Recombinant music: using the computer to explore musical style

A research project called Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI) is discussed. One subprogram of EMI is an expert system that uses pattern recognition processes to create recombinant music, i.e. music written in the styles of various composers by means of a contextual recombination of elements in the music of those composers. This EMI subprogram separates and analyzes musical pitches and durations and then mixes and recombines the patterns of these pitches and durations so that while each new composition is different, it substantially conforms to the style of the original. The fundamental problems in building a program to produce effective recombinant music are identified. The three steps used by the EMI program are discussed. They are: pattern matching for characteristics of the composer's style, analyzing each component for its deep hierarchical musical function, and reassembling the parts sensitively with a technique drawn from natural-language processing. Some examples of EMI's output are examined     

WAVE: Sound and music in an immersive environment

This paper presents WAVE—a Virtual Audio Environment, which embraces the implementation of an immersive musical instrument model that uses three-dimensional (3D) sound techniques combined with visualisation and virtual reality technologies. This prototype environment aims to extend the idea of a musical instrument into a new musical/audio system, incorporating traditional musical concepts side by side with actual music concepts, in order to progress one step further in the music/sound composing and performing approaches.

The architecture of the system is based on low-cost hardware and open source software with affordable professional audio equipment to maintain an adequate sound quality. Also several applications of this virtual environment are discussed in the paper, including the way to satisfy at the same time composers, performers, music/audio students or even simple occasional users.     

An optimization algorithm inspired by musical composition

In this paper we propose a new multiagent metaheuristic based in an artificial society that uses a dynamic creative system to compose music, called “Method of musical composition” or MMC. To show the performance of our proposed MMC algorithm, 13 benchmark continuous optimization problems and the related results are compared with harmony search, improved harmony search, global-best harmony search and self-adaptative harmony search. The experimental results demonstrate that MMC improves the results obtained by the other metaheuristics in a set of multi-modal functions.     

音乐命名实体识别方法

为了能快速、准确地将分散在Web网页中的音乐实体抽取出来,在全方位了解音乐领域中命名实体的特征的基础上,提出了一种规则与统计相结合的中文音乐实体识别方法,并实现了音乐命名实体识别系统。通过测试发现,该系统具有较高的准确率和召回率。     

Creating and evaluating a particle system for music visualization

In this paper, we present a simplified 3D particle system and fast translation algorithm we have designed and implemented to generate real-time animated particle emitter fountains choreographed by a classical music. The approach we used to translate and map the controlling information into the musical fountain animation is also introduced, as well as the process to build the physical model of the music fountains. A proof of concept is implemented to demonstrate the main system's aspects, its feasibility, and that it has met the system's design goals. Moreover, it shows that is possible to observe visual patterns that match the theme of the musical composition, as an example of how the system can be used not only for visual appreciation and entertainment, but also as a possible support tool for music composition. We have also conducted a user study as an evaluation of the system. The results of this have provided us with positive and useful feedback on the effectiveness of our visual mappings as well as further directions to explore.     

自然交互研究——笔式简谱编辑器的设计与实现

自然交互是指用户可以用自己熟悉的日常技能与计算机进行交互。中国有大量的音乐爱好者使用简谱,但是针对简谱编辑的编辑软件却相对较少,并且现有软件的交互方式不够自然,降低了用户对软件的使用效率。他们需要一种更自然、更方便使用的简谱编辑软件。该文介绍了一个基于笔式输入的简谱编辑器原型系统的设计和实现。基于对现有软件、简谱特性和可利用的新技术的综合分析,设计并实现了这个原型系统。对此原型系统进行了非正式的用户实验之后,对结果进行了分析,并提出了修改的方案。     

Musical creativity in collaborative virtual environments

A review of musical creativity in collaborative virtual environments (CVE) shows recurring interaction metaphors that tend from precise control of individual parameters to higher level gestural influence over whole systems. Musical performances in CVE also show a consistent re-emergence of a unique form of collaboration called “melding” in which individual virtuosity is subsumed to that of the group. Based on these observations, we hypothesized that CVE could be a medium for creating new forms of music, and developed the audiovisual augmented reality system (AVIARy) to explore higher level metaphors for composing spatial music in CVE. This paper describes the AVIARy system, the initial experiments with interaction metaphors, and the application of the system to develop and stage a collaborative musical performance at a sound art concert. The results from these experiments indicate that CVE can be a medium for new forms of musical creativity and distinctive forms of music.     

MUSIC,INFORMATION, AND THE GENERAL SYSTEMS PROBLEM SOLVER: A NEW ANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

For nearly four decades, scientists and music theorists have proposed means to express musical style as information. The Shannon entropy has been used for this purpose based upon the following two assertions: (1) musical composition is essentially the selection of musical symbols within sets of constraints, and (2) a compositional process can be characterized mathematically in a general, abstract manner. Such proposals have been widely criticized, principally on the grounds that only limited numbers of parameters are considered in most cases, and then only in terms of how symbols representing pitch, harmony or rhythm are selected independently of the overall relationships which result from such selections. The ways in which pitch, harmony, and rhythm are interrelated is an issue that is virtually ignored. A major premise of the present discussion is that musical style can be expressed as information only in terms of mathematical relations on multiple sets of musical symbols. The General Systems Problem Solver (GSPS), developed by George Klir, may be utilized for this purpose.     

A web-based expert system to assess the complexity of manufacturing organizations

Information-theoretic modelling of manufacturing organizations and their supply chains has led to the development of measures of manufacturing complexity. The measures include assessment of the structural, dynamic and decision-making complexity associated with the processing and movement of material and information around a manufacturing system. A computer program has been written to calculate the decision-making complexity of a manufacturing system, under different system layouts and operating characteristics. In order to make the results of this program accessible to manufacturing organizations, an expert system has been developed to act as a mediator between the program and interested organizations. Given some simple quantitative data on manufacturing performance, the expert system can estimate the organization's complexity and suggest some recommendations to reduce it, based on the data provided by the organization. The expert system will be implemented on the web to enable on-line acquisition and searching of data on companies. The quid pro quo of the expert system is that anonymized data on the organizations will be retained so that complexity benchmarks may be established.     

In the News

The first story, "AI Heralds a New Musical Age," discusses current uses of AI technology to analyze and categorize music, as well as synthesize musical accompaniment. The second story, "Multiagent Designs Could Safeguard Networks across the Web," looks at how multiagent systems and neural networks can provide security against malicious software attacks.     

Virtual pottery: a virtual 3D audiovisual interface using natural hand motions

In this paper, we present our approach towards designing and implementing a virtual 3D sound sculpting interface that creates audiovisual results using hand motions in real time. In the interface “Virtual Pottery,” we use the metaphor of pottery creation in order to adopt the natural hand motions to 3D spatial sculpting. Users can create their own pottery pieces by changing the position of their hands in real time, and also generate 3D sound sculptures based on pre-existing rules of music composition. The interface of Virtual Pottery can be categorized by shape design and camera sensing type. This paper describes how we developed the two versions of Virtual Pottery and implemented the technical aspects of the interfaces. Additionally, we investigate the ways of translating hand motions into musical sound. The accuracy of the detection of hand motions is crucial for translating natural hand motions into virtual reality. According to the results of preliminary evaluations, the accuracy of both motion-capture tracking system and portable depth sensing camera is as high as the actual data. We carried out user studies, which took into account information about the two exhibitions along with the various ages of users. Overall, Virtual Pottery serves as a bridge between the virtual environment and traditional art practices, with the consequence that it can lead to the cultivation of the deep potential of virtual musical instruments and future art education programs.     

Creating Musical-Fountain Shows

Spectators greatly appreciate majestic musical fountains such as the Bellagio music fountain in Las Vegas and the Magic Fountain of Montjuic in Barcelona. A plethora of water jets and colored lights gives these fountains a gorgeous appearance. But what further distinguishes them is that their displays are synchronized with accompanying music. Fountains that just make patterns with water jets have now developed into multimedia shows with music, light, and special effects. A musical fountain with synchronized water and music creates an atmosphere that can be exciting or romantic. The fountains in Las Vegas and Barcelona are huge, but smaller musical fountains are now appearing in many urban spaces. Whatever the fountain size, the choreography requires painstaking, expert programming, and their creators can only achieve this after careful analysis of the music. Skilled musical-fountain programmers can spend days or even weeks creating a new performance, but this is expensive. So, they rarely change the routines, and they repeat a limited program every day. For this reason, programmers usually choreograph the routines to classical music or well-known pop songs rather than very new music.     

Scale-free brain ensemble modulated by phase synchronization

To listen to brain activity as a piece of music, we proposed the scale-free brainwave music （SFBM） technology, which could translate the scalp electroencephalogram （EEG） into music notes according to the power law of both EEG and music. In the current study, this methodology was further extended to a musical ensemble of two channels. First, EEG data from two selected channels are translated into musical instrument digital interface （MIDI） sequences, where the EEG parameters modulate the pitch, duration, and volume of each musical note. The phase synchronization index of the two channels is computed by a Hilbert transform. Then the two MIDI sequences are integrated into a chorus according to the phase synchronization index. The EEG with a high synchronization index is represented by more consonant musical intervals, while the low index is expressed by inconsonant musical intervals. The brain ensemble derived from real EEG segments illustrates differences in harmony and pitch distribution during the eyes-closed and eyes-open states. Furthermore, the scale-free phenomena exist in the brainwave ensemble. Therefore, the scale-free brain ensemble modulated by phase synchronization is a new attempt to express the EEG through an auditory and musical way, and it can be used for EEG monitoring and bio-feedback.     

Spatial planning for musical output

This article describes an expert system called ENGRAVE that produces musical notation. This task is a resource allocation problem involving the layout of musical objects in space. to do this, we use a spatial planning technique called constraint guidance to plan the layout of the music. an example is given to illustrate the technique. an additional example is given in another domain to show that constraint guidance has general applicability for spatial planning problems.     

On the complex network structure of musical pieces: analysis of some use cases from different music genres

This paper focuses on the modeling of musical melodies as networks. Notes of a melody can be treated as nodes of a network. Connections are created whenever notes are played in sequence. We analyze some main tracks coming from different music genres, with melodies played using different musical instruments. We find out that the considered networks are, in general, scale free networks and exhibit the small world property. We measure the main metrics and assess whether these networks can be considered as formed by sub-communities. Outcomes confirm that peculiar features of the tracks can be extracted from this analysis methodology. This approach can have an impact in several multimedia applications such as music didactics, multimedia entertainment, and digital music generation.     

A novel method to musicalize shape and visualize music and a novel technique in music cryptography

Since many years ago, musicians have composed music based on the images that they have had in their minds. On the other hand, music affects people’s imagination while hearing it. This research provides a method that can transform shape to music and music to shape. This method defines musical notations for horizontal, diagonal and vertical line segments, filled circle and curve with different colors, which are the basis of many shapes in transforming shapes into music. Then these primary mappings are generalized to more complex forms to transform any shape. Moreover, music can be transformed into shape by this method. For this transformation, primary musical notations such as simple notes, notes joined by a legato, notes with a staccato, notes joined by a legato and have crescendo or decrescendo and notes with an accent or a trill are defined. These primary musical notations are generalized to more complex forms to transform any music into shape. Also, the method of this research can be used in music cryptography. It employs mapping of notes in a twelve-tone equal musical system into shapes and mappings of shapes with an equal line width and different colors into music.

     

Agent-based virtual organization architecture

The purpose of this paper is to present the applicability of THOMAS, an architecture specially designed to model agent-based virtual organizations, in the development of a multiagent system for managing and planning routes for clients in a mall. In order to build virtual organizations, THOMAS offers mechanisms to take into account their structure, behaviour, dynamic, norms and environment. Moreover, one of the primary characteristics of the THOMAS architecture is the use of agents with reasoning and planning capabilities. These agents can perform a dynamic reorganization when they detect changes in the environment. The proposed architecture is composed of a set of related modules that are appropriate for developing systems in highly volatile environments similar to the one presented in this study. This paper presents THOMAS as well as the results obtained after having applied the system to a case study.     

On the combinatorial complexity of fuzzy pattern matching in music analysis

In music analysis it is a common requirement to search a musical score for occurrences of a particular musical motif and its variants. This tedious and time-consuming task can be carried out by computer, using one of several models to specify which variants are to be included in the search. The question arises: just how many variants must be explicitly considered? The answer has a profound effect on the computer time needed. In this paper, recurrence relations and closed form analytic expressions are derived for the run time complexity of two models of fuzzy pattern matching for use in music analysis; each model assumes the existence of an atomic exact pattern matching operation. The formulae so obtained are evaluated and tabulated as a function of their independent parameters. These results enable a priori estimates to be made of the relative run times of different music searches performed using either model. This is illustrated by applying the results to an actual musical example.Richard E. Overill, BSc, PhD, C.Math, FIMA, C.Eng, MBCS, MIEE, is Lecturer in Computer Science at King's College London. His research includes the design, analysis, and practical implementation of algorithms on supercomputers. He has also given lecture-recitals on the keyboard music of the Tudor composers Thomas Tallis (1985), John Blitheman (1991), and William Byrd (1993).