vii Conventions Used in This Thesis ix Part I. Establishing the Problem & Its Context 1 1. The Exegetical Problem of Conceptual Music 3 2. Conceptual Art and Materiality 56 3. “Conceptual Music” – A Review of Prior Usage 72 Part II. Methodology: Developing an Interpretive Model 93 4. A Preliminary Model of Musical Meaning 95 5. Developing an Interpretive Model – I. A Process Perspective 107 6. Developing an Interpretive Model – II. A Discourse Perspective 131 7. Developing an Interpretive Model – III. A Systems Perspective 165 8. A Consolidated Model for the Exegesis of Conceptual Music 189 Part III. Interpreting Works of Conceptual Music 203 9. Mode of Identifying – Identity as Concept 205 10. Mode of Signifying – Signs as Concept 251 11. Mode of Crafting – Technē as Concept 277 12. Mode of Referring – “Other(s) of a Work” as Concept 305 13. Mode of Worldmaking – World of Work(s) as Concept 349 14. Exegesis of Portfolio of Original Works 393 Part IV. Conclusions & Directions for Further Research 455 15. Conclusions & Directions for Further Research 457

An interpretive model for conceptual music

Digital advances have transformed the face of automatic music generation since its beginnings at the dawn of computing. Despite the many breakthroughs, issues such as the musical tasks targeted by different machines and the degree to which they succeed remain open questions. We present a functional taxonomy for music generation systems with reference to existing systems. The taxonomy organizes systems according to the purposes for which they were designed. It also reveals the inter-relatedness amongst the systems. This design-centered approach contrasts with predominant methods-based surveys and facilitates the identification of grand challenges to set the stage for new breakthroughs.

A Functional Taxonomy of Music Generation Systems

Automatic music generation systems have gained in popularity and sophistication as advances in cloud computing have enabled large-scale complex computations such as deep models and optimization algorithms on personal devices. Yet, they still face an important challenge, that of long-term structure, which is key to conveying a sense of musical coherence. We present the MorpheuS music generation system designed to tackle this problem. MorpheuS’ novel framework has the ability to generate polyphonic pieces with a given tension profile and long- and short-term repeated pattern structures. A mathematical model for tonal tension quantifies the tension profile and state-of-the-art pattern detection algorithms extract repeated patterns in a template piece. An efficient optimization metaheuristic, variable neighborhood search, generates music by assigning pitches that best fit the prescribed tension profile to the template rhythm while hard constraining long-term structure through the detected patterns. This ability to generate affective music with specific tension profile and long-term structure is particularly useful in a game or film music context. Music generated by the MorpheuS system has been performed live in concerts.

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MorpheuS: Generating Structured Music with Constrained Patterns and Tension

Composing music is an inspired yet challenging task, in that the process involves many considerations such as assigning pitches, determining rhythm, and arranging accompaniment. Algorithmic composition aims to develop algorithms for music composition. Recently, algorithmic composition using artificial intelligence technologies received considerable attention. In particular, computational intelligence is widely used and achieves promising results in the creation of music. This paper attempts to provide a survey on the computational intelligence techniques used in music composition. First, the existing approaches are reviewed in light of the major musical elements considered in composition, to wit, musical form, melody, and accompaniment. Second, the review highlights the components of evolutionary algorithms and neural networks designed for music composition.

Computational Intelligence in Music Composition: A Survey

Automated music composition and generation machine, systems and methods, and architectures that allow anyone, without possessing any knowledge of music theory or practice, or expertise in music or other creative endeavors, to instantly create unique and professional-quality music, synchronized to any kind of media content, including, but not limited to, video, photography, slideshows, and any pre-existing audio format, as well as any object, entity, and/or event, wherein the system user only requires knowledge of ones own emotions and/or artistic concepts which are to be expressed in a piece of music that will ultimately composed by the automated composition and generation system of the present invention.

Machines, systems, processes for automated music composition and generation employing linguistic and/or graphical icon based musical experience descriptions

The close relationship between music and other art forms is a well-established feature of fin-de-siecle Vienna. Interdisciplinary study since the 1970s, of the relationship between literature and music, reflects among other things a recovery of nineteenth-century concerns. This article equates Mahler's development of symphonic form with a development of narrative form within his works, by linking three phases of his symphonic output with his literary interests. The first phase links the early symphonies with the early nineteenth-century author Jean Paul. His novel Titan provides the subtitle of Mahler's First Symphony, and correspondences can be discerned between the character of Albano, the hero of the novel, and Mahler at this stage of his career (1888). The opening of the Finale of the symphony shows narratological similarity to the opening of the final volume of the novel. The second phase links the middle-period instrumental symphonies with Dostoevsky, who became Mahler's greatest literary and moral hero. The Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies exhibit narrative structures different from those of the earlier symphonies; rather than ending with indivdualistic triumph, after the manner of Jean Paul, they pose the Dostoevskian question of whether some sort of redemption of their material is possible. The third phase links the late works with Mahler's contemporaries Robert Musil and Marcel Proust. In this context, the ending of Mahler's Ninth Symphony can be seen as a adaptation of musical narrativity analogous to the Modernist extension of the lengthy novels of these two authors.

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Narrative Form and Mahler's Musical Thinking

The terms of structuralist and post-structuralist theory have been widely debated within the field of music analysis in recent years. However, very few analyses have attempted to address the repertoire of large orchestral works of the turn of the century - works which seem most obviously to escape the categories of conventional analysis. This study uses a semiotic theory of signification in order to investigate different types of musical communication. Musical meaning is defined on several levels from structures immanent to the work, through questions of tradition and genre, to consideration of the symphony as a narrative alongside other contemporary non-musical texts. Ideas from Eco, Barthes, and Derrida are deployed within the context of close analysis of the score in order to unite specifically analytical insights with cultural hermeneutics.

Mahler's Sixth symphony : a study in musical semiotics

Current game music systems typically involve the playback of prerecorded audio tracks which are crossfaded in response to game events such as level changes. However, crossfading can limit the expressive power of musical transitions, and can make fine grained structural variations difficult to achieve. We therefore describe an alternative approach in which music is algorithmically generated based on a set of high-level musical features that can be controlled in real-time according to a player’s progression through a game narrative. We outline an implementation of the approach in an actual game, focusing primarily on how the music system traces the game’s emotional narrative by periodically querying certain narrative parameters and adjusting the musical features of its output accordingly.

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Algorithmic music as intelligent game music

Despite an emerging interest in the application of dynamic computer music systems to computer games, currently there are no commonly accepted approaches to empirically evaluating game music systems. In this paper we pose four questions that researchers could assess in order to evaluate different aspects of a game music system. They focus on the music's effect on the game playing experience (whether the music leads to a more enjoyable experience, and whether it affects the player in the intended way during the game), and how the music itself is perceived (whether it reaches a certain aesthetic standard, and whether it accurately conveys the intended narrative). We examine each of these questions in turn, for each one establishing a theoretical background as well as reviewing and comparing relevant research methodologies in order to show how it could be addressed in practice.

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Methodological approaches to the evaluation of game music systems

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Robert Samuels

Papers

Narrative Form and Mahler's Musical Thinking

Mahler's Sixth symphony : a study in musical semiotics

Algorithmic music as intelligent game music

Methodological approaches to the evaluation of game music systems

Literature and Music: Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching at The Open University