Autonomous Music Composition Relying on Evolutionary Formal Grammar

Yaser M.A. Khalifa, Badar K Khan, .Jasmin Begovic, Airrion Wisdom, Andrew M. Wheeler¹

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,  ¹Computer Science Department, State University of New York New Paltz, NY 12561 USA

Abstract:

In this paper, an autonomous music composition tool is developed using Genetic Algorithms. The production is enhanced by integrating formal grammar rules. A formal grammar is a collection of either or both descriptive or prescriptive rules for analyzing or generating sequences of symbols. In music, these symbols are musical parameters such as notes and their attributes. The composition is conducted in two Stages. The first Stage generates and identifies musically sound patterns (motifs). In the second Stage, methods to combine different generated motifs and their transpositions are applied. These combinations are evaluated and as a result, musically fit phrases are generated. Four musical phrases are generated at the end of each program run. The generated music pieces will be translated into Guido Music Notation (GMN) and have alternate representation in Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). The Autonomous Evolutionary Music Composer (AEMC) was able to create interesting pieces of music that were both innovative and musically sound.

Keywords: Music, Formal Grammar, Genetic Algorithms

(Full Paper, 545 KB) Music Samples (sample_1.mid, sam[ple_2.mid)

Biographies:

Yaser M.A. Khalifa received his BSc degree from Alexandria University, Egypt, and his PhD from Cardiff University of Wales, UK, in 1992 and 1997 respectively. He is currently with the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, USA.

Badar Khan, Jasmin Begovic, and Airrion Wisdom are currently computer engineering seniors at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the State University of New York at New Paltz, New York, USA.

Andrew Wheeler received his BS in Computer Science from the Computer Science Department at The State University of New York at New Paltz in 2007. He is currently pursuing his MS degree at the same department.

BibTex:

@ARTICLE{P1120716001,

AUTHOR = {Yaser Khalifa and Badar Khan and Jasmine Begovic and Andrew Wheeler and Airrion Wisdom},

TITLE = {Autonomous Music Composition Relying on Evolutionary Formal Grammar},

JOURNAL =  {ICGST  International Journal on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, AIML},

YEAR = {2007},

VOLUME = {7},

ISSUE ={1},

PAGES={33-39}

}

(Full Paper, 545 KB)