Some Lovely Computer-Generated Music

I continue to be amazed by how much fun it is to play around with PHILOMENA, a little part-writing program I wrote a couple months back. It’s still incredibly exciting to just throw a string of numbers into the program and watch it spit out decent-sounding piece of music.

The whole issue of software-generated art brings up some interesting authorship issues (can I take credit for these arrangements?) and even licensing (am I allowed to place a more restrictive license on the outputs of a software I have already released under the GPL?), but what I still find most fascinating about the whole process is the notion that I have produced a program that can perform what seems like such a uniquely human job in a fraction of the time it takes me to do the same.

So, for your listening pleasure, a few examples of the talented PHILOMENA’s skill:

Variation on a theme by Pachabel:

Mary had a Little Lamb:

Caro Mio Ben:

Something from our music homework:

Heart and Soul:

Fiona On’s song: