144 research outputs found

    Computational Invention of Cadences and Chord Progressions by Conceptual Chord-blending

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    We present a computational framework for chord invention based on a cognitive-theoretic perspective on conceptual blending. The framework builds on algebraic specifications, and solves two musicological problems. It automatically finds transitions between chord progressions of different keys or idioms, and it substitutes chords in a chord progression by other chords of a similar function, as a means to create novel variations. The approach is demonstrated with several examples where jazz cadences are invented by blending chords in cadences from earlier idioms, and where novel chord progressions are generated by inventing transition chords.Project COINVENT/ European Commission FP7 - 611553Peer reviewe

    ASP, Amalgamation and the Conceptual Blending Workflow

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    We present a framework for conceptual blending – a concept invention method that is advocated in cognitive science as a fundamental, and uniquely human engine for creative thinking. Herein, we employ the search capabilities of ASP to find commonalities among input concepts as part of the blending process, and we show how our approach fits within a generalised conceptual blending workflow. Specifically, we orchestrate ASP with imperative Python programming, to query external tools for theorem proving and colimit computation. We exemplify our approach with an example of creativity in mathematics. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.This work is supported by the 7th Framework Programme for Research of the European Commission funded COINVENT project (FET-Open grant number: 611553). M. Eppe is supported by the German Academic Exchange ServicePeer Reviewe

    An Argument based Creative Assistant for Harmonic Blending

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    Conceptual blending is a powerful tool for computational creativity where, for example, the properties of two harmonic spaces may be combined in a consistent manner to produce a novel harmonic space. However, deciding about the importance of property features in the input spaces and evaluating the results of conceptual blending is a nontrivial task. In the specific case of musical harmony, defining the salient features of chord transitions and evaluating invented harmonic spaces requires deep musicological background knowledge. In this paper, we propose a creative tool that helps musicologists to evaluate and to enhance harmonic innovation. This tool allows a music expert to specify arguments over given transition properties. These arguments are then considered by the system when defining combinations of features in an idiom-blending process. A music expert can assess whether the new harmonic idiom makes musicological sense and re-adjust the arguments (selection of features) to explore alternative blends that can potentially produce better harmonic spaces. We conclude with a discussion of future work that would further automate the harmonisation process.Comment: 8 pp; submitted to 7th International Conference on Computational Creativit

    Free Jazz in the Land of Algebraic Improvisation

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    Abstract We discuss the connection between free-jazz music and service-oriented computing, and advance a method for formal, algebraic analysis of improvised performances; we aim for a better understanding of both the creative process of music improvising and the complexity of service-oriented systems. We formalize free-jazz performances as complex dynamic systems of services, building on the idea that an improvisation can be seen as a collection of music phase spaces that organise themselves through concept blending, and emerge as the performed music. We first define music phase spaces as specifications written over a class of logics that satisfy a set of requirements that make them suitable for dealing with improvisations. Based on these specifications we then formalize free-jazz performances as service applications that evolve by requiring other music fragments to be added as service modules to the improvisation. Finally, we present a logic for specifying free jazz based on one of Anthony Braxton's graphic notations for composition notes

    'Active Agony’ within Wolfgang Rihm’s Tutuguri and the 4th String Quartet

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    Wolfgang Rihm’s mature output has always betrayed a tangible and formative connection with other forms of artistic expression, to the extent that he effectively speaks of himself as a sculptor of sound. The successive particular influence in the 70s and early 80s of Kurt Kocherscheidt and Arnulf Rainer in the visual arts and Antonin Artaud in dramaturgy have been variously explored, at least in relation to the works from the mid 80s onwards. One work, Tutuguri, has been called a “border crossing point” in his creative development but it perhaps should thought of rather as the place where Rihm engaged in a more overt struggle to make his creative compositional processes more like those of visual artists. Rihm’s subsequent poetics, and the commentary of others, has tended perhaps to obscure the formative nature of his compositional thinking between late 1980 and 1982 during the composition of Tutuguri and the 4th String Quartet, and therefore to overlook his developing responses to other art forms which influenced his writing at that time. In focusing, for example, on Rihm’s “worked out” musical processes of the late 80s and 90s which are directly comparable and analogous to Rainer’s technique of “Overpainting”, earlier “premonitions” in Tutuguri and the 4th Quartet in particular may have been overlooked, in favour of connections with Artaud even though these are not always necessarily obvious in the music. Underpinning this struggle was the tension between the imaginary and the symbolic where the spontaneous imagination found itself at odds with the need to write the music out symbolically, a state which Rihm refers to as the “active agony” caused by the “comprehensive conflict of material and imagination”. This struggle can be illustrated through consideration of some of the tensions inherent in the 4th Quartet which Rihm, writing on the occasion of its first performance in 1983, described as a «late-comer and at the same time a precursor». In Tutuguri these tensions are evident throughout through the collision between the influential art forms of Rainer/Artaud and Rihm’s idea of ‘Musicblocks’, as expressed in his essay Ins eigene Fleisch. The resulting musical gestures can be directly and metaphorically related to “the blow of the chisel, the brushes” and these connections have not been extensively explored for the various works which constitute the Tutuguri “cycle”. This paper explores some of the complex interconnections of artistic ideas that are to be found in Rihm’s two major works of 1981-82, focusing in particular on Tutuguri parts I, VI, III and the 4th String Quartet, relating some of the essential generative conceptual ideas which inform them to examples of musical gestures and “setting” in the aforementioned works. By suggesting ways in which the actual musical materials in these compositions can be construed, our understanding of the development of these ideas in Rihm’s later music can be deepened

    The Sonata as an Ageless Principle: Nikolai Medtner’s Early Piano Sonatas: Analytic Studies on their Genesis, Style, and Compositional Technique

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    The dissertation focuses on the early piano sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880–1951). It approaches them in the context of genre history, confronts them with other composers' works, and discusses them from various analytic perspectives. A special goal is to consider the pieces in the aesthetic environment of their time, and to regard them as peculiar instances of the â€șsonata principleâ€č, an ageless conception of musical form. The study is subdivided in three large parts, the first of which presents a summary of sonata composition before Medtner, exploring lines of tradition in Western Europe and Russia. The second part concentrates on Medtner’s musical language and its stylistic features. The third and most comprehensive part provides detailed examinations of eight of Medtner’s piano sonatas, including aspects of their genesis and reception, and making use of recent methods of musical analysis.Die Dissertation widmet sich den frĂŒhen Klaviersonaten des russischen Komponisten Nikolaj Karlovič Metner (1880–1951), die im Kontext ihrer Gattungsgeschichte und im Vergleich mit Musik anderer Urheber betrachtet werden. Ein Hauptanliegen der multiperspektivischen Analysen ist es, den Werkkorpus in Ă€sthetische Kontexte der Entstehungszeit einzubetten und die Einzelwerke als SpezialfĂ€lle des â€șSonatenprinzipsâ€č, eines zeitlosen Formkonzepts, darzustellen. Die Studie gliedert sich in drei Sektionen, deren erste die Entwicklungen des Sonatenkomponierens vor Metner zusammenfasst und Traditionslinien in Westeuropa und Russland nachzeichnet. Der zweite Teil ist eine Darstellung der Tonsprache Metners und ihrer stilistischen Merkmale. Der dritte und umfangreichste Teil prĂ€sentiert Detailanalysen von acht Klaviersonaten Metners und untersucht die Notentexte mit Hilfe aktueller Analysemethoden

    Expressive musical process: exploring contemporary jazz musicians' views on the use of expressivity in compositional practice

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    Although there is a wide range of literature exploring expressivity in contemporary jazz music, I have found little to address the way that jazz musicians apply their expressivity in acts of composition. Moreover, I have found little academic research into the way that jazz musicians conceptualise their own expressivity in relation to their practice. This thesis uses this as an opportunity to interrogate the notion of ‘expressivity’ as a motivation for new compositional practice. I harness this concept explicitly in my own practical work, in order to illustrate how expressivity can be deliberately exploited within jazz composition. This investigation addresses the following questions: How does expressivity impact communication between jazz players? How do jazz musicians understand the relationship between expressivity and improvisation? How do composers of contemporary jazz talk about expressivity in relation to instrumentation? How do contemporary jazz musicians discuss the use of expressivity in modal composition? The methodology of this research can be broken down as two different strands of investigation. First, I interviewed a number of contemporary jazz musicians about the notion of musician’s expressivity, and how they embody this concept in their own practice. Secondly, I have composed new jazz music that responds to these themes and practically illustrates the concepts that I discuss. Throughout this analytical and practical process, I discuss expressivity in relation to four core concepts which are engaged with throughout this text: communication, improvisation, instrumentation and modal composition. Each of these themes is used to unpick, define and explore the concept of expressivity from different perspectives. Underpinning this high-level conceptual framework, around sixty lowlevel theoretical themes have finally shaped the musical trajectory of this project. Seven original compositions of new work support this written thesis, featuring two hours of musical experimentation. This sonic component is used to evidence key claims made in my thesis. Overall, my analysis leads me to conclude that expressivity allows us to see contemporary jazz from a very human-sensitive perspective. Expressivity encourages us to study the complex range of distinctive musical, cultural, technical and social factors that intersect when jazz musicians meet in performance. The unique expressive aptitudes of these various relational qualities can be channelled in the design of original musical works which treat expressivity as a mobilising factor for musical composition
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