Complex Sciences. First International Conference, Complex 2009, Shanghai, China, February 23-25, 2009, Revised Papers, Part 2

Research Article

Composing Music with Complex Networks

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-02469-6_95,
        author={Xiaofan Liu and Chi Tse and Michael Small},
        title={Composing Music with Complex Networks},
        proceedings={Complex Sciences. First International Conference, Complex 2009, Shanghai, China, February 23-25, 2009, Revised Papers, Part 2},
        proceedings_a={COMPLEX PART 2},
        year={2012},
        month={5},
        keywords={},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-642-02469-6_95}
    }
    
  • Xiaofan Liu
    Chi Tse
    Michael Small
    Year: 2012
    Composing Music with Complex Networks
    COMPLEX PART 2
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-02469-6_95
Xiaofan Liu1,*, Chi Tse1,*, Michael Small1,*
  • 1: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
*Contact email: xfliu@eie.polyu.edu.hk, cktse@eie.polyu.edu.hk, ensmall@eie.polyu.edu.hk

Abstract

In this paper we study the network structure in music and attempt to compose music artificially. Networks are constructed with nodes and edges corresponding to musical notes and their co-occurrences. We analyze sample compositions from Bach, Mozart, Chopin, as well as other types of music including Chinese pop music. We observe remarkably similar properties in all networks constructed from the selected compositions. Power-law exponents of degree distributions, mean degrees, clustering coefficients, mean geodesic distances, etc. are reported. With the network constructed, music can be created by using a biased random walk algorithm, which begins with a randomly chosen note and selects the subsequent notes according to a simple set of rules that compares the weights of the edges, weights of the nodes, and/or the degrees of nodes. The newly created music from complex networks will be played in the presentation.