Jaehun Jeong  Chang Wook Ahn

automatic music composition generative music evolutionary music composition genetic algorithm metaheuristic

In this paper, we propose an automatic melody composition system that can generate a sophisticated melody by adding non-harmony tone in the given chord progression. An overall procedure consists of two steps, which are the rhythm generation and melody generation parts. In the rhythm generation part, we designed new fitness functions for rhythm that can be controlled by a user setting parameters. In the melody generation part, we designed new fitness functions for melody based on harmony theory. We also designed evolutionary operators that are conducted by considering a musical context to improve computational efficiency. In the experiments, we compared four metaheuristics to optimize the rhythm fitness functions: Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA), Elitism Genetic Algorithm (EGA), Differential Evolution (DE), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Furthermore, we compared proposed genetic algorithm for melody with the four algorithms for verifying performance. In addition, composition results are introduced and analyzed with respect to musical correctness.