Jeff,
Algorithmic music composition sounds interesting. Please elaborate when you get a chance. -- SteveHowell
I have been experimenting Tim Thompson's Key Kit, that uses a Python like programming language and a clever graphical user interface. It can be used to generate music from an algorithm in code and a seed value, or it can be used interactively with a keyboard input and graphically programming.
Try the Tune Toys at Tim's web site to generate some midi sequences over the web or register to download Key Kit and experiment with it.
http://nosuch.com/tjt/index.html
Apparently parts of Key Kit were developed for AT&T and therefore the license for Key Kit excludes using it for profit. I would like to build the midi sequence manipulation functionality of Key Kit in Python.
I think that algorithmic music has potential for video games to generate new sequences based on a theme and the current actions instead of the repetitive passages used in current games.
I had been interested in computers and music for a long time, but it was David Cope's Experiments in Musical Intelligence that got me started. Cope's work is mostly in the analysis of classical music to identify the patterns and structures of composition and then attempt to create a new composition from those patterns and structures. All of his computing work is in Lisp.
http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/home
I have been reading [GoedelEscherBach] since Christmas, and that has gotten me more interested in musical structure. Jeff, how portable is your music setup? Is any of this stuff that you could show at Monday's meeting? -- SteveHowell