Browse Books

Reviewer: Robert Goldberg

The concept of incorporating evolutionary techniques into computer science applications is as old as the modern computer itself. By the 1960s, Lawrence Fogel was studying evolutionary computations [1]. In the 1970s, John Holland introduced the genetic algorithm [2], which was later codified by David Goldberg [3]. The popularity of evolutionary computations as a serious algorithmic alternative to conventional programming methods sprouted in the 1990s. It was at this point that evolutionary music was first demonstrated [4]. Evolutionary computation currently plays a dual role in the analysis and development of musical compositions and ideas. In its most typical application, evolutionary strategies aid the refinement of musical compositions constructed from basic musical structures. In a more advanced capacity, evolutionary processes help musicologists understand the transformation of musical theory and the adaptation of musical components over time. The first chapter presents a very nice tutorial on applying evolutionary computations to musical compositions. Chapter 2 reviews musical terminology as it pertains to various musical tasks. This chapter suggests an innovative application of Norman's The design of everyday things [5] to model the listener's experience of hearing music. Chapter 3 focuses on evolutionary techniques for digital audio technology, concentrating on the various forms of synthesis: additive, wavetable, subtractive/filter, sampling, frequency modulation, wave shaping, discrete summation, granular, physical modeling, and waveform. Creative sound design is explored in chapter 4. Chapter 5 reports on experiments that evolve performance profiles by constructing hierarchical pulse sets for performing musical pieces. Chapters 6 and 7 describe system architectures for composing with genetic algorithms. The first system in chapter 6 is used as an in-house exploratory tool for integrating genetic algorithms into all aspects of musicology. This system was inspired by the editors' own system, described in chapter 7. There, the components of Genetic Jammer (GenJam) that apply evolutionary computations to improvisation are explained. Chapter 8 has a very innovative cellular automata-based system for synthesizing sound and the subsequent creation of musical forms. Chapter 9 applies swarm technology, where each individual (partial solution) communicates with the others; they collectively provide each other with updates. Chapter 10 investigates how music changes over time, from simply being temporal noise to the sophisticated and cognitive structures now employed in developed musical pieces. The appendix, which describes in some detail the contents of the accompanying CD-ROM, is a novel addition to the chapters. The CD contains actual tracks of music that were obtained by evolutionary means. The pieces were chosen to reflect the breadth and depth of the contributions made by evolutionary computation since the initial explorations of 1991. Track 1 contains Olive Trees , which is the first piece composed on and by a parallel computer. Tracks 2 through 4 utilize swarm technology to simulate two five-fingered hands playing a musical piece on a MIDI-enabled electronic piano. Track 5 (written in memory of a family cat) is arranged to demonstrate GenJam's interactivity, which is described in chapter 7. Tracks 6 through 8 sample live stage improvisations and create, in real-time, pieces reconstructed in the system by splicing alternative fragments and adapting mechanisms to synthesize the music. Track 9 reconstructs the noise made by a single car driving on a suburban road, with synthesized bell sounds using the system of chapter 6. Track 10 demonstrates the autonomous version of GenJam. The remaining 14 tracks contain excerpts (one per track) of a large suite of music created by a program that continuously composes new pieces of music. This book investigates not only the applications of evolutionary computation to music, but also the components needed to compose musical pieces and the systems that integrate these technologies. Considering how integrated evolutionary computation and music production have become over the past 16 years, this book is a welcome source of information. Online Computing Reviews Service