Thursday, 02 May 2019
fractal music
- Fractal Music – Links to fractal music sites, as well as free fractal music generation applets and related information.
- Fractal Music Lab – Tools and information on exploring and advancing the musical use of fractals. With sound samples, software, and articles on fractals and composition.
- The Music of José Oscar Marques – Fractal compositions in general MIDI file format.
- Chaos and Fractals: A Short Trip in Fractional Dimensions – Addresses the chaotic behavior of different attractors and their mathematical expressions. Includes plots, images and program source codes.
- Chaos, Fractals, and Arcadia – Article on the mathematical ideas lurking in the background of Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia. Includes examples, illustrations and references.
- Chaos Theory and Fractals – Glossary and terms directory. Includes mathematical formulations and illustrations of the most common sets.
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.
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. There is a radical distinction (both in terms of philosophy and the in the heard result) between composers who use indeterminate (e.g. stochastic) procedures to compose music and those who use routines which produce deterministic results given a fixed input into the algorithm.
Many algorithms that have no immediate musical relevance are used by composers as creative inspiration for their music. Algorithms such as fractals, L-systems, statistical models, and even arbitrary data (e.g. census figures, GIS coordinates, or magnetic field measurements) are fair game for musical interpretation. The success or failure of these procedures as sources of «good» music largely depends on the mapping system employed by the composer to translate the non-musical information into a musical data stream.
Composers known for their use of algorithmic procedures in fractal music:
John Cage
Charles Dodge
Brian Eno
Sean Booth and Rob Brown
Karlheinz Essl
Lejaren Hiller
Gottfried Michael Koenig
Paul Lansky
Eduardo Reck Miranda
Iannis Xenakis
Laurie Spiegel
Algorithmic techniques have also been employed in a number of systems intended for direct musical performance, with many using algorithmic techniques to generate infinitely-variable improvisations on a predetermined theme. An early example was Lucasfilm Games’ 1982 computer game Ballblazer, where the computer improvised on a basic jazz theme composed by the game’s musical director. A more advanced implementation of this is present in the music subsystem of Microsoft’s Xbox games console – the game plays variations on a human composer’s theme, but varies its improvisations based on real-time events in the game (so, for example, the music sounds more staccato and dramatic during fight scenes, but is gentler and more mellow afterward). The effect has been seen in many video-games since the Nintendo 64, the first system with a large enough memory and fast enough ROM retrieval methods to make such a change in the flow and sound of the music possible. One of the first to adopt such sound was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where approaching important areas raised the volume and pitch of the sound. Another games of note is Fable on the Xbox for similar uses of sound. Similar systems were also used in games like Command & Conquer: Generals, Splinter Cell and Freedom Fighters.
Similar generative music systems have caught the attention of noted composers. Brian Eno has produced a number of works for the SSEYO’s Koan generative music system, which produces ambient variations for web-pages, mobile devices, and for standalone performance. SSEYO’s miniMIXA software (2005) allows users of mobile devices such as smartphones to create algorithmic music ‘on-the-fly’. The copyright status of these «generative» works is unclear, although the original «composition» is supplied by the composer and the «performance» is largely the result of the user’s computer’s own algorithms. However, MusiGenesis (see external link below), an algorithmic composition program based on Richard Dawkins’ Blind Watchmaker program, makes no ownership claims on music created by the program.
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