Evolutionary Computer Music

Musicians, perhaps more than any other class of artists, have always been acutely aware of the scientific developments of their time. From the discovery almost three thousand years ago of the direct relationship between the pitch of a note and the length of a string or pipe, to the latest computer models of human musical cognition and intelligence, musicians have always looked to science to provide new and challenging ways to study and compose music. With the great scientific advances being made in the field of evolutionary biology, from new insights into the origins of humans and other species to complete mappings of the genes that control our growth and development, a new approach to the study of music is emerging: the evolutionary computation approach. This book features chapters on the interplay between Evolutionary Computation and Music by leading pioneers in the field.

• Audio
• algorithms
• automata
• cognition
• composing
• computer
• computer simulation
• development
• evolution
• evolutionary biology
• evolutionary computation
• genetic algorithms
• neural networks
• performance
• simulation

From the reviews:

"Evolutionary computation currently plays a dual role in the analysis and development of musical compositions and ideas. … help musicologists understand the transformation of musical theory and the adaptation of musical components over time. … This book investigates not only the applications of evolutionary computation to music, but also the components needed to compose musical pieces and the systems that integrate these technologies. … this book is a welcome source of information." (R. Goldberg, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (8), August, 2008)

• Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR), University of Plymouth, UK

  Eduardo Reck Miranda

• Information Technology Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, USA

  John Al Biles

Eduardo Reck Miranda is a Professor in Computer Music at the University of Plymouth, UK, where he heads the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR). He has recently been appointed the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor of Computer Music at the Technical University of Berlin.

Al Biles has been applying evolutionary computation to music since 1993, when he built the first of many versions of GenJam, the Genetic Jammer. Since that time he and GenJam have performed around the world together, and Al has watched the field of evolutionary computer music emerge as a fascinating creative enterprise. Al is Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Information Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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