Generative music
Encyclopedia
Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system.

Theory

There are four primary perspectives on "Generative Music" (Wooller, R. et al., 2005) (reproduced with permission):

Linguistic/structural

Music composed from analytic theories that are so explicit as to be able to generate structurally coherent material (Loy and Abbott 1985; Cope 1991). This perspective has its roots in the generative grammar
Generative grammar
In theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of syntax. A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences...

s of language (Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

 1956) and music
Generative theory of tonal music
A Generative Theory of Tonal Music is a system of music analysis written by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff in 1983 that strives to illuminate the unique human capacity for musical understanding.The collaboration between Lerdahl and Jackendoff was inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s 1973 Charles...

 (Lerdahl
Fred Lerdahl
Alfred Whitford Lerdahl is the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University, and a composer and music theorist best known for his work on pitch space and cognitive constraints on compositional systems or "musical grammar[s]." He has written many orchestral and chamber...

 and Jackendoff
Ray Jackendoff
Ray Jackendoff is an American linguist. He is professor of philosophy, Seth Merrin Chair in the Humanities and, with Daniel Dennett, Co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University...

 1983), which generate material with a recursive
Recursive
Recursive may refer to:*Recursion, the technique of functions calling themselves*Recursive function, a total computable function*Recursive language, a language which is decidable...

 tree structure.

Interactive/behavioural

Music generated by a system component that ostensibly has no inputs. That is, "not transformational" (Rowe 1991; Lippe 1997:34; Winkler 1998). The Koan
Koan (program)
Koan is a generative music engine that was created by a company called SSEYO, a company founded by Pete Cole and Tim Cole. It was founded specifically to create and market Koan. The technology is now owned by a company called , which was co-founded by the Cole brothers in 2007.Koan was actually an...

 software by SSEYO – used by Brian Eno to create Generative Music 1 – is an example of this.

Creative/procedural

Music generated by processes that are designed and/or initiated by the composer. Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

's It's Gonna Rain
It's Gonna Rain
It's Gonna Rain is a minimalist musical composition for magnetic tape written by Steve Reich in 1965. It lasts approximately 17 minutes and 50 seconds. It was Reich's first major work and a landmark in minimalism and process music.-Analysis:...

and Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...

's In C
In C
In C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work"...

are examples of this (Eno 1996).

Biological/emergent

Non-deterministic music (Biles 2002), or music that cannot be repeated, for example, ordinary wind chimes (Dorin 2001). This perspective comes from the broader generative art
Generative art
Generative art refers to art that has been generated, composed, or constructed in an algorithmic manner through the use of systems defined by computer software algorithms, or similar mathematical or mechanical or randomised autonomous processes....

 movement. This revolves around the idea that music, or sounds may be "generated" by a musician "farming" parameters within an ecology, such that the ecology will perpetually produce different variation based on the parameters and algorithms used. An example of this technique is Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal
Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses.-Life and work:Joseph Nechvatal was born in Chicago...

's Viral symphOny
Viral symphOny
viral symphOny is a collaborative electronic noise music symphony created by the digital artist Joseph Nechvatal . It was created between the years 2006 and 2008 using custom artificial life C++ software based on the viral phenomenon model. It is 1 hour and 40 minutes in length...

: a collaborative electronic noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...

 symphony created between the years 2006 and 2008 using custom artificial life C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 software based on a viral model.

Software

Many software programs have been written to create generative music, including:
  • IMPROVISOR for AudioCubes IMPROVISOR for AudioCubes
    Audiocubes
    The AudioCubes are a collection of wireless intelligent light emitting objects, capable of detecting each other's location and orientation, and user gestures, and were created by Bert Schiettecatte...

    , used by Mark Mosher and other electronic music composers. IMPROVISOR and AudioCubes
    Audiocubes
    The AudioCubes are a collection of wireless intelligent light emitting objects, capable of detecting each other's location and orientation, and user gestures, and were created by Bert Schiettecatte...

     were created by Bert Schiettecatte
    Bert Schiettecatte
    Bert Schiettecatte is a Belgian entrepreneur who created the Audiocubes.-Biography:Bert Schiettecatte was born in Ghent, Belgium. He has an electronic music production background...

     of Percussa.
  • SSEYO Koan Pro (1994–2007), used by Brian Eno
    Brian Eno
    Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

     to create his hybrid album Generative Music 1. The SSEYO Koan software was created by Pete Cole and Tim Cole of Intermorphic, who re-acquired the Koan technology in 2008.
  • Intermorphic's Noatikl (2007–present). Noatikl is described by Intermorphic as "The Evolution of Koan", and was launched in 2007 as a replacement for the no-longer-available Koan. Noatikl is a Generative Music engine that generates MIDI events in accordance with a rule set that can be manipulated in real-time through a graphical user interface. Noatikl can optionally operate as a Hyperinstrument by responding to incoming MIDI event data, with optional extension through user-supplied Lua scripts. Noatikl is available as a standalone tool for both Mac OS X
    Mac OS X
    Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

     and Windows, and there are VST Plugin and Audio Unit Plugin
    Audio Units
    Audio Units are a system-level plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio in Mac OS X developed by Apple Computer. Audio Units are a set of application programming interface services provided by the operating system to generate, process, receive, or otherwise manipulate streams of audio in...

     variants for desktop music sequencers.
  • Intermorphic's Mixtikl (2004–present), a portable generative music lab and loop mixing system with variants for: iPhone
    IPhone
    The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

     / iPod
    IPod
    iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

     / iPad
    IPad
    The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

    , Mac OS X
    Mac OS X
    Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

    , Windows as well as a web browser Plugin, and VST Plugin and Audio Unit Plugin
    Audio Units
    Audio Units are a system-level plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio in Mac OS X developed by Apple Computer. Audio Units are a set of application programming interface services provided by the operating system to generate, process, receive, or otherwise manipulate streams of audio in...

     for desktop music sequencers (a Windows Mobile
    Windows Mobile
    Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...

     variant is no longer in development). Mixtikl includes an embedded Noatikl generative music engine and Noatikl editor, and the Partikl modular synthesizer system.
  • FractMus, developed by Gustavo Díaz-Jerez
    Gustavo Díaz-Jerez
    Gustavo Díaz-Jerez is a Spanish pianist and composer.-Biography:Gustavo Díaz-Jerez studied piano with J. A. Rodriguez at the Conservatorio Superior of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and subsequently with Solomon Mikowsky at Manhattan School of Music in New York City...

     is a real-time algorithmic music generator.
  • Tune Smithy, developed by Robert Walker, for Windows generates music real time using a musical construction similar to the Koch snowflake fractal.
  • Nodal (2007–present), a graph-based generative composition system for real-time MIDI sequence generation (for Mac OS X
    Mac OS X
    Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

     and Windows)
  • Bubble Harp developed 1997-2011 by Scott Snibbe
    Scott Snibbe
    Scott Snibbe is an interactive media artist, researcher, and entrepreneur. He is one of the first artists to work with projector-based interactivity, where a computer-controlled projection onto a wall or floor changes in response to people moving across its surface, with his well-known full-body...

     for the iPad
    IPad
    The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

    , iPhone
    IPhone
    The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

    , and iPod Touch
    IPod Touch
    The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

    .
  • Bloom
    Bloom (software)
    Bloom is a generative music application for the iPhone OS created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers. The software plays a low drone, and touching the screen produces different tones, which play in a loop. If the screen is left untouched, the software will create its own music.Eno and Chilvers have...

     developed 2008 by Peter Chilvers
    Peter Chilvers (musician)
    Peter Chilvers is a Cambridgeshire-based British musician and composer best known as a collaborator with Brian Eno and Tim Bowness.Chilvers is one of the three co-founders of the Burning Shed online record label, with Tim Bowness and Pete Morgan....

     together with Brian Eno
    Brian Eno
    Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

     for the iPhone
    IPhone
    The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

     and iPod Touch
    IPod Touch
    The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...

    .
  • Karlheinz Essl's sound environments fLOW (1998–2004) and SEELEWASCHEN (2004)
  • Metascore (Sorensen, Brown and Hedemann 2008) supports the generative composition of music to video timing cues.
  • MusiGenesis (2005), a program that for Windows that evolved music.
  • Lauri Gröhn has developed Synestesia software that generates music (midi file) from any photos in a few seconds.
  • Many algorithmic music projects are also considered to be generative (see algorithmic.net for some of them).
  • Modern generative music games such as Rez
    Rez
    Rez, developed under the codename K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, is a rail shooter video game released by Sega in Japan in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, with a European Dreamcast release and United States PlayStation 2 release in 2002...

    have been considered generative in character.
  • Sergio Maltagliati
    Sergio Maltagliati
    Sergio Maltagliati is an Italian Internet-based artist, composer, and visual-digital artist.His first musical experiences with the Gialdino Gialdini Musical Band in in early 70s.-Biography:...

     generative music software http://www.visualmusic.it/visualmusic.htm.
  • Kepler's Orrery, an interactive gravity simulator that generates music, developed in 2007 as an open-source Java project and ported to the iPhone
    IPhone
    The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

     in 2009.

Other Notes

  • Brian Eno
    Brian Eno
    Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

    , who coined the term generative music, has used generative techniques on many of his works, starting with Discreet Music
    Discreet Music
    Discreet Music is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. While No Pussyfooting may be his first ambient album and Another Green World features many ambient pieces, this is Brian Eno’s first purely ambient solo album...

    (1975) up to and including (according to Sound on Sound Oct 2005) his latest album Another Day on Earth. His works, lectures, and interviews on the subject have done much to promote generative music in the avant-garde
    Avant-garde
    Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

     music community. Eno used SSEYO's Koan
    Koan (program)
    Koan is a generative music engine that was created by a company called SSEYO, a company founded by Pete Cole and Tim Cole. It was founded specifically to create and market Koan. The technology is now owned by a company called , which was co-founded by the Cole brothers in 2007.Koan was actually an...

     generative music system (created by Pete Cole and Tim Cole of Intermorphic), to create his hybrid album Generative Music 1 (published by SSEYO and Opal Arts in April 1996), which is probably his first public use of the term "Generative Music".
  • Lerdahl and Jackendoff's publication described a generative grammar for homophonic tonal music, based partially on a Schenkerian
    Schenkerian analysis
    Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...

     model. While originally intended for analysis, significant research into automation of this process in software is being carried out by Keiji Hirata and others.
  • In It's Gonna Rain, an early work by contemporary composer Steve Reich
    Steve Reich
    Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

    , overlapping tape loops of the spoken phrase "it's gonna rain" are played at slightly different speeds, generating different patterns through phasing
    Phasing
    In the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...

    .

See also

  • Computer-generated music
  • Algorithmic composition
    Algorithmic composition
    Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.Algorithms 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...

  • Interactive music
  • Cellular automaton
    Cellular automaton
    A cellular automaton is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, physics, complexity science, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states, such as "On" and "Off"...

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