text: Music generation has generally been focused on either creating scores or interpreting them. We discuss differences between these two problems and propose that, in fact, it may be valuable to work in the space of direct performance generation: jointly predicting the notes and also their expressive timing and dynamics. We consider the significance and qualities of the dataset needed for this. Having identified both a problem domain and characteristics of an appropriate dataset, we show an LSTM-based recurrent network model that subjectively performs quite well on this task. Critically, we provide generated examples. We also include feedback from professional composers and musicians about some of these examples.
  @cite_1: Algorithmic composition composing by means of formalizable methods has a century old tradition not only in occidental music history. This is the first book to provide a detailed overview of prominent procedures of algorithmic composition in a pragmatic way rather than by treating formalizable aspects in single works. In addition to an historic overview, each chapter presents a specific class of algorithm in a compositional context by providing a general introduction to its development and theoretical basis and describes different musical applications. Each chapter outlines the strengths, weaknesses and possible aesthetical implications resulting from the application of the treated approaches. Topics covered are: markov models, generative grammars, transition networks, chaos and self-similarity, genetic algorithms, cellular automata, neural networks and artificial intelligence are covered. The comprehensive bibliography makes this work ideal for the musician and the researcher alike.
summary: Perhaps it is precisely because music is so often perceived as a profoundly human endeavour that there has also been, in parallel, an ongoing fascination with automating its creation. This fascination long predates notions such as the Turing test (ostensibly for discriminating automation of the most human behaviour), and has spawned a range of efforts: from attempts at the formalization of unambiguously strict rules of composition to incorporation of complete random chance into scores and performances. The use of rules exemplifies the algorithmic (and largely deterministic) approach to music generation, one that is interesting and outside the scope of the current work; for background on this we refer the reader, for example, to the text by Nierhaus @cite_1 . Our present work, on the other hand, lies in a part of the spectrum that incorporates probability and sampling.