Algorithmic Composition: A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist

264 Pages·2013·1.53 MB·English

by  Roger B Dannenberg

Algorithmic Composition
A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist

Algorithmic Composition
A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist

A lgorithmic Composition

A Guide to Composing Music with Nyquist

Mary Simoni and Roger B. Dannenberg

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Mary Simoni and Roger B. Dannenberg

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

the university of michigan press
Ann Arbor
Copyright © 2008, 22001132 by Mary Simoni and Roger B. Dannenberg
All rights reserved

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
〇∞ Printed on acid-free paper

22001165 22001154 22001143 22001132 4 3 4 2 3 1 2 1

ISBN 978-0-472-11868-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-472-03523-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-472-02905-1 (e-book)

The authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book. These efforts
include the development of software. The authors make no warranty of any
kind, expressed or implied, with regard to the software included or refer-
enced in this book.

About the cover: Inspired by Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage (see Chapter
12), in which musical staves were superimposed over a star chart, this design
by Roger B. Dannenberg includes a NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
image of the center of globular cluster M15 (15th object in the Messier
Catalog), located 30,000 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The
star image is by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and available
at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1993/13/image/a.
Dedicated to

Kevin, Shannon and Sarah

Frances and Richard

Contents
Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1
  Introduction 1

1.1 SAL 1
1.2 Lisp 2
1.3
  Nyquist 2

1.4
  The Nyquist Integrated Development Environment 3

1.5
  Algorithmic Composition 4

1.6
  Additional References 5

Chapter 2
  The History and Philosophy of Algorithmic Composition 6

2.1 The Process of Algorithmic Composition 6
2.2 A Brief History of Algorithmic Processes Applied to Music

  Composition 7

2.3
  Aesthetics of Algorithmic Composition 14
2.4 Suggested Listening 15

Chapter 3
  Introduction to SAL 16

3.1 Data 16
3.2 Running Nyquist 18
3.3
  SAL Expressions 19

3.4
  Functions 21

3.5
  Predicates 29

3.6
  User-Defined Functions 36

3.7
  Getting Help 38

3.8
  Programming Errors 38

3.9
  Error Messages 38

3.10
  Stack Traces 40

3.11
  Printing 42
Chapter 4
  Programming and Nyquist 43

4.1 Getting Started 43
4.2 Nyquist Instruments 46
4.3
  Nyquist Scores 48

4.4
  Variables 51

4.5
  Score Processing 52

Chapter 5
  Introduction to Algorithmic Composition 61

5.1 Getting Started 61
5.2 Pitch and Rhythm Notation 64
5.3
  Pattern Objects and Item Streams 64

5.4
  A Complete Example 68

5.5
  Suggested Listening 73

Chapter 6
  Printing, Reading, and Debugging 74

6.1 print Command 74
6.2 format Command 74
6.3
  display Command 76

6.4
  Debugging with #display and #print 77

6.5
  Tracing Pattern Evaluation 78

6.6
  Reading Data from the Computer Keyboard 80

Chapter 7
  Variable Assignment and Scoping 82

7.1 set Command 82
7.2 begin, end, and with 84
7.3
  score-gen and Local Variables 86

7.4
  Combining with and score-gen 87

7.5
  Understanding Variable Scope in SAL 90

7.6
  Increment, Decrement, and Other Operators 93

7.7
  Assigning Local Variables Interactively 95

7.8
  Suggested Listening 97

Chapter 8
  Conditionals 99

8.1 if Command 99
8.2 #? Special Form 101
8.3
  Using if with begin-end 102

8.4
  Using Conditionals in Algorithmic Composition 102

8.5
  Conditionals vs. Formulas 105

8.6
  Suggested Listening 107

viii Contents
Chapter 9
  Sets and Tables 108

9.1 Introduction to Set Theory 108
9.2 List and Set Operations 111
9.3
  Tables 117

9.4
  Arrays 123

9.5
  Suggested Listening 123

Chapter 10
  Functional Programming 125

10.1 Introduction to Functional Programming 125
10.2 Mapping a Function over a List 125
10.3
 Using the score-apply Function 128

Chapter 11
  Recursion 132

11.1 Introduction to Recursion 132
11.2 Single-Test Tail Recursion 132
11.3
 List-Cons’ing Recursion 134

11.4
 Conditional Augmenting Tail Recursion 136

11.5
 Double-Test Tail Recursion 139

11.6
 Multiple Recursion 141

11.7
 Tracing Function Evaluation 143

11.8
 SAL Is Recursive 144

11.9
 Using Recursive Forms in Nyquist 145

11.10
  Suggested Listening 147

Chapter 12
  Iteration 148

12.1 The loop Command with a for-below Clause 148
12.2 The Full Story of for-below 151
12.3
 Iterating over the Elements of a List 151

12.4
 Using return in a loop 153

12.5
 The for-then Clause 154

12.6
 Loops with while and until 155

12.7
 Reading and Writing Records Using Iteration 157

12.8
 score-gen as Iteration 161

12.9
 Suggested Listening 162

Contents ix