12019-04-17T14:13:22-07:00Interlude: MAGE8plain2019-04-17T20:39:05-07:00I read a fascinating article, “A Hybrid Approach to Automated Music Composition,” that discusses MAGE, the first attempt at hybrid music composition, which allows some planning. MAGE combines the best aspects of stochastic processing, genetic algorithms and routine design, and creates a composition “that is listenable both in terms of music that flows together and is not incoherently random” (Fox and al. 2016, 216). As they explain, "utilizing planning as a component in music composition can provide a bridge between the strictly predictable rule-based approach and the strictly random stochastic and GA [genetic algorithms] approaches.” (213) The user input, as in Max, specifies degrees of repetitiveness, variability, and dissonance wanted in the song. The user controls these by specifying the number of each of five available measure types. (Fox and al. 2016, 216).
