Virtual Music

Virtual Music

Author: David Cope

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-01-30

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 9780262532617

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Virtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author's Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics. The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author's responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity. The book (and corresponding Web site) includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text.


The Memetics of Music

The Memetics of Music

Author: Steven Jan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1351542648

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Richard Dawkins's formulation of the meme concept in his 1976 classic The Selfish Gene has inspired three decades of work in what many see as the burgeoning science of memetics. Its underpinning theory proposes that human culture is composed of a multitude of particulate units, memes, which are analogous to the genes of biological transmission. These cultural replicators are transmitted by imitation between members of a community and are subject to mutational-evolutionary pressures over time. Despite Dawkins and several others using music in their exemplifications of what might constitute a meme, these formulations have generally been quite rudimentary, even na?. This study is the first musicologically-orientated attempt systematically to apply the theory of memetics to music. In contrast to the two points of view normally adopted in music theory and analysis - namely those of the listener and the composer - the purpose of this book is to argue for a distinct and illuminating third perspective. This point of view is metaphorical and anthropomorphic, and the metaphor is challenging and controversial, but the way of thinking adopted has its basis in well-founded scientific principles and it is capable of generating insights not available from the first two standpoints. The perspective is that of the (selfish) replicated musical pattern itself, and adopting it is central to memetics. The approach taken is both theoretical and analytical. Starting with a discussion of evolutionary thinking within musicology, Jan goes on to cover the theoretical aspects of the memetics of music, ranging from quite abstract philosophical speculation to detailed consideration of what actually constitutes a meme in music. In doing so, Jan draws upon several approaches current in music theory, including Schenkerism and Narmour's implication-realization model. To demonstrate the practical utility of the memetic perspective, Chapter 6 applies it analytically, tracing the transmission o


The Relentless Pursuit of Tone

The Relentless Pursuit of Tone

Author: Robert Fink

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-09-18

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 0190908017

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music assembles a broad spectrum of contemporary perspectives on how "sound" functions in an equally wide array of popular music. Ranging from the twang of country banjoes and the sheen of hip-hop strings to the crunch of amplified guitars and the thump of subwoofers on the dance floor, this volume bridges the gap between timbre, our name for the purely acoustic characteristics of sound waves, and tone, an emergent musical construct that straddles the borderline between the perceptual and the political. Essays engage with the entire history of popular music as recorded sound, from the 1930s to the present day, under four large categories. "Genre" asks how sonic signatures define musical identities and publics; "Voice" considers the most naturalized musical instrument, the human voice, as racial and gendered signifier, as property or likeness, and as raw material for algorithmic perfection through software; "Instrument" tells stories of the way some iconic pop music machines-guitars, strings, synthesizers-got (or lost) their distinctive sounds; "Production" then puts it all together, asking structural questions about what happens in a recording studio, what is produced (sonic cartoons? rockist authenticity? empty space?) and what it all might mean.


Digital Media

Digital Media

Author: Paul Messaris

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9780820478401

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this must-have new anthology, top media scholars explore the leading edge of digital media studies to provide a broad, authoritative survey of the study of the field and a compelling preview of future developments. This book is divided into five key areas - video games, digital images, the electronic word, computers and music, and new digital media - and offers an invaluable guide for students and scholars alike.


The Game Music Toolbox

The Game Music Toolbox

Author: Marios Aristopoulos

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2023-05-24

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1000876055

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Game Music Toolbox provides readers with the tools, models, and techniques to create and expand a compositional toolbox, through a collection of 20 iconic case studies taken from different eras of game music. Discover many of the composition and production techniques behind popular music themes from games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Mario Kart 8, The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II, Diablo, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, and many others. The Game Music Toolbox features: Exclusive interviews from industry experts Transcriptions and harmonic analyses 101 music theory introductions for beginners Career development ideas and strategies Copyright and business fundamentals An introduction to audio implementation for composers Practical takeaway tasks to equip readers with techniques for their own game music The Game Music Toolbox is crucial reading for game music composers and audio professionals of all backgrounds, as well as undergraduates looking to forge a career in the video game industry.


Digital Creativity

Digital Creativity

Author: Colin Beardon

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9789026519390

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presenting highlights from five years of the field journal Digital Creativity , this volume republishes twenty-seven contributions from international artists and scientists.


Producing Music

Producing Music

Author: Russ Hepworth-Sawyer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1351815091

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

During the last two decades, the field of music production has attracted considerable interest from the academic community, more recently becoming established as an important and flourishing research discipline in its own right. Producing Music presents cutting-edge research across topics that both strengthen and broaden the range of the discipline as it currently stands. Bringing together the academic study of music production and practical techniques, this book illustrates the latest research on producing music. Focusing on areas such as genre, technology, concepts, and contexts of production, Hepworth-Sawyer, Hodgson, and Marrington have compiled key research from practitioners and academics to present a comprehensive view of how music production has established itself and changed over the years.


A-Life for Music

A-Life for Music

Author: Eduardo Reck Miranda

Publisher: A-R Editions, Inc.

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9780895796738

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Artificial Life, or A-Life, aims at the study of all phenomena characteristic of natural living systems, through computational modeling, wetware-hardware hybrids, and other artificial media. Its scope ranges from the investigation of the emergence of cognitive processes in natural or artificial systems to the development of life or life-like properties from inorganic components. A number of musicians, in particular composers and musicologists, have started to turn to A-Life for inspiration and working methodology. This edited volume features thirteen chapters written by researchers and practitioners in this exciting emerging field of computer music, and includes a CD with various examples music related to A-Life.


Repeating Ourselves

Repeating Ourselves

Author: Robert Fink

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780520240360

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Annotation Fink looks at minimalist music as part of a much larger trend in American culture which encompasses modern art, television, commercial advertising, pedagogy, club culture, religion, and much more.