of this project where the construction of a dedicated PWGL library of Perle’s model reveals a pre-compositional necessary tool. PWGL software was selected due to its specific fitting features: it is based on Common Lisp - perfectly powerful and suitable to process lists of integers — and it is specialized in CAC.

Computer-Assisted Tone Arrangement Using Calculated Consonance

Relative consonance of groups of compound tones is calculated using a model that is based on the physiological theory of tone consonance developed by H. Helmholtz. The calculated consonance, represented as ‘dissonance landscapes’, is at the centre of a proposed computational method for arranging tones in harmonious relationships. Examples of applying the method using an experimental software for computer-assisted microtonal composition are presented.

Electronic and computer music

Electronic and computer music

Film and theatre-based approaches for sonic interaction design

Sonic interaction design studies how digital sound can be used in interactive contexts to convey information, meaning, aesthetic and emotional qualities. This area of research is positioned at the intersection of sound and music computing, auditory displays and interaction design. The key issue the designer is asked to tackle is to create meaningful sound for objects and interactions that are often new. To date, there are no set design methodologies, but a variety of approaches available to the designer. Knowledge and understanding of how humans listen and interpret sound is the first step toward being able to create such sounds.This article discusses two original approaches that borrow techniques from film sound and theatre. Cinematic sound highlights how our interpretation of sound depends on listening modes and context, while theatre settings allow us to explore sonic interactions from the different perspectives of the interacting subject, the observer and the designer.

Morphisms of generalized interval systems and PR-groups

We begin the development of a categorical perspective on the theory of generalized interval systems (GISs). Morphisms of GISs allow the analyst to move between multiple interval systems and connect transformational networks. We expand the analytical reach of the Sub Dual Group Theorem of Fiore and Noll [Commuting groups and the topos of triads. In: Agon C, Amiot E, Andreatta M, Assayag G, Bresson J, Mandereau J, editors. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference Mathematics and Computation in Music - MCM 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer; 2011] and the generalized contextual group of Fiore and Satyendra [Generalized contextual groups. Music Theory Online. 2005;11] by combining them with a theory of GIS morphisms. Concrete examples include an analysis of Schoenberg, String Quartet in D minor, op. 7, and simply transitive covers of the octatonic set. This work also lays the foundation for a transformational study of Lawvere–Tierney upgrades in the topos of triads of Noll [The topos of triads. In: Colloquium on mathematical music theory. Graz: Karl-Franzens-Univ. Graz; 2005. p. 103–135].

Introduction: Musical Research at IRCAM

Introduction: Musical Research at IRCAM

Computer-Assisted Spanish-Composition Instruction Survey—1986

This study reports on a survey of Spanish instructors' views on the use of computers in Spanish composition instruction. Data are reported for 208 (from a total of 1,678) full-time instructional faculty at universities, two-year colleges, and high schools across the nation. Most respondents taught one-semester courses whose enrollment sizes were increasing. Text use for the majority of programs is three years or less. This corresponds to the advent of process-model texts. Apples and IBM-PCs predominate among the hardware available. The lack of foreign-character support remains the major frustration reported. Essay analyzers are new to nearly everyone. There is mixed opinion about the real versus the expected benefits of using word processors as part of composition instruction. However, the time appears right for a paradigm shift and curriculum definition to include computer-assisted composition instruction.

Examining Instruction in MIDI-based Composition Through a Critical Theory Lens

This paper considers the issue of computer-assisted composition in formal music education settings from the perspective of critical theory. The author examines the case of MIDI-based software applications and suggests that the greatest danger from the standpoint of ideology critique is not the potential for circumventing a traditional understanding of theoretical knowledge and notation when composing. Instead, it is false subjectivity, or the potential belief that what one creates is free from the mediation of tacit musical conventions and the ideological biases of the technology itself. Developing a framework for critique that is partially based on the writings of Theodor Adorno and draws on a dialectical conception of composing, the author applies this framework to the issue of MIDI-based composition in order to make this case.

Development of Musical Creativity of Higher Class Pupils Using Musical Computer Technologies (MCT)

Purpose – to find out possibilities of development of musical creativity by using MCT in the music education of senior pupils.Design/methodology/approach – literature review, qualitative survey methodology (interview with music teachers).Findings – implementation of MCT, like any other innovation (as well as ICT) in different spheres of education, including pre-school education, bring forth a certain positive effect. The results of the interview showed that in the praxis of music education, MCT is used for different development purposes (to make a lesson original, help pupils memorize music, expand their imagination not only by listening, but also by watching and evaluating performance of music, listen to music recordings, understand music and evaluate its quality, etc.). But for the development of musical creativity, MCT has been used very poorly.Research limitation/implications – musical creativity’s concept has not been uniquely defined so far. The aim of scientific literature review is to show that musical creativity is not meant to be separated from general creativity. Moreover, this is compounded by the search of the possibilities to the development of musical creativity. Analysis of scientific literature shows that the use of MCT can make an influence on musical creativity. However, empirical researches on this subject are still missing.Practical implications – the results of the interviews about using MCT in music lessons in order to develop musical creativity could be significant in formulating strategies of the development of musical creativity, preparing methodological instruments as well as in teacher training programs.Originality/value – the object of the survey in the chosen theme has never been explored in Lithuania, while the comparison of the obtained data with foreign scientists’ discoveries could contribute to a musical creativity’s definition.Research type: literature review, interview review.

A pilot study mapping students’ composing strategies: Implications for teaching computer-assisted composition

This article presents three in-depth case studies of a computer-assisted composition project in Hong Kong to understand how individual students from varied backgrounds encounter computer-assisted composition. Three higher-education students composed short pieces using music technology. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected digitally, through semi-structured interviews, and from students’ reflective journals. Comparative analyses of students’ composing activities revealed different approaches to composing, and a series of models that reflect the students’ varying composing approaches is presented. The findings should help to develop strategies that foster creativity when composing with music technology.

Mathematical and computational approaches to music: challenges in an interdisciplinary enterprise

This Special Issue is dedicated to explicate and discuss methodological issues in the interdisciplinary research field of mathematical and computational approaches to music. It arose from a lively panel discussion at the third International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music 2011 in Paris. We have organized this panel in order to initiate the much needed interdisciplinary dialogue on the How, Why, and What of our modelling of and theorizing about music in the wide field of science, humanities and cognitive approaches to music research. From the contributions of the three panelists to this Special Issue, we extract key topics that the interdisciplinary scientific community needs to address in order to enable the different disciplines to productively complement one another in achieving a comprehensive approach to music as a complex, yet fundamental human trait.

A new cloud computing architecture for music composition

This paper presents an original cloud computing architecture for music composition. In this model, music applications are built by making several computer music services work together. Component services are provided by a dedicated layer in the cloud architecture called computer music as a Service (CMaaS). The specialized music services can be integrated into different applications at the same time. These music services provided by the CMaaS layer are implemented in the form of platform images based on templates at the Platform as a Service layer. The images are ready to be loaded into the virtualized infrastructure on demand. As examples of implementation over the proposed cloud architecture, two powerful applications for computer music composition are presented: “Diatonic Composer”, an interactive composer of scores with high-abstraction music elements, and “Csound Meets the Cloud”, an assisted algorithmic composer focused on sound synthesis. The composition model, the involved music services and the web application are described for the above mentioned applications. The proposed architecture, the implemented services and the provided application examples constitute a decided step towards distributed music computation.

The Third International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music

The Third International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music

Musical Goals, Graphical Lure and Narrative Drive: VisualAudio in Games

Musical computer games and their reward structures are transforming solitary and participative music making. Visuals in musical games tend to assume the role of music in video games as they become incidental to the gameplay or provide graphical aid for musical decision making. Constrained manifestations of musical skill in game software simulations point towards the development of real world musical skills. Yet, arguably, no video game so far developed requires the kind of sophisticated expression that a musician hones by training. The time-scale for mastery is an order of magnitude greater in traditional musical instruments and teaching, but we may be at the dawn of a new audiovisual musical learning paradigm.

Multimedia Music Teaching System Application

Early 1980's MIDI technology coming into being, it has created condition for the development of modern music technology. From the MIDI, computer music, multimedia music to music computer and network teaching, it has already played an important role in music education concept and the reform of the teaching means. In the higher music college's teaching, the best solution to realize the music teaching means modernization development is the configuration and application of multimedia teaching systems. We have the analysis and introduction on the teaching system hardware and software configuration and their in music teaching, creation, scientific research and management application.

Mathematics and Computation in Music 2009: John Clough Memorial Conference

Mathematics and Computation in Music 2009: John Clough Memorial Conference

S12.2 The perception of music: Intensity and affect

A strong positive real-time relationship between loudness and tension in music [1] and loudness and arousal [2] has been claimed. Given that intensity is a strong determinant of perceived loudness [3,4], and that we have as yet no validated computational continuous measures of loudness for long passages of music, Experiment 1 relates physical measures of intensity to listeners' real-time perceptions of change and affect in computer music. Computer music is not only a contemporary idiom, but also open to precise algorithmic control, unlike many experimental vehicles in music perception studies.

ENP: A System for Contemporary Music Notation

The focus of attention of this paper is a music notation application, the Expressive Notation Package or ENP, conceived by Mika Kuuskankare. We explore some important design issues, through examples dealing with user interface design, music representation, and semantics. Our applications relate closely to computer-assisted composition. In this paper we deal particularly with contemporary music notation. The notational examples, all of which are based on real contemporary scores, attempt to illustrate several important, and at times unusual, design decisions. All of these scores share a common underlying representation, a hierarchical model for music representation that aims for the combination of representational simplicity, notational flexibility, and extensibility. The ENP system aims to let composers make their own aesthetic decisions—including decisions affecting music notation.

Two Computer-Assisted Composition Case Studies

This paper presents two large-scale compositional projects that have been realized using a Lisp-based visual computer-assisted composition environment. As such, the system does not force the composer to use a predetermined aesthetic framework. In order to meet the specific needs of individual composers, a user-library scheme is provided that allows one to augment the kernel part of the system with modular software packages. In our first case study, dealing with the realization of the pitch material for Lindberg's orchestral work Engine, we discuss the constraints system used by the composer. In the second case study we present the underlying user-library ‘Viuhka’ that was used to realize a 15-part electroacoustic work for tape by Heininen. We end with a discussion that lists some of the experiences that the composers came across during the compositional process.

Listeners Discern Affective Variation in Computer-Generated Musical Sounds

We carried out two experiments to test the relationship between real-time perception of structural change in stylistically unusual musical sounds, and perception of its affect (arousal and valence). Computer music was used because of its unfamiliarity and our capacity to control it in ecologically appropriate ways. In experiment 1, thirteen participants unselected for musical training participated in tasks to detect segmentation and changes in affect. Changes in affect occurred upon detection of segmentation; but not all algorithmically distinct segments conveyed distinct affect. Short segments followed by long segments led to greater changes in arousal and valence at the point of segmentation than vice versa. In experiment 2, intra-segment sound transitions were introduced. Sixteen musicians performed the same affect task as in experiment 1, and a novel change in sound task. Participants were slow to respond to a continuous transition, but quick to respond to instantaneous transitions. Contrary to literature on the perception of affect in more familiar music, the musician participants in experiment 2 differed more in their ratings of arousal than of valence, in spite of a strong correlation of arousal with the composition of the stimuli. These findings are discussed in relation to the positive valence attributed to the more familiar sounds in both experiments.