Algorithmic Music Analysis: a Case Study of a Prelude from David Cope's
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ALGORITHMIC MUSIC ANALYSIS: A C ASE STUDY OF A PRELUDE FROM DAVID COPE’S “FROM DARKNESS, LIGHT” Reiner Krämer, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepar ed for the Degree of DOCTOR OF P HILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2015 APPROVED: David Bard-Schwarz, Major Professor Andrew May, Minor Professor Thomas Sovík, Committee Member Frank Heidlberger, Chair of the Department of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music Costas Tsatsoulis, Interim Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Krämer, Reiner. Algorithmic Music Analysis: A Case Study of a Prelude from David Cope’s “From Darkness, Light.” Doctor of Philosophy (Music Theory), May 2015, 433 pp., 16 tables, 57 figures, 125 examples, bibliography, 278 titles. The use of algorithms in compositional practice has been in use for centuries. With the advent of computers, formalized procedures have become an important part of computer music. David Cope is an American composer that has pioneered systems that make use of artificial intelligence programming techniques. In this dissertation one of David Cope’s compositions that was generated with one of his processes is examined in detail. A general timeline of algorithmic compositional practice is outlined from a historical perspective, and realized in the Common Lisp programming language as a musicological tool. David Cope’s compositional output is summarized with an explanation of what types of systems he has utilized in the analyses of other composers’ music, and the composition of his own music. Twentieth century analyses techniques are formalized within Common Lisp as algorithmic analyses tools. The tools are then combined with techniques developed within other computational music analyses tools, and applied toward the analysis of Cope’s prelude. A traditional music theory analysis of the composition is provided, and outcomes of computational analyses augment the traditional analysis. The outcome of the computational analyses, or algorithmic analyses, is represented in statistical data, and corresponding probabilities. From the resulting data sets part of a machine-learning technique algorithm devises semantic networks. The semantic networks represent chord succession and voice leading rules that underlie the framework of Cope’s prelude. Copyright 2015 by Reiner Krämer ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS All musical and code examples in this dissertation that were authored, co-written, or composed by David Cope, are used with his permission. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vii LIST OF EXAMPLES ...................................................................................................... x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Overview .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Running Code Example in Clozure CL ...................................................... 7 CHAPTER 2 ALGORITHMS ......................................................................................... 11 2.1 What is an Algorithm? .............................................................................. 11 CHAPTER 3 ALGORITHMIC PRACTICE IN MUSIC .................................................... 23 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 23 3.2 Before the Twentieth Century .................................................................. 24 3.3 Algorithmic Practice in the Twentieth Century ......................................... 86 CHAPTER 4 DAVID COPE ......................................................................................... 108 4.1 On David Cope ...................................................................................... 108 4.2 Emmy ..................................................................................................... 121 4.3 Emily Howell .......................................................................................... 140 4.4 Cope’s Algorithmic Analyses ................................................................. 156 CHAPTER 5 ALGORITHMIC ANALYSIS .................................................................... 158 5.1 Brief History ........................................................................................... 158 iv 5.2 Current Systems .................................................................................... 160 5.3 Set Theory Analysis ............................................................................... 163 CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 195 6.1 General Remarks ................................................................................... 195 6.2 FDL-1 ..................................................................................................... 200 6.3 Future Analysis Directions ..................................................................... 347 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 371 APPENDIX A SCORES ............................................................................................... 379 APPENDIX B CODE EXAMPLES ............................................................................... 398 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 413 v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3-1: Guido's vowel array assignment algorithm (Guido-1) .............................. 28 Table 3-2: Matrix from lines 4-8 ................................................................................ 52 Table 3-4: Josquin's Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae subject ..................................... 56 Table 3-5: Soggetto Cavato pitch-vowel assignment ................................................ 56 Table 4-1: David Cope works .................................................................................. 114 Table 4-2: Miscellaneous writings ........................................................................... 119 Table 4-3: Published music of Emmy ...................................................................... 136 Table 4-4: Works completed with the aid of Emily Howell ....................................... 156 Table 5-1: SC differences ....................................................................................... 183 Table 6-1: Chord successions in FDL-1 .................................................................. 209 Table 6-2: SC Succession probabilities and rules in FDL-1 .................................... 332 Table 6-3: PCST0 succession rules - FDL-1 background ....................................... 334 Table 6-4: PCS succession rules - FDL-1 middleground ........................................ 337 Table 6-5: PCCs from strands succession rules - FDL-1 middleground ................. 341 Table 6-6: PC voice-leading derived from reassembled PCCs ............................... 342 Table 6-7: PC voice-leading rules - FDL-1 foreground ............................................ 345 vi LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1-1: Clozure CL listening window ................................................................... 8 Figure 1-2: Typing functions directly into the REPL .................................................. 9 Figure 1-3: Evaluating an expression at the REPL ................................................... 9 Figure 1-4: Opening a .lisp file and evaluating a function from script at the REPL . 10 Figure 3-1: Guido-1 algorithm represented in modern notation .............................. 29 Figure 3-2: Guido-2 algorithm applied to a line of text ............................................ 29 Figure 3-3: Guido's second algorithm outcome ....................................................... 32 Figure 3-4: Detractor est - Talea ............................................................................. 40 Figure 3-5: Detractor est - Color ............................................................................. 40 Figure 3-6: Detractor est - tenor, Talea and Color combined .................................. 41 Figure 3-7: Guillaume Machaut's Ma fin, first 20 measures, tenor .......................... 45 Figure 3-8: Guillaume Machaut's Ma fin, following 20 mm. retrograde (tenor) ........ 46 Figure 3-9: Gradual Benedicta ................................................................................ 48 Figure 3-10: Versus Omnis curet homo .................................................................... 49 Figure 3-11: Musical acrostics - Ut queant laxis ....................................................... 57 Figure 3-12: Kepler's seven "melodies." ................................................................... 59 Figure 4-1: Associative network showing learned voice-leading procedures ........ 154 Figure 4-2: Associate network showing chord successions .................................. 155 Figure 5-1: