Tonality driven piano compositions with grammatical evolution

Abstract

We present a novel method of creating piano melodies with Grammatical Evolution (GE). The system employs a context free grammar in combination with a tonality-driven fitness function to create a population of piano melodies. The grammar is designed to create a variety of styles of musical events within each melody such as runs, arpeggios, turns and chords without any a priori musical information in regards to key or time signature. The fitness of the individuals is calculated as a measure of their tonality defined by a statistical distribution of the pitches in each piece. A number of short compositions are presented demonstrating that our system is capable of creating music that is interesting and unpredictable.