Algorithmic composition

Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.

Description

Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpoint, for example, can often be reduced to algorithmic determinacy.

The term is usually reserved, however, for the use of formal procedures to make music without human intervention, either through the introduction of chance procedures or the use of computers.

Some algorithms or data that have no immediate musical relevance are used by composers as creative inspiration for their music.

Algorithms

Algorithms used as source material include:

• Fractals
• L-systems
• Statistical models
• Arbitrary data
  • Census figures
  • GIS coordinates
  • Magnetic field measurements

See also

• Algorithm
• Music