Algorithmic composition

[jgreen]

Hi, fellow composers and beginners alike!

I'm looking for:
* a step-by-step guide i can follow to produce a generic piece of music
* a set of algorithms and rules for writing melody, accompaniment and harmony
* a mathematical model of what sounds good and what doesnt
* a flowchart
* a diagramm
* a pragmatic approach
Ideally it would be a book/article/URL or your recomendations on the subject.

An important point is - it has to be clear, concise and pragmatic - no magic.

The current state: I don't know how to compose music. I don't even know where to start. I dont want to randomly press keys on the piano hoping to pick out a good sounding tune. I have played piano for about a year. I'm 22 years old with no previous musical expierence.

The goal: Primary objective is being able to compose a generic piece of music and understand how it works, each note has distinct function and meaning, i know why it's there and what is it's purpose. I am also aware of alternative paths i could have taken at any point in the piece.

[jabbz]

Music Theory, Music theory, music Theory, music theory. That's all you need to do; learn it.

[jgreen]

Could you please recommend some in-depth books/articles/resources about music theory?

[ted]

The trouble with the idea is that a really good piece of music, art or literature, by its nature, is never generic, but brilliantly particular and special; that is precisely what makes it art and not merely an interesting object like many others. I have found this out by writing algorithms to produce both abstract art and music. If a hundred results are obtained, invariably one or two will perhaps possess a touch of something special and the rest will not. Moreover, this special something is a complete epiphenomenon and not an obvious consequence of the rules.

This situation is closer to oxymoron than to paradox and very difficult to explain. I suggest you experiment by writing your own rules into code and see how things turn out. You do not need theory to do this, just an acute ear and an eye for patterns in the music of whatever style you wish to implement. Despite the above limitation, it is still a good way to teach yourself a great deal about music.

David Cope's methods are worth a look, but it is more fun to devise your own.

[jabbz]

The AB Guide to Music Theory does the job, but you really need to go through the grade books to get the full advantage of them. Actually, Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony is pretty good, along with the rest of his books.

[jgallag]

In-depth books? Tonal Harmony (with workbook, but don't use the chapter on binary form, my professors say it sucks pretty badly. I haven't bothered with it).

There has been an idea this century that you can reach good music by formula. It seems a roundabout and useless way to get there, to me. You're asking for a lot. Unless you're deaf, I'm assuming you have an idea of what sounds good to you and what doesn't. Play some melodies. If it sounds good, write it down. If it doesn't, heck with it. Add some accompaniments to your melodies. If you like them, write it down, if not, chuck it. You have an ear, and it can do a whole lot better than your calculator, I promise. I started writing music back in eighth grade. Yeah, it sounded like crap, and I'm sure I could revamp them after finishing basic music theory courses (up through post-tonal harmonies and binary form) at the undergrad level. But I think I wrote some pretty damn good stuff before going to college. The book I mentioned, though, will tell you what you want to know: why each note is there, what is it doing, and what are your other options. However, it will cost a pretty penny, but you might be able to get it used off amazon.

As for immediate things you can do for your current state: Learn all of your scales. Learn the I, ii, IV, V, and VI chords for each key, and their inversions. Finally, any good composer studies the works of other composers, so get some scores and start really looking at them to see what the composers do.

[algorithmiccomposer]

It depends what sort of music you want to compose. If you're interested in algorithmic composition there are a series of tutorials here:

www.algorithmiccomposer.com

[dcstudio]

Hi, fellow composers and beginners alike!

I'm looking for:
* a step-by-step guide i can follow to produce a generic piece of music
* a set of algorithms and rules for writing melody, accompaniment and harmony
* a mathematical model of what sounds good and what doesnt
* a flowchart
* a diagramm
* a pragmatic approach
Ideally it would be a book/article/URL or your recomendations on the subject.

An important point is - it has to be clear, concise and pragmatic - no magic.

The current state: I don't know how to compose music. I don't even know where to start. I dont want to randomly press keys on the piano hoping to pick out a good sounding tune. I have played piano for about a year. I'm 22 years old with no previous musical expierence.

The goal: Primary objective is being able to compose a generic piece of music and understand how it works, each note has distinct function and meaning, i know why it's there and what is it's purpose. I am also aware of alternative paths i could have taken at any point in the piece.

What is this "alternative path" you wish to take?  why do you aspire to write music that is "generic" and without "magic?"  Why do you look for a precise formula for something that involves emotion to be complete?   Are you an engineer? or a composer?