# Music-composing computer programs?



## Anthony Appleyard (Apr 2, 2019)

I am sorry if I am in the wrong forum, but do any of you know of a computer program / app / whatever that can do these?:-
(1) Compose music (classical-type, not pop music), i.e. act as a composer, after the user has supplied information about the sort of music that he wants (sonata movement, march, etc), themes, length, musical instruments to use, etc.
(2) Output it on a computer file as a computer-readable full-score.
(3) Output that full-score as a computer graphics file in the usual sheet music format.
(4) Output that music on a computer sound file as if played by a reasonable-quality musician or band or orchestra.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Well, to go back to the beginning. Mozart invented a musical composition method using dice and pre-determined music phrases It can be computerized, and has in fact been so.

http://sunsite.univie.ac.at/Mozart/dice/


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The bigger question is: Why would you want such a thing?


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

It may happen (provided we don’t kill each other first) but we’re still a long way from this. Thus far, computer compositions have failed to impress.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The problem iis, any computer-produced artwork (music, art, play, novel . . .) is subject to its programming, making the programmer the real artist. Or it's dependent on the existing works fed into it as examples -- making the result, at best a pastiche (or another aria from Salambo).

(In the early days of personal computers, I conceived of, but ultimately never wrote, a story about a man who spent evenings in his basement, compulsively coding and feeding into his computer, sequentially, the works of Beethoven, in the hopes it could generate a new one. A process the would have to fail because Beethoven's developement was wildly non-linear, and there was no way to predict what direction his experiments would take him in next.)


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

MarkW said:


> Or it's dependent on the existing works fed into it as examples -- making the result, at best a pastiche (or another aria from Salambo).


I'm not sure this is correct for two reasons. First, computer programs could certainly produce things that are an amalgamation of styles which I'm not sure could be truly classified as a pastiche. Second, machine learning programs especially often surprise us. They pick up trends and styles that no human could possibly pick up and can produce truly unexpected results. Ultimately this starts leading into really fuzzy philosophical grounds and trying to classify what is truly derivative and what is original.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Bach. . .

I probably don't doubt that you could plug in 100 Haydn symphonies, or 100 Vivaldi violin concerti, and come up with something that would fool a lot of people -- maybe something that could plausibly imitate Stravinsky or R. Strauss -- but I do think there are composers who would baffle at least the next couple of generations of computers. (At least, I hope so. )


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I suspect things will go a different direction. Computers will compose music that we hear directly (via those famous implants). The implants will also measure our glandular responses and send that information back to the computer. Over time, the computer will learn exactly what techniques, rhythms, tunes, timbres, and so forth elicit the target responses. And this without ever hearing a note written by any historical composer.

By comparison, the computer that currently holds the world’s go championship never studied a historical game. It started only with the rules and the objective and taught itself from there by playing several million games with itself.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

Anthony Appleyard said:


> Music-composing computer programs?


it is possible but still would need a living composer to finish the work if they want it to be of good quality.


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

Sounds like someone wants to make some easy money on Youtube...


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## Anthony Appleyard (Apr 2, 2019)

The chess-and-Go program that taught itself is AlphaZero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero

It may happen e.g. that someone is writing a story, and he needs a march, composed with particular specifications about duration and instruments used and style and what themes it includes and suchlike, without having to use time and money contacting a music composer.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Anthony Appleyard said:


> The chess-and-Go program that taught itself is AlphaZero.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero
> 
> It may happen e.g. that someone is writing a story, and he needs a march, composed with particular specifications about duration and instruments used and style and what themes it includes and suchlike, without having to use time and money contacting a music composer.


I hope you fail in this quest which undermines both music and artists. Go out and find other artists with which to collaborate. If all people take your route - e.g. in reverse, the composer seeking not a writer, but a writing AI to supplement his music - collaboration dies.

I think there's enough of this world transformed into a world only fit for machines. Let's try and keep the arts world a truly human activity.

If you're just a revenue-seeker, as AeolianStrains suggested, please just go away.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Music-composing computer programs? *

Here's a video of a computerized composer at work:


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

Anthony Appleyard said:


> The chess-and-Go program that taught itself is AlphaZero.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero
> 
> It may happen e.g. that someone is writing a story, and he needs a march, composed with particular specifications about duration and instruments used and style and what themes it includes and suchlike, without having to use time and money contacting a music composer.





> (3) Output that full-score as a computer graphics file in the usual sheet music format.
> (4) Output that music on a computer sound file as if played by a reasonable-quality musician or band or orchestra.


How does a writer need this kind of stuff?


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## AeolianStrains (Apr 4, 2018)

KenOC said:


> Well, to go back to the beginning. Mozart invented a musical composition method using dice and pre-determined music phrases It can be computerized, and has in fact been so.
> 
> http://sunsite.univie.ac.at/Mozart/dice/


I'm actually reminded of this chapter, which is relevant to quite a few threads currently active:

https://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/music/m7h.pdf


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## KitMurkit (Apr 3, 2019)

It is very interesting to learn such things are possible now days. I would not be surprised if such music sounds better than music of some contemporary human composers.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

And it must certainly be possible for machine generated music to sound better than some Classical and Romantic era composers.


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## Anthony Appleyard (Apr 2, 2019)

Sorry. I was not looking for ways to make money. If what I was asking about is impracticable, sorry, thanks for explaining the point.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

This is the first computer-generated music I ever heard, the Illiac Suite by Ljaren Hiller. I still have it, and still consider it to be a unique work. Suggestion: check with the University of Illinois.

Did you ever hear of google searches? :lol: Try this link on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=computer+generated+music


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## KitMurkit (Apr 3, 2019)

Thank you for the link. Well. Listening to this - my feeling (the Feeling is important if one listens to the Music, yep?). The sounds are very nice. But there is no Music.


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## Anthony Appleyard (Apr 2, 2019)

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=computer+generated+classical+music

Thanks. Some of the results of this search seem to show that it can be done.


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