Applying Quantum Hardware to non-Scientific Problems: Grover's Algorithm and Rule-based Algorithmic Music Composition
This work addresses the incremental application of quantum speed-ups to creative arts like music composition, targeting researchers and artists interested in quantum computing.
The paper tackled the problem of applying quantum computing to non-scientific domains by using Grover's algorithm for rule-based algorithmic music composition, resulting in the development of qgMuse, a scalable system demonstrated with example melodies on ibmqx4 quantum hardware.
Of all novel computing methods, quantum computation (QC) is currently the most likely to move from the realm of the unconventional into the conventional. As a result some initial work has been done on applications of QC outside of science: for example music. The small amount of arts research done in hardware or with actual physical systems has not utilized any of the advantages of quantum computation (QC): the main advantage being the potential speed increase of quantum algorithms. This paper introduces a way of utilizing Grover's algorithm - which has been shown to provide a quadratic speed-up over its classical equivalent - in algorithmic rule-based music composition. The system introduced - qgMuse - is simple but scalable. Example melodies are composed using qgMuse using the ibmqx4 quantum hardware. The paper concludes with discussion on how such an approach can grow with the improvement of quantum computer hardware and software.