Computer Aided Musical Composition

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Computer Aided Composition (CAC) is not "Computer Music". What the Word Processor is to the writer, CAC is to the composer.

scale:micro
process-time:non-real-time
idiom-affinity:plural
extensibility:open
event production:generative
sound source:all
user environment:textual language

CAC Systems

The paper Navigating the Landscape of Computer Aided Algorithmic Composition Systems, by Christopher Ariza, is an excellent resource and describes how to filter within the algorithmic.net website based on seven system descriptors. The system filters I used to validate my decision to use Common Music were:

Syllabus

           

  1. ANSI Common Lisp, by Paul Graham
  2. Notes from the Metalevel, by Heinrich Taube
  3. Common Music Dictionary
  4. FOMUS Documentation
  5. Lilypond User Manual
  6. Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp, by Sonya E. Keene
  7. On Lisp, by Paul Graham

About Common Music

Common Music was written by Heinrich Taube beginning in 1989 while at CCRMA and later at Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe. Common Music is a composition language written on top of the Lisp programming language.

The Common Music email list is a good place for current information.

Taube, Heinrich. 1991. Common Music: A Music Composition Language in Common Lisp and CLOS. Computer Music Journal 15 (2):21-32.

Taube, Heinrich. 1993. Stella: Persistent Score Representation and Score Editing in Common Music. Computer Music Journal 17 (4):38-50.

Taube, Heinrich. 1994. Controlling parameterized compositional data in stella and common music. Contemporary Music Review 10 (2):191-199.

Taube, Heinrich. 1995. An Object-Oriented Representation for Musical Pattern Definition. Journal of New Music Research 24(2):121-129.

Taube, Heinrich. 1997. An Introduction to Common Music. Computer Music Journal 21 (1):29-34.

Books on Common Music

Notes from the Metalevel: An Introduction to Computer Composition, by Heinrich Taube, (CMJ Review)was published in 2004 and is available in the following formats:

Another book on Common Music is available online, Algorithmic composition: a gentle introduction to music composition using common LISP and common music, by Mary Simoni. Simoni gives acknowledgment to the Lisp book Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation, by David S. Touretzky, also available online.

Rick Taube gave an Introduction to Algorithmic Composition with Free Software Workshop at ICMC'07 International Computer Music Conference of the International Computer Music Association. The workshop materials are available.

Current Class notes

Learning Lisp

For those completely new to computer programming, try Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.

Basic Lisp Techniques, by David J. Coooper, Jr. (March 19, 2003)

Tutorial on Good Lisp Programming Style, by Peter Norvig and Ken Pitman, (1993) in ps or pdf format.

After you've learned the basics of Lisp, an excellent advanced book is On Lisp, by Paul Graham.

Other Books of Interest

The Processing language is designed for visualizing data and is very analogous to the mapping of data in Common Music (see chapters 16 and 17 in Notes from the Metalevel). The O'Reilly book Visualizing Data, by Ben Fry, is a good place to start learning about this language.

Edward Tufte has a couple of relevant discussions on his website, though I believe most of his work is relevant anyway. See Sonification/audification of Data and Display of musical structure.