Editing Generative music

{{Short description|Music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system}}
{{For|music created by generative artificial intelligence|Music and artificial intelligence}}

'''Generative music''' is a term popularized by [[Brian Eno]] to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system.

== Historical background ==

In 1995 whilst working with SSEYO's [[Koan_(program)|Koan]] software (built by Tim Cole and Pete Cole who later evolved it to Noatikl then Wotja), Brian Eno used the term "generative music" to describe any music that is ever-different and changing, created by a system. The term has since gone on to be used to refer to a wide range of music, from entirely random music mixes created by multiple simultaneous CD playback, through to live rule-based [[computer composition]].

Koan was SSEYO's first real-time music generation system, developed for the Windows platform. Work on Koan was started in 1990, and the software was first released to the public in 1994. In 1995 Brian Eno started working with SSEYO's Koan Pro software, work which led to the 1996 publication of his title 'Generative Music 1 with SSEYO Koan Software'.

Eno's early relationship with SSEYO Koan and Intermorphic co-founder Tim Cole was captured and published in his 1995 diary ''[[A Year with Swollen Appendices]]''.

== Theory ==
There are four primary perspectives on generative music (Wooller, R. et al., 2005) (reproduced with permission):

===Linguistic/structural===
Music composed from analytic theories that are so explicit as to be able to generate structurally coherent material (Loy and Abbott 1985; Cope 1991).  This perspective has its roots in the [[generative grammar]]s of language ([[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]] 1956) and [[Generative theory of tonal music|music]] ([[Fred Lerdahl|Lerdahl]] and [[Ray Jackendoff|Jackendoff]] 1983), which generate material with a [[Recursion (computer science)|recursive]] [[Tree (computing)|tree structure]].

===Interactive/behavioural===
Music generated by a system component that has no discernible musical inputs. That is, "not transformational" (Rowe 1991; Lippe 1997:34; Winkler 1998). The Wotja software by Intermorphic, and the [[Koan (program)|Koan]] software by SSEYO used by Brian Eno to create ''Generative Music 1'', are both examples of this approach.

===Creative/procedural===
Music generated by processes that are designed and/or initiated by the composer.  [[Steve Reich]]'s ''[[It's Gonna Rain]]'' and [[Terry Riley]]'s ''[[In C]]'' are examples of this (Eno 1996).

===Biological/emergent===
Non-deterministic music (Biles 2002), or music that cannot be repeated, for example, ordinary wind chimes (Dorin 2001).  This perspective comes from the broader [[generative art]] movement.  This revolves around the idea that music, or sounds may be "generated" by a musician "farming" parameters within an ecology, such that the ecology will perpetually produce different variation based on the parameters and algorithms used. An example of this technique is [[Joseph Nechvatal]]'s [[Viral symphOny]]: a collaborative electronic [[noise music]] symphony<ref>''Observatori 2008: After The Future'', p. 80</ref> created between the years 2006 and 2008 using custom [[artificial life]] software based on a viral model.<ref>[http://www.vimeo.com/3908524 Joseph Nechvatal Interview: see end for mention of ''viral symphOny'']</ref>

== See also ==

*{{Annotated link|Adaptive music}}
* {{Annotated link|Aleatoric music}}
* {{Annotated link|Algorithmic composition}}
* {{Annotated link|Cellular automaton}}
* {{Annotated link|Change ringing}}
* {{Annotated link|Computer-generated music}}
* {{Annotated link|Generative art}}
* {{Annotated link|List of music software}}
* {{Annotated link|Live coding}}
* {{Annotated link|Musikalisches Würfelspiel|''Musikalisches Würfelspiel''}}

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
*''Artística de Valencia, After The Net'', 5 – 29 June 2008, Valencia, Spain: catalogue: ''Observatori 2008: After The Future'', p.&nbsp;80
*Biles, A. 2002a. [https://genjam.org/al-biles/genjam-the-genetic-jammer/genjam-papers/ GenJam in Transition]: from Genetic Jammer to Generative Jammer. In International Conference on Generative Art, Milan, Italy.
*Chomsky, N. 1956. [http://twiki.di.uniroma1.it/pub/LC/WebHome/chomsky1956.pdf Three models for the description of language]. IRE Transcripts on Information Theory, 2: 113-124.
*Collins, N. 2008. [http://composerprogrammer.com/research/analysisgenerativemusic.pdf The analysis of generative music programs]. Organised Sound, 13(3): 237–248.
*Cope, D. 1991. [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=d72e77491d5e6ba5e5786aaf5819996522201a44 Computers and musical style]. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions.
*Dorin, A. 2001. [https://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~aland/PAPERS/GenProcess_OrgSnd2001.pdf Generative processes and the electronic arts]. Organised Sound, 6 (1): 47-53.
*Eno, B. 1996. Generative Music. http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/eno1.html (accessed 26 February 2009).
*Essl, K. 2002. Generative Music. http://www.essl.at/bibliogr/generative-music.html (accessed 22 Mar 2010).
*García, A. et al. 2010. Music Composition Based on Linguistic Approach. [[Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence|9th Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, MICAI 2010]], Pachuca, Mexico. pp.&nbsp;117–128.
*Intermorphic Limited [http://www.intermorphic.com/company/index.html History of Noatikl, Koan and SSEYO] (accessed 26 February 2009).
*Lerdahl, F. and R. Jackendoff. 1982. A generative theory of tonal music. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
*Lippe, C. 1997. [https://ipsj.ixsq.nii.ac.jp/ej/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=56397&item_no=1&attribute_id=1&file_no=1 Music for piano and computer: A description]. Information Processing Society of Japa SIG Notes, 97 (122): 33-38.
*Loy, G. and C. Abbott. 1985. Programming languages for computer music synthesis, performance and composition. [[ACM Computing Surveys]], 17 (2): 235-265.
*Nierhaus, G. Algorithmic Composition - Paradigms of Automated Music Generation. Springer 2009.
*Rowe, R. 1991. [https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/13835/24586421-MIT.pdf?sequence=2 Machine Learning and Composing: Making Sense of Music with Cooperating Real-Time Agents]. Thesis from Media Lab. Mass.: MIT.
*Winkler, T. 1998. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GrwMuV4Jcw8C&dq=%22Composing+Interactive+Music%22&pg=PR9 Composing Interactive Music]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
*Wooller, R., Brown, A. R, et al. A framework for comparing algorithmic music systems. In: Symposium on Generative Arts Practice (GAP). 2005. University of Technology Sydney.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Generative Music}}
[[Category:Computer music software]]