Scribd
Upload
146 views3 pages

Algorithmic Composition (2007)

Algorithmic Composition (2007)

Uploaded by

Joan Bagés Rubí
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
146 views3 pages

Algorithmic Composition (2007)

Algorithmic Composition (2007)

Uploaded by

Joan Bagés Rubí
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Algorithmic Composition (2007) 14/06/10 10:42

Karlheinz Essl

Algorithmic Composition
2007

in: Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, ed. by N. Collins and J. d'Escrivan


Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 107-125. - ISBN-13: 978-0521688659

Content

Abstract

Algorithm

Origin of the name


The Algorithmic Revolution (Peter Weibel)
Goethe's Primordial Plant

History

Music
Hucbald of St Amande: Musica enchiriadis
Johann Sebastian Bach: Verschiedene Canones (BWV 1087)
Kirnberger, Stadler, Haydn, Mozart: Musical Dice Games
Josef Matthias Hauer: Zwölftonspiele

Philosophy
Sefer Yetzirah
Ramon Lull: Ars Magna (1305)

Literature
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer: Fünffacher Denckring der teutschen Sprache (1636)
Oulipo: Georges Perec

Pioneers

Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943)


Lejaren A. Hiller (1924-1994)

Serialism

Anton Webern: Late Dodecaphonic Works


Pierre Boulez: Structures 1a (1951)

Stochastic Music

Iannis Xenakis

http://www.essl.at/bibliogr/algo-comp.html Página 1 de 3
Algorithmic Composition (2007) 14/06/10 10:42

Field composition / Aleatoric Music

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gruppen (1959)


Gottfried Michael Koenig: Streichquartett 1959, Projekt 1

Chance

John Cage

Generative Music

Brian Eno: Music for Airports (1978)


Streaming Web Audio: The Algorithmic Stream, rand()%

Realtime Composition

Institute for Sonology (Utrecht): Variable Function Generator


Max/MSP
Karlheinz Essl: Lexikon-Sonate (1992)
Gerhard Eckel & Ramón González-Arroyo: Raumfaltung (2003)

Conclusion

Abstract

Although Algorithmic composition became popular with the rise of computers, algorithmic
thinking is far older - it can be traced back to the ancient times of Pythagoras and the
Jewish Kabbalah. It is a method of perceiving an abstract model behind the sensual
surface, or in turn, of the construction of such a model in order to create aesthetic works.
Behind the various approaches there is one common denominator: a longing to create
something infinite that exceeds the limited horizon of our individual knowledge. Seen in
this light, algorithmic thinking and its application in the arts can become a way to gain
experience and to overcome barriers that are either implicit in ourselves, or erected by
our social environment.

In this article, I am focussing exclusively on the use of algorithms in the compositional


process. My primary aim is to demonstrate how the algorithmic spirit has evolved through
the centuries - from medieval music theory to the interactive realtime generated
computer music of today.

Due to copyright issues, the entire article must not be published on the Internet according to the
regulations of the Cambridge University Press.

Reviews

Notes

Karlheinz Essl’s examination of algorithmic composition is similarly wide-ranging, though


it stays mainly within the “art” end of the sphere, examining rule-based and semi-
automatic compositional systems from the Musica enchiriadis, via multiple serialism (and

http://www.essl.at/bibliogr/algo-comp.html Página 2 de 3
Algorithmic Composition (2007) 14/06/10 10:42

related trends and developments in the work of Xenakis, Koenig, and Cage) to Brian
Eno’s Music for Airports and the implementation of real-time algorithmic tools with
Max/MSP. His suggestion that some of these real-time tools might be capable of
subverting the common perception that algorithmic composition removes some of the
“artistic” freedom from compositional work is particularly pertinent to the debate and is
also an opinion that would have been more difficult to make without some of the most
recent examples cited by Essl, such as González-Arroyo and Eckel’s Raumfaltung (2003).

Martin Iddon, The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music (review); in: Notes - Volume
65, Number 2, December 2008, pp. 316-319

Computer Music Journal

Karlheinz Essl's "Algorithmic Composition" presents a useful overview of the field linking
pre- computer process musics that involved style rules, serialism, and chance operations
to ongoing real-time experimentation.

Michael Robert Barnhart, The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music (review); in:
Computer Music Journal - Volume 33, Number 3, Fall 2009, pp. 64-65

Home Works Sounds Bibliography Concerts

Updated: 27 Aug 2009

http://www.essl.at/bibliogr/algo-comp.html Página 3 de 3

You might also like