Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Transformation Engine, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

The Transformation Engine is a software music composition system for the Macintosh computer, based on a hierarchical model of musical structure derived from the theories of Heinrich Schenker. It implements processes of musical transformation in real time, i.e. Schenkerian prolongations (“composing-out”) can be executed while the user listens to a high performance MIDI rendering of the music. The Transformation Engine also employs technical devices derived from the musical theories of Joseph Schillinger. The software has been used for algorithmic composition using planetary position data and chaotic processes as drivers for musical transformations. It also has applications to traditional forms of …

Evolution Of Musical Organisms, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

The development of software for musical applications has led to a proliferation of elaborate control paradigms with extremely large parameter spaces. These spaces can be daunting to explore interactively because of their vastness. Furthermore, parameters often interact in ways not made explicit by the control panel, effectively increasing the complexity of the space even further. Application of genetic algorithms (GAs) can be used to search through these vast spaces in a highly efficient manner. Coordinated control of interacting parameters is handled automatically by this system. Even for control paradigms that are well understood, the genetic algorithm can efficiently search out …

A Computer-Based Editor For Lerdahl And Jackendoff's Rhythmic Structures, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

In “A Generative Theory of Tonal Music”, Lerdahl and Jackendoff discuss two forms of rhythmic structure which they call metrical structure and grouping structure. Together these constitute a basis for an analytical understanding of rhythmic structure in music. This article is about a software based editor which allows the interactive exploration of these two types of hierarchical rhythmic structures.

Towards A Chaotic Musical Instrument, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

The goal of this project is to produce a software musical instrument using chaotic processes as a sound synthesis method. Real-time control through MIDI note messages and continuous controllers is required. Early results are described, along with suggestions for continuing work.

New Software Composition Tools, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

This paper briefly discusses a number of software tools developed at the author's studio through the course of research work into algorithmic composition. Most of the tools developed are directly related to recursive techniques; some, however, arise from more general techniques of algorithmic composition first described by Joseph Schillinger.

Examples of recursive techniques include:
• META-FRACTALS - separating musical content from recursive structure
• the Lorenz attractor and Koch snowflake as musical generators
• Iterated Function Systems as musical generator
• dynamic values in the logistic equation and the Mandelbrot set.

Non-recursive tools include:
• the Intelligent Interval Tool - …

The Development Of Context Sensitivity In The Midiforth Computer Music System, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

This paper reports on the development in the MIDIFORTH computer music system of context-sensitive editing features, such as the ability to highlight MIDI events based on their position within a melodic or rhythmic pattern, and on pitch or other relationships to surrounding events. The software mechanism that implements this is discussed, and some examples of the musical desirability of such features are presented.

The Schillinger System Of Musical Composition And Contemporary Computer Music, Bruno Degazio

Publications and Scholarship

The author will describe the results of a research project involving the investigation of Joseph Schillinger's theories of rhythm and tonality as they relate to contemporary areas of algorithmic composition such as fractal music. In particular, the author will describe his work in the following areas:

a) the use of Schillinger's fundamental technique of interference

b) the relationship of Schillinger's notion of geometrical projection to techniques of fractal musical composition.

c) the application of fractal processes to Schillinger's emotional and semantic(connotational) schemes (i.e., the psychological dial).