Algorithms and Piano Composition

Algorithmic music composition

Algorithmic music is not really new; it’s been around at least since the serialism of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg. In its simplest definition, algorithmic music composition is the application of standardized, well-defined algorithms to the process of composing music. We think algorithmic music composition won’t have truly succeeded until it can produce esthetically-pleasing music.

See, this is where Schoenberg and his followers went astray; they put all the emphasis on form, and very little on content. I’ve listened to virtually all of Schoenberg’s music. I admire him tremendously as a great mathematical and geometrical composer; his creativity and inventiveness are unparalleled. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, the same basic complaint leveled against him still rings true: “But does it sound good?”

To Schoenberg’s defense, there is one composition of his that is totally atonally, yet finally achieves a richly sonorous quality: his Variations for Orchestra, Opus. 31 work.

A lot more research is going on in algorithmic music composition than you might expect. At the New Fine Arts Lab, we’re not afraid to explore to connections between, say, set theory and music composition