Software Influenced Composition: Investigating the influence of software on compositional methods in electroacoustic music

This research presents an autoethnographic investigation, through composition, performance and software development, into how composition is influenced by the use of software, utilising acousmatic composition as a case study. Through the composition and performance of music, in addition to the development of software, it presents a framework for investigating acousmatic composition and its relationships to both the use and development of software in creative applications. Using this framework, it proposes a number of influences on compositional practice, and suggests that in the research of composition, software functions as part of both composition and performance rather than being an encapsulation of the tasks themselves. It is accompanied by a number of compositions, sound examples and computer programs that both informed the investigations themselves, and explain their results. It suggests a number of avenues for future research in both composition and performance, with relation to the utilisation and development of software, taking these results into account

Recomposing Beethoven with Music Neurotechnology

Musicians have an extraordinary opportunity today to develop new approaches to composition that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Imagine if you could play a musical instrument with signals detected directly from your brain. Would it be possible to generate music representing brain activity? What would the music of our brains sound like? These are some of the questions addressed by research into Music Neurotechnology , which is an emerging field at the crossroads of music, technology and neuroscience. There has been a great number of very interesting initiatives within the last decade or so to sonify brainwaves, some of which might indeed be useful for creative musical purposes. Also, the burgeoning field of Brain-Computer Music Interfacing (BCMI) is developing powerful methods to generate music in real-time by means of brainwave signals some initiatives of which are even looking into harnessing the potential of biomedically uncertified low-cost equipment for BCMI applications. However, in this chapter we discuss an approach that goes beyond sonification of brainwaves and BCMI. We introduce algorithms that we have been developing to compose orchestral music off-line with fMRI brain scans. The chapter is concerned with the impact of Music Neurotechnology to the field of Computer-Aided Composition (CAC). As we are not concerned with real-time interaction here, we have an opportunity to take advantage of the fMRI brain scanning method. This method is deemed too cumbersome for real-time applications, but considerably more powerful and informative than EEG (electroencephalogram) scanning, which is the method used in sonification and BCMI research. The composition methods introduced below were developed in OpenMusic, originally to generate materials for two symphonies by Miranda: Symphony of Minds Listening (2013) and Corpus Callosum (2015). And they were subsequently used to compose Shockwaves (2015) a violin concertino for orchestra. The discussions in this chapter will be mostly in the context of Symphony of Minds Listening and Corpus Callosum . We begin the chapter by briefly introducing Miranda’s approach to composing with the aid of computers, focusing on using algorithmically generated materials. Then we introduce the compositions Symphony of Minds Listening and Corpus Callosum. Next, we focus on the technical details of collecting and handling fMRI data, followed by an overview of the OpenMusic patches that we developed for this project and an explanation of how ATO-MS was used to generate orchestrations based on fMRI information. The chapter ends with a brief concluding discussion and acknowledgements to contributors and sponsors

The Design and Evaluation of Computer Music Interfaces

The purpose of this research is to examine the methods employed to design a computer music system suitable for music composition purposes. The nature of an interface is introduced and discussed (Chapter 2), with particular reference to interfacing issues for computer music users. The nature of the user and the notion of a task in computer music are discussed and examined (Chapter 3), with outline methods for evaluations of users and tasks being introduced. Current computer systems design and analysis methodologies are introduced (Chapter 4), and subsequently adapted for use in computer music design and analysis applications. A set of guidelines is introduced in Chapter 5, specifically related to the design and analysis of computer music systems. These guidelines are formulated from the discussions regarding the interfacing requirements of a musician user and the nature of the tasks he wishes to accomplish employing computer related technology. An examination of several systems forms a major part of the thesis (Chapters 6 - 10), outlining a variety of available composition tools at the time of writing. Each system introduced and discussed is evaluated in relation to the guidelines introduced for design and analysis of computer music systems. An interface design case study (Chapter 11) employs the design methods introduced during the thesis, and highlights the need for intensive designer - user discourse

On Mapping EEG Information into Music

With the rise of ever-more affordable EEG equipment available to musicians, artists and researchers, designing and building a Brain-Computer Music Interface (BCMI) system has recently become a realistic achievement. This chapter discusses previous research in the fields of mapping, sonification and musification in the context of designing a BCMI system and will be of particular interest to those who seek to develop their own. Design of a BCMI requires unique consider-ations due to the characteristics of the EEG as a human interface device (HID). This chapter analyses traditional strategies for mapping control from brain waves alongside previous research in bio-feedback musical systems. Advances in music technology have helped provide more complex approaches with regards to how music can be affected and controlled by brainwaves. This, paralleled with devel-opments in our understanding of brainwave activity has helped push brain-computer music interfacing into innovative realms of real-time musical perfor-mance, composition and applications for music therapy

The development of corpus-based computer assisted composition program and its application for instrumental music composition

In the last 20 years, we have seen the nourishing environment for the development of music software using a corpus of audio data expanding significantly, namely that synthesis techniques producing electronic sounds, and supportive tools for creative activities are the driving forces to the growth. Some software produces a sequence of sounds by means of synthesizing a chunk of source audio data retrieved from an audio database according to a rule. Since the matching of sources is processed according to their descriptive features extracted by FFT analysis, the quality of the result is significantly influenced by the outcomes of the Audio Analysis, Segmentation, and Decomposition. Also, the synthesis process often requires a considerable amount of sample data and this can become an obstacle to establish easy, inexpensive, and user-friendly applications on various kinds of devices. Therefore, it is crucial to consider how to treat the data and construct an efficient database for the synthesis. We aim to apply corpusbased synthesis techniques to develop a Computer Assisted Composition program, and to investigate the actual application of the program on ensemble pieces. The goal of this research is to apply the program to the instrumental music composition, refine its function, and search new avenues for innovative compositional method

Interactive Spaces. Models and Algorithms for Reality-based Music Applications

Reality-based interfaces have the property of linking the user's physical space with the computer digital content, bringing in intuition, plasticity and expressiveness. Moreover, applications designed upon motion and gesture tracking technologies involve a lot of psychological features, like space cognition and implicit knowledge. All these elements are the background of three presented music applications, employing the characteristics of three different interactive spaces: a user centered three dimensional space, a floor bi-dimensional camera space, and a small sensor centered three dimensional space. The basic idea is to deploy the application's spatial properties in order to convey some musical knowledge, allowing the users to act inside the designed space and to learn through it in an enactive way

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

Straddling the intersection

Music technology straddles the intersection between art and science and presents those who choose to work within its sphere with many practical challenges as well as creative possibilities. The paper focuses on four main areas: secondary education, higher education, practice and research and finally collaboration. The paper emphasises the importance of collaboration in tackling the challenges of interdisciplinarity and in influencing future technological developments

A Conceptual Framework for Motion Based Music Applications

Imaginary projections are the core of the framework for motion based music applications presented in this paper. Their design depends on the space covered by the motion tracking device, but also on the musical feature involved in the application. They can be considered a very powerful tool because they allow not only to project in the virtual environment the image of a traditional acoustic instrument, but also to express any spatially defined abstract concept. The system pipeline starts from the musical content and, through a geometrical interpretation, arrives to its projection in the physical space. Three case studies involving different motion tracking devices and different musical concepts will be analyzed. The three examined applications have been programmed and already tested by the authors. They aim respectively at musical expressive interaction (Disembodied Voices), tonal music knowledge (Harmonic Walk) and XX century music composition (Hand Composer)