This dissertation introduces a new design for a computer-aided algorithmic music composition system. Rather than exploring specific algorithms, this study focuses on system and component design. The design introduced here is demonstrated through its implementation in athenaCL, a modular, polyphonic, poly-paradigm algorithmic music composition system in a cross-platform interactive command-line environment. The athenaCL system offers an open-source, object-oriented composition tool written in Python. The system can be scripted and embedded, and includes integrated instrument libraries, post-tonal and microtonal pitch modeling tools, multiple-format graphical outputs, and musical output in Csound, MIDI, audio file, XML, and text formats. Software design analysis is framed within a broad historical and intertextual study of the themes, approaches, and systems of computer-aided algorithmic composition (CAAC). A detailed history of the earliest experiments, as well as analysis of the foundational CAAC systems, is provided. Common problems and interpretations of CAAC are then presented in a historical and intertextual context, drawn from the writings and systems of numerous composers and developers. Toward the goal of developing techniques of comparative software analysis, a survey of system design archetypes, based on seven descriptors of CAAC systems, is presented. With this foundation, athenaCL system components are analyzed in detail. System components are divided into abstractions of musical materials, abstractions of musical procedures, and system architecture. For each component, object models, Python examples, and diagrams are provided. Further, each component is given context in terms of its compositional implications and relation to alternative and related models from the history of CAAC.

How is it possible to take advantage of the processing power of a computer when creating music? This book guides you through the first steps in learning Computer Assisted Composition. The text does not assume any previous experience in Computer Music. It explains how musical ideas can be processed and generated with the help of a computer. You will discover: -How to formalize music so a computer can process it. -The musical effect of computing processes. -Some basic techniques as well as some more advanced concepts. Free software that run on any standard computer makes Computer Assisted Composition more available than ever before. This book gives you the basic knowledge of established techniques for how to use computers in music composition.

While computers have had a major influence on music composition, both through electroacoustic music and computer-assisted composition (CAC), there can remain a divide between those pursuing more traditional writing techniques (intuitive composition done by hand) and those incorporating algorithmic elements in their music. The following is an exploration of some of the ways to produce smoother intersections between the worlds of intuitive writing and computer-assisted composition, through the use of a number of different computer-assisted composition software and practises. These range from situations where the computer provides little more than a gentle nudge or a pool of information from which to draw, to situations where, through the user's input, the computer exerts a high degree of control on the final musical information. Works by Matthew Lane will demonstrate the use of some of these technologies, alongside detailed explanations of how they were incorporated. A first section will look at composition and programming techniques for low integration of CAC, reflecting a more intuitive approach. The works Mutations II, "Waves" and "Run" from Short Pieces on Falling, Never a Moment Lost, and (Let Me Hear) What Maria Hears, amongst others, will serve to demonstrate the efficiency of these techniques. A second section focuses on medium integration of CAC, as demonstrated by the author's modular progression management system. This framework, developed in OpenMusic, helps in the generation of progression passages, and is adaptable and easily modified for different works. This framework will be examined primarily through the works Melodious Viscosity and Like a Square Peg. The third and final section looks at high CAC integration through gesture, using the author's software ScoreScrub. Using this software, the user can effectively "scrub" across existing score samples to produce new musical passages. The primary works analysed will be Gift efter Carl Herman Erlandsson and the orchestral work Världen och jag.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Defining the problem; Printer's typefaces and fonts; Monotype and linecaster mechanical composition; Computer text input keyboards; Word processing; Optical character recognition of text; Technical and scientific book and journal composition; Bookwork correction editing and retrieval; Newspaper and magazine computer systems; Nonscanning text composition photocomposers; The scanned image photocomposer; Perspective and prospect.