Composing by Numbers: An Introduction to Algorithmic Melody Generation

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• Alex Coplan, St Catharine's College
• Wednesday 02 March 2016, 19:00-19:40
• Wolfson Hall, Churchill College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Matthew Ireland.

If you have ever tried to compose a piece of music from scratch, you will have likely encountered the phenomenon of “writer’s block”. In such a circumstance, it would be useful if you were using notation software that were capable of generating inspiration for the composer. In this talk, I discuss methods for algorithmic melody generation. I begin by building a music-theoretic foundation from physical and mathematical principles, to enable an understanding of pitch and melody in the context of western classical music, followed by an introduction of Markovian techniques as a candidate solution. I then proceed to discuss heuristics to improve the Markov Chain model with respect to musicality, and conclude with a discussion of the larger issues encountered with this approach, including how the Markov property hinders overall cohesion in the composition.

This talk is part of the Churchill CompSci Talks series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Churchill CompSci Talks
• Wolfson Hall, Churchill College
• computer science
• se393's list

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