Evolving Musical Counterpoint: The Chronopoint Musical Evolution System
This addresses the problem of generating harmonious counterpoint for musicians and composers, but it is incremental as it builds on existing evolutionary computation methods for music generation.
The paper tackled computational generation of aesthetically pleasing musical counterpoint using a genetic algorithm, resulting in an approach that incorporates subjective fitness measures and variable-length chromosomes to avoid jerky rhythms, with empirical testing showing how user musical sophistication affects experience.
Musical counterpoint, a musical technique in which two or more independent melodies are played simultaneously with the goal of creating harmony, has been around since the baroque era. However, to our knowledge computational generation of aesthetically pleasing linear counterpoint based on subjective fitness assessment has not been explored by the evolutionary computation community (although generation using objective fitness has been attempted in quite a few cases). The independence of contrapuntal melodies and the subjective nature of musical aesthetics provide an excellent platform for the application of genetic algorithms. In this paper, a genetic algorithm approach to generating contrapuntal melodies is explained, with a description of the various musical heuristics used and of how variable-length chromosome strings are used to avoid generating "jerky" rhythms and melodic phrases, as well as how subjectivity is incorporated into the algorithm's fitness measures. Next, results from empirical testing of the algorithm are presented, with a focus on how a user's musical sophistication influences their experience. Lastly, further musical and compositional applications of the algorithm are discussed along with planned future work on the algorithm.