Table Of ContentP1:OTE/SPH P2:OTE
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Eduardo Reck Miranda and John Al Biles (Eds)
Evolutionary
Computer
Music
iii
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EduardoReckMiranda,MSc,PhD JohnAlBiles,BA,MS,PhD
InterdisciplinaryCentreforComputer InformationTechnologyDepartment
MusicResearch(ICCMR) RochesterInstituteofTechnology
UniversityofPlymouth Rochester,NY14623
UK USA
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Foreword
From Glorified Adding Machines
to Evolutionary Computer Music
I was very pleased when Al Biles and Eduardo Miranda asked me to write a
foreword for this delightful volume on Evolutionary Computer Music (ECM).
I have been a fan of the field from my first passing involvement as a co-author
onanECMpaperin1991.Likemanyothers,IhaveenjoyedlisteningtoAlBiles
jamwithGenJamatvariousconferences,andIhavewatchedthestateoftheart
advancewitheachpassingyear.Evolutionarymusicisparticularlypleasingtoits
practitioners and observers alike, I believe, because it simultaneously asks deep
questionsaboutwhatcomputerscandoandwhatitmeanstobehuman.
Geneticalgorithms(GAs)andevolutionarycomputation(EC)aredevilishfun
partlybecausetheypermitustotweakthenosesofthosewhosharetheconventional
wisdomthat‘computersonlydowhatyouprogramthemtodo.’Thiscoldwarview
ofcomputerasglorifiedaddingmachineisstillwithus,butitseemstomegenerally
that the accomplishments of EC must be giving those who still hold such views
some pause, as field after field is changed by the computational innovation and
creativityembodiedinGAsandEC.
Perhapsnowhereisthechallengetoconventionalwisdomgreaterthaninthearea
ofECM.Philosophershaveheldthattheabilitytocomposeandperformmusicis
auniquelyhumantalent,andthecurrentsuccessofECwithcreatingmusiceither
contradictsthatpropositionorsuggeststhattheinnovative–creativemechanisms
embodied in EC are powerful in ways that bear at least functional similarity to
thoseofhumancomposers.Eitherway,theevolutionarycomputergenerationof
digitalsoundsandmusicthatpleasehumanbeingschallengesstereotypesabout
whatcomputerscandoandwhatconstitutestheuniqueprovinceofourspecies.
Thisvolumeisaspecialcontributiontotheliterature.Itrunsthetopicalgamut
fromusingECtocreatepleasingdigitalsoundsandcomposeorimprovisemusi-
calcompositionstothinkingaboutthephilosophicalimplicationsofacommunity
ofmusicallyinclinedrobots.Thevolumedemonstratesmethodologicaldiversity
usingdifferenttypesofevolutionaryalgorithms,includingthosekissingcousins
of EC, particle swarms and cellular automata; as might be expected in such a
volume,emphasisisplacedonexploringinteractiveECtechniquesforusinghu-
manjudgmentsaboutmusicalaestheticsefficientlyandwell.Inshort,ifyouare
a practitioner or aficionado of ECM or perhaps you are one of those cold war
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vi Foreword
fuddy-duddieswhostillthinkscomputersaremerelyglorifiedaddingmachines,I
stronglyurgeyoutobuythisbook,readitandlistentothepleasingproductsof
ECMcreation.
October2006 DavidE.Goldberg
UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-Champaign
Urbana,IL61801USA
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Preface
Musicians,perhapsmorethananyotherclassofartists,havealwaysbeenacutely
aware of the scientific developments of their time. From the discovery almost
3000yearsagoofthedirectrelationshipbetweenthepitchofanoteandthelength
of a string or pipe, to the latest computer models of human musical cognition
and intelligence, musicians have always looked to science to provide new and
challengingparadigmstostudyandcomposemusic.
With the great technical and scientific advances being made at the crossroads
ofcomputing,biology,andnaturalhistory,anewapproachtomusichasrecently
emerged:EvolutionaryComputerMusic.
Evolutionary computing, also referred to as evolutionary computation or EC,
can be broadly defined as a field of computer science that focuses on the use of
computational models of Darwinian-like evolutionary processes as the key ele-
mentsindesignandimplementationofcomputersystems.BecauseECnormally
deals with complex phenomena, its development has fostered the creation of a
pool of research tools for modelling and studying complex natural phenomena
such as nervous systems, cells and living beings. It is interesting, though, that
thesetoolsarealsoprovingtobeusefulinareasasdiverseaseconomics,social
sciences, linguistics and music. Indeed, a number of new fields of investigation
have emerged within the last 20 years or so, as a result of these developments
in a way or another. A notable example is the flourishing new field of Artificial
Life.
Evolutionarycomputermusicisanexcitingnewdevelopmentforcomposersand
musicologistsalike.Forcomposers,itprovidesaninnovativeandnaturalmeans
for generating musical ideas from a specifiable set of primitive components and
processes, reflecting the compositional process of generating a variety of ideas
bybrainstormingfollowedbyselectingthemostpromisingonesforfurtheriter-
atedrefinement.Formusicologists,ECtechniquesareusedtomodelthecultural
transmissionandchangeofapopulation’sbodyofmusicalideasovertime;e.g.
to model the development and maintenance of musical styles within particular
cultural contexts and their reorganization and adaptation in response to cultural
exchange.Inbothcases,themusicalevolutioncanbeinfluencedbyavarietyof
constraints and tendencies built into the system, such as realistic psychological
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viii Preface
factorsthatinfluencethewaythatmusicisexperienced,learned,stored,modified,
andpassedonbetweenindividuals.
ThisbookdiscussesnotonlytheapplicationsoftheECtomusic,butalsothe
toolsneededtocreateandstudysuchsystems.Thesetoolsaredrawninpartfrom
researchintotheoriginsandevolutionofbiologicalorganisms,ecologies,andcul-
turalsystemsontheonehand,andinpartfromcomputersimulationmethodologies
ontheother.
The opening chapter introduces the topic of EC, outlining the main technical
details and raising issues pertinent to musical applications. This chapter is in-
tendedtofurnishreaderswiththenecessarybackgroundneededtounderstandthe
remainingchapters,aswellasopenupanumberofimportantthemesrelevantto
this collection. The second chapter complements the first by introducing music
as a problem domain for EC. The author conducts an informal task analysis of
musictoidentifythetasksmusiciansperformandsurveyshowEChasbeenused
tosupportthesetasks.
Historically,manydigitalaudioapplicationshaverequiredsomeformofopti-
mization,particularlyreplicationofmusicalinstrumentsinmusicsynthesis.Recent
workhasusedevolutionaryalgorithms,suchasgeneticalgorithms,toevolvepa-
rameters for these applications. Chapter 3 presents a survey of the use of EC in
music synthesis, music processing, and other digital audio applications such as
music recognition. Chapter 4 follows by focusing on the use of EC in creative
sound design. The author introduces two systems of his own design, MutaSynth
andPathMutator.
Chapter 5 introduces an innovative application of EC, which is the design of
systemsformusicalperformance.Heretheauthorspresentaprototypesystemthat
usesageneticalgorithm(GA)toevolveperformanceprofilestoperformpiecesof
music.
Chapter6describesthecompositionalusesoftheauthor’sownGA-basedpro-
gramcalledGenDash.Theprogramhasbeenemployedtocomposeawiderange
ofpiecesfromshortvocalworkstopiecesforstringquartetandoperas.Thedevel-
opmentofGenDashischronicled,theideasbehindtheprogramaredocumented,
and the chapter details the pieces composed using the program. Chapter 7 fol-
lowsbyfocusingontheapplicationofECtomusicalimprovisation.Afterbriefly
discussingthenotionofimprovisationanddefiningsomemusicaldimensionsfor
improvisation,attentionturnstoGenJam,apioneeringEC-basedreal-timeinter-
activeimprovisationsystem.
Chapter8introducestheuseofcellularautomata(CA)forsoundsynthesisand
composition.AfterageneralintroductiontoCAanditspotentialformusic,theau-
thorintroducesthedevelopmentofhisownCA-basedsystems,namelyChaosynth
(forsoundsynthesis)andCAMUS(forcomposition).Complementingtheuseof
CA, Chapter 8 introduces the use of swarms for modelling compositional pro-
cesseswithfocusontheauthor’sSwarmMusicsystemforreal-timecomposition
ofmusicwithswarms.
Following the development of fields such as Artificial Life and memet-
ics, Chapter 10 proposes a computational modelling approach to Evolutionary
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Preface ix
Musicology: Computational Evolutionary Musicology. This involves the use of
computermodellingandsimulationstostudythecircumstancesandmechanisms
wherebymusicsystemsmightoriginateandevolveinartificiallycreatedworlds
inhabitedbycommunitiesofinteractingautonomousagents.Theauthorsdescribe
theirownmodelforstudyingtheroleofmating-selectivepressureintheevolution
ofmusicalexpectation.Next,theyintroduceamimeticmodelforstudyingtheevo-
lutionofmusicallexiconsinacommunityofautonomousrobotsfurnishedwith
avocalsynthesizer,ahearingapparatusandamemorydevice.Theapplicationof
neuralnetworkstoevolvegenerativesequencingrulesinacommunityofrhythm
playersandimitatorsisalsodiscussed.
TheaccompanyingmusicCDfeaturespiecescomposedby,orwiththeaidof,
EC. The diversity of musical styles and compositional approaches illustrated on
thisCDareclearevidenceofthecapabilitiesandscopeofEvolutionaryComputer
Music, which go beyond the realm of academic theory. Here are examples of
tangiblepracticalbenefitsforthemusicindustry.
Wewouldliketoexpressourgratitudetoallcontributorswhokindlyproduced
new original chapters for this edition and provided the pieces for the accompa-
nying music CD. We are thankful to Springer’s editorial and production team
for their support, especially our commissioning editor, Helen Callaghan, for her
encouragementtoeditthisbook.
TheeditorswouldliketodedicatethisvolumetothememoryofthelateDrew
Garlant-Jones,whoseenthusiasmandcontributiontothedevelopmentofEvolu-
tionaryComputerMusicshallneverbeforgotten.
January2007 EduardoReckMiranda
JohnAlBiles
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Contents
Foreword................................................................................. v
Preface.................................................................................... vii
Contributors............................................................................. xiii
1. AnIntroductiontoEvolutionaryComputingforMusicians............... 1
PhilHusbands,PeterCopley,AliceEldridgeandJamesMandelis
2. EvolutionaryComputationforMusicalTasks............................... 28
JohnA.Biles
3. EvolutioninDigitalAudioTechnology....................................... 52
AndrewHorner
4. EvolutioninCreativeSoundDesign........................................... 79
PalleDahlstedt
5. ExperimentsinGenerativeMusicalPerformancewitha
GeneticAlgorithm................................................................ 100
QijunZhangandEduardoR.Miranda
6. ComposingwithGeneticAlgorithms:GenDash............................ 117
RodneyWaschkaII
7. ImprovizingwithGeneticAlgorithms:GenJam............................. 137
JohnA.Biles
8. CellularAutomataMusic:FromSoundSynthesistoMusicalForms... 170
EduardoR.Miranda
9. SwarmingandMusic............................................................. 194
TimBlackwell
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xii Contents
10. ComputationalEvolutionaryMusicology.................................... 218
EduardoR.MirandaandPeterM.Todd
Appendix:TheAccompanyingMusicCD......................................... 250
Index...................................................................................... 253
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List of Contributors
ProfDavidEGoldberg MsAliceEldridge
DobrovolnyDistinguishedProfessor CreativeSystemsLab
IllinoisGeneticAlgorithmsLaboratory EvolutionaryandAdaptiveSystems
(IlliGAL)DepartmentofIndustrialand Group
EnterpriseSystemsEngineering DepartmentofInformatics
UniversityofIllinoisat UniversityofSussex
Urbana-Champaign Brighton,BN19QH
117TransportationBuilding UnitedKingdom
104S.MathewsAvenue Email:[email protected]
Urbana,IL61801
USA MrJamesMandelis
Email:[email protected] CreativeSystemsLab
EvolutionaryandAdaptiveSystems
ProfPhilHusbands Group
ProfessorofArtificialIntelligence DepartmentofInformatics
CognitiveandComputingSciences UniversityofSussex
UniversityofSussex Brighton,BN19QH
Brighton,BN19QH UnitedKingdom
UnitedKingdom Email:[email protected]
Email:[email protected]
ProfJohnAlBiles
DrPeterCopley ProfessorandUndergraduateProgram
TheMusicDepartment CoordinatorInformation
TheOpenUniversity TechnologyDepartment
WaltonHall RochesterInstituteofTechnology
MiltonKeynes,MK76AA 102LombMemorialDrive
UnitedKingdom Rochester,NY14623-5608
Email:arts-music-enquiries@ USA
open.ac.uk Email:[email protected]
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