Andrew R. Brown

Changing musical emotion: A computational rule system for modifying score and performance

When communicating emotion in music, composers and performers encode their expressive intentions through the control of basic musical features such as: pitch, loudness, timbre, mode, and articulation. The extent to which emotion can be controlled through the systematic manipulation of these features has not been fully examined. In this paper we present CMERS, a Computational Music Emotion Rule System for the control of perceived musical emotion that modifies features at the levels of score and performance in real-time. CMERS performance was evaluated in two rounds of perceptual testing. In experiment I, 20 participants continuously rated the perceived emotion of 15 music samples generated by CMERS. Three music works, each with five emotional variations were used (normal, happy, sad, angry, and tender). The intended emotion by CMERS was correctly identified 78% of the time, with significant shifts in valence and arousal also recorded, regardless of the works’ original emotion.

Controlling musical emotionality: an affective computational architecture for influencing musical emotions

Abstract Emotions are a key part of creative endeavours, and a core problem for computational models of creativity. In this paper we discuss an affective computing architecture for the dynamic modification of music with a view to predictablyaffectinginducedmusicalemotions. Extending previous work on the modification of perceived emotions in music, our system architecture aims to provide reliable control of both perceived and induced musical emotions: its emotionality. A rule-based system is used to modify a subset of musical features at two processing levels, namely score and performance. The interactive model leverages sensed listener affect by adapting the emotionality of the music modifications in real-time to assist the listener in reaching a desired emotional state.

Interacting with generative music through live coding

All music performances are generative to the extent that the actions of performers produce musical sounds, but in this article the authors focus on performative interaction with generative music in a more compositional sense. In particular they discuss how live coding of music involves the building and management of generative processes. They suggest that the human interaction with generative processes that occurs in live coding provides a unique perspective on the generative music landscape. Especially significant is the way in which generative algorithms are represented in code to best afford interaction and modification during performance. They also discuss the features of generative processes that make them more or less suitable for live coding performances. They situate live coding practice within historical and theoretical contexts and ground the discussion with regular reference to their experiences performing in the live coding duo aa-cell.

Exploring rhythmic automata

Abstract. The use of Cellular Automata (CA) for musical purposes has a rich history. In general the mapping of CA states to note-level music representations has focused on pitch mapping and downplayed rhythm. This paper reports experiments in the application of one-dimensional cellular automata to the generation and evolution of rhythmic patterns. A selection of CA tendencies are identified that can be used as compositional tools to control the rhythmic coherence of monophonic passages and the polyphonic texture of musical works in broad-brush, rather than precisely deterministic, ways. This will provide the composer and researcher with a clearer understanding of the useful application of CAs for generative music.

Digital technologies and musical participation for people with intellectual disabilities

Research on the aspirations of people with intellectual disabilities documents the importance of alternative zones of inclusion where they can assert their own definitions of ability and normality. This stands in contrast to assumptions concerning technology and disability that position technology as ‘normalizing’ the disabled body. This paper reports on the role of a digital music jamming tool in providing access to creative practice by people with intellectual disabilities. The tool contributed to the development of a spatio-temporal zone to enable aesthetic agency within and beyond the contexts of deinstitutionalized care. The research identifies the interactions between tools, individuals and groups that facilitated participants’ agency in shaping the form of musical practice. Furthermore, we document the properties of emergent interaction − supported by a tool oriented to enabling music improvisation − as potentially resisting assumptions regarding normalization.

Evolving interactions: agile design for networked media performance

Network Jamming systems provide real-time collaborative performance experiences for novice or inexperienced users. In this paper we will outline the interaction design considerations that have emerged during evolutionary development cycles of the jam2jam Network Jamming software. In particular we have used agile software design as a research method exploring the co-evolution of features and usability. Several significant iterations of the jam2jam software are presented as case studies and we outline the how core experiences and meaningful engagement has been maintained whilst enhancing user experience and skill develop opportunities. We outline design considerations that support engagement of young people around digital media performance especially in the areas of community arts and education.

Music, media and making : humanising digital media in music education

This paper examines three functions of music technology in the study of music. Firstly as a tool, secondly as an instrument and lastly as a medium for thinking. As our societies become increasingly embroiled in digital media for representation and communication, our philosophies of music education need to adapt to integrate these developments while maintaining the essence of music. The foundation of music technology in the 1990s is the digital representation of sound. It is this fundamental shift to a new medium with which to represent sound that carries with it the challenge to address digital technology and its multiple effects on music creation and presentation. In this paper I suggest that music institutions should take a broad and integrated approach to the place of music technology in their courses, based on the understanding of digital representation of sound and these three functions it can serve. Educators should reconsider digital technologies such as synthesizers and computers as music instruments and cognitive amplifiers, not simply as efficient tools.

Techniques for generative melodies inspired by music cognition

This article presents a series of algorithmic techniques for melody generation, inspired by models of music cognition. The techniques are designed for interactive composition, and so privilege brevity, simplicity, and flexibility over fidelity to the underlying models. The cognitive models canvassed span gestalt, preference rule, and statistical learning perspectives; this is a diverse collection with a common thread—the centrality of “expectations” to music cognition. We operationalize some recurrent themes across this collection as probabilistic descriptions of melodic tendency, codifying them as stochastic melody-generation techniques. The techniques are combined into a concise melody generator, with salient parameters exposed for ready manipulation in real time. These techniques may be especially relevant to algorithmic composers, the live-coding community, and to music psychologists and theorists interested in how computational interpretations of cognitive models “sound” in practice.

Factors affecting audience perceptions of agency in human computer musical partnerships

What design factors contribute to an illusion of agency in a computational system? Our previous research [1, 2] has investigated this question in the context of creative human-machine musical partnerships, where we identified musical behaviours implying machine agency from the perspective of a human performer. This paper investigates an audience perspective: what factors contribute to an impression of machine agency for in a musical performance? Audience feedback data was collected during a concert with four performances, each comprising a human musician interacting with a computer music system. Three performances utilized a computational agent, CIM [1], designed for this research. The fourth performance utilized an array of effect pedals designed in an extended instrument paradigm [3]. The audience feedback questionnaire queried whether a sense of machine agency was imparted, and to what degree visual, spatial, timbral and musical factors contributed to this impression. The results showed our CIM system succeeded in imparting a sense of agency, and that all four of the suggested factors contributed to that impression.

Generative Music Editorial

An issue on generative music in Contemporary Music Review allows space to explore many of these controversies, and to explore the rich algorithmic scene in contemporary practice, as well as the diverse origins and manifestations of such a culture. A roster of interesting exponents from both academic and arts practice backgrounds are involved, matching the broad spectrum of current work. Contributed articles range from generative algorithms in live systems, from live coding to interactive music systems to computer games, through algorithmic modelling of longer-term form, evolutionary algorithms, to interfaces between modalities and mediums, in algorithmic choreography. A retrospective on the intensive experimentation into algorithmic music and sound synthesis at the Institute of Sonology in the 1960s and 70s creates a complementary strand, as well as an open paper on the issues raised by open source, as opposed to proprietary, software and operating systems, with consequences in the creation and archiving of algorithmic work.