Evolutionary computation for musical tasks

Abstract

If the preceding chapter was an introduction to evolutionary computation (EC) for musicians, this chapter is intended as an introduction to music as a problem domain for EC researchers. Since we cannot hope to provide even a bare-bones treatise on music appreciation, much less music theory, we assume that the reader is at least somewhat familiar with music, if not as a producer, at least as a consumer. We will start by trying to define some musical terms to work with, including 'music' itself, which will lead us to a brief excursion into human-computer interaction as a metaphor for musical performance. We will then conduct an informal task analysis of music to define the tasks musicians perform and survey how EC has been applied to facilitate (or obfuscate, in some cases) the performance of those tasks. We will then summarize the various approaches that have been taken in representation, fitness and genetic operators. © 2007 Springer.