The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music

With the ongoing development of algorithmic composition programs and communities of practice expanding, algorithmic music faces a turning point. Joining dozens of emerging and established scholars alongside leading practitioners in the field, chapters in this Handbook both describe the state of algorithmic composition and also set the agenda for critical research on and analysis of algorithmic music. Organized into four sections, chapters explore the music's history, utility, community, politics, and potential for mass consumption. Contributors address such issues as the role of algorithms as co-performers, live coding practices, and discussions of the algorithmic culture as it currently exists and what it can potentially contribute society, education, and ecommerce. Chapters engage particularly with post-human perspectives - what new musics are now being found through algorithmic means which humans could not otherwise have made - and, in reciprocation, how algorithmic music is being assimilated back into human culture and what meanings it subsequently takes. Blending technical, artistic, cultural, and scientific viewpoints, this Handbook positions algorithmic music making as an essentially human activity.

Alex McLean is Post-Doctoral Researcher in Deutsches Museum on the PENELOPE project, co-founder of the TOPLAP live coding and Algorave algorithmic dance music movements, and co-initator of the International Conference on Live Coding, International Conference on Live Interfaces, and the Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement. Roger T. Dean is Professor of Sonic Communication at the MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, and is also a composer, improvisor, and researcher. He founded and directs the ensemble austraLYSIS and is the author of several books on computer and algorithmic music.

Contents Section 1: Grounding algorithmic music 1. Musical Algorithms as Tools, Languages and Partners: A Perspective Alex McLean, Roger T. Dean 2. Algorithmic Music and the Philosophy of Time Julian Rohrhuber 3. Action and Perception: Embodying Algorithms and the Extended Mind Palle Dahlstedt 4. Origins of Algorithmic Thinking in Music Nick Collins 5. Algorithmic Thinking and Central Javanese Gamelan Charles Matthews Perspectives on Practice A 6. Thoughts on Composing with Algorithms Laurie Spiegel 7. Mexico and India: Diversifying and Expanding the Live Coding Community Alexandra Cardenas 8. Deautomatization of Breakfast Perceptions Renate Wieser 9. Why Do We Want Our Computers to Improvise? George Lewis Section 2: What can algorithms in music do? 10. Compositions Created with Constraint Programming Torsten Anders 11. Linking Sonic Aesthetics With Mathematical Theories Andy Milne 12. Machine Learning and Listening in Composition and Performance Rebecca Fiebrink and Baptiste Caramiaux 13. Biologically-Inspired and Agent-Based Algorithms for Music Alice Eldridge and Oliver Bown 14. Performing with Patterns of Time Thor Magnusson, University of Sussex, Alex McLean, FoAM Kernow 15. Computational Creativity and Live Algorithms Geraint Wiggins and Jamie Forth 16. Tensions and Techniques in Live Coding Performance Charlie Roberts and Graham Wakefield Perspectives on Practice B 17. When Algorithms Meet Machines Sarah Angliss 18. Notes on Pattern Synthesis Mark Fell 19. Performing algorithms Kristin Erickson Section 3: Purposes of algorithms for the music maker 20. Network music and the algorithmic ensemble David Ogborn 21. Sonification != music Carla Scaletti 22. Color is the Keyboard: Transcoding from Visual to Sonic Margaret Schedel 23. Designing Interfaces for Musical Algorithms Jamie Bullock, Integra Lab, Birmingham Conservatoire 24. Ecooperatic Music Game Theory David Kanaga 25. Algorithmic Spatialisation Jan C Schacher Perspectives on Practice C 26. Form, Chaos and the Nuance of Beauty Mileece I'Anson 27. Beyond Me Kaffe Matthews 28. Mathematical Theory in Music Practice Jan Beran 29. Thoughts on Algorithmic Practice Warren Burt Section 4: Algorithmic Culture 30. The Audience Reception of Algorithmic Music Mary Simoni 31. Technology, Creativity and The Social in Algorithmic Music Christopher Haworth 32. Algorithms and Computation in Music Education Andrew Brown 33. (Micro) Politics of Algorithmic Music: Towards a Tactical Media Archaeology Geoff Cox and Morten Riis 34. Algorithmic Music for Mass Consumption and Universal Production Yuli Levtov Perspectives on Practice D 35. Algorithmic Trajectories Alex McLean and Roger Dean