Algorithmic Composition: Computational Thinking in Music

IN THE WEST, the layman's vision of the creative artist is largely bound in romantic notions of inspiration sacred or secular in origin. Images are plentiful; for example, a man standing tall on a cliff top, the wind blowing through his long hair, waiting for that particular iconoclastic idea to arrive through the ether. a Tales, some even true, of genii penning whole operas in a matter of days, further blur the reality of the usually slowly wrought process of composition. Mozart, with his celebrated speed of writing, is a famous example who to some extent fits the cliche, though perhaps not quite as well as legend would have it.(b)