Communications of the ACM
You'd Never Know It Wasn't Bach (or Even Human)
Yale University computer scientist Donya Quick is refining a program she developed that produces music.
Credit: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images
Yale University computer scientist Donya Quick is refining a computer program called Kulitta, which she developed to produce music that in tests fooled more than 200 human assessors into thinking it was created by a human.
Kulitta can learn musical attributes from a body of existing compositions, and it can write music via a "top-down" approach that composes by eliminating elements it does not want to use. However, the program differentiates itself from other composition systems by being versatile, in that it can employ the structures of different musical forms and blend them to create music with distinctive novelty.
Kulitta's core is a four-module process, with the first module establishing musical properties and the second generating an abstract musical structure. The third module produces musical chords and the fourth arranges everything into a specific framework.
Quick says the program can create compositions in seconds that would take a human at least a day to compose. She envisions Kulitta and similar programs as "another tool in the toolbox" for musicians, and thinks they could help people without advanced musical skills engage in high-level composition.
Although Yale professor Konrad Kaczmarek acknowledges technologies such as Kulitta will likely change how composers write, perform, and listen to music, he says the basic elements of composition will remain an unchanged, algorithmic process.
From Yale News
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