There is no "be all and end all" environment for composing with computers.

Composers work with abstract representations of music, such as scores. Computer music and algorithmic composition systems such as MIDI, Csound scores, Common Music, CsoundAC, athenaCL, or parseval each provide such a representation. 

History shows that representations of music may notionally be "universal" but, in practice, specialized for (for example) notes in 12-tone equal temperament (scores), keyboard performance gestures (MIDI), closures (Common Music), note event parameter lists (Csound), notes as points in space with recursive transformations of coordinate system (CsoundAC), grab bags of various representations (athenaCL), or whatever.

Consequently composers who become sufficiently involved with computers tend to write their own representations specialized for how they themselves idiosyncratically think about music...

Regards,
Mike

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tim Mortimer 
>Sent: Mar 13, 2008 5:53 AM
>To: csound@lists.bath.ac.uk
>Subject: [Csnd]  Common Music [otopic-ish..]
>
>
>Contining this thread...
>
>http://www.nabble.com/Victor%27s-csndgui-toolkit-for-Python-%28was-2006-thread---now-2008%29-tt16000828.html
>
>Thanks Adam / Ugur...
>
>Ive just skimmed through the first 100 pages of "Notes from the Metalevel" &
>it's possibly a gross exercise in self flattery but i see a lot of parallels
>between the use & design of common music as discussed in this book & what
>i'm trying to do with Parseval...at least certain elements of it. (mind you
>i could say that about Athena, & others too...)
>
>So i can see myself exploring & potentially using Common Music further, & if
>i have any problems getting set up & get desparate maybe Eduardo / Ugur /
>Adam et al can give me some advice (Unfortunately the Metalevel Text says
>"refer the accompanying CD" - but i think i can work out enough to get going
>- particulary with your helpful posts) - is there a Common Music List?
>
>My general observations & concerns going forward therefore are more to do
>with wishing to use Common Music as a score analysis & database tool, rather
>than necessarily generating material purely from defining pitch sets &
>rhythms & hitting the "crunch" / gauss / lorenz attractor button.
>
>One of the things I currently get using Parseval's txt based "tracker" that
>i don't get anywhere else goes something like this..
>
>I can work with Pitch Sets to create chords, voicepaths &/or 2-dimensional
>"patterns" / motifs / & then start randomly selecting  PC set combinations
>from my Pitch Class Master Collection (defined for that composition), &
>Parseval says things like: 
>
>"I select < 4-16 i t=3 > & u used this already in System 4 Bar 3, as a chord
>/ voicepath etc... so now try something else with it !"
>
>So GUI wise (for example) I would like to have something like a piano roll i
>guess, but just so i could lay out the voice leading & clearly label the
>parts & or subsets of interest, & then publish that as analysis to the
>"PatternBook", as well as a Parseval ".txt tracker" template (at that is
>still giving me a number of other spin offs other than simply "custom score
>syntax" - a whole polyphony management system for one... a monophonic voice
>designed to work with gk & ga controllers can be rendered to create a
>polyphonic performance for example, the major benefit of the "render first,
>playback later" approach so far...the other main benefit is the capacity for
>notes to be randomised but keep there associated cc messages aligned to
>their new initialisation times, despite being delivered from global a or k
>rate controllers...)
>
>Anyway, i digress - my Common Music Q's are:
>
>1) can it be used in this responsive, "databasing & analysis" kind of way,
>or is it ultimately more of a generative tool?
>
>2) is it REALLY the be-all & end-all for generically organising
>compositional data in a way that resides outside of the domains of csound
>.sco , MIDI, or other "realisation" formats? (the initial response from you
>guys however are fairly flattering - i wrote this away on my "non crashing"
>PC...)
>
>Because if it is, & it's a malleable & linkable tool in its own right,
>offering quick access to score creation GUI tools in the process (not
>looking so positive, but imminent?) then i think i want to begin to use it
>as a bridge between some of the things im trying to do with Parseval & the
>"outside" world.... plus i'm sure i'll get something out of it too ; ) (&
>hopefully a lot more than i first thought...)
>
>Although there is no Python/ Lisp - Common Music API per se?? Creating
>significant excahanges of data between the 2 shouldn't be an issue. Michael
>Goggins i think once again that's screaming out for some input from you if
>you have any to give...
>
>The sad news is i could go on... Oh to have had a proper musical education!
>; ) 
>
>Anyway for the mo back to notes from the metalevel...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----
>*******************
>www.phasetransitions.net
>hermetic music * python * csound * possibly mindless ranting
>various werk in perpetual delusions of progress....
>
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Sure - I was being subjective.

If there's a pre-existing language or set of classes that does 90% of what
i've been trying to implement over the last 6 months, & is inherantly
modular & expandable, that's something of an epiphany as far as i am
concerned...

Thanks for your continued input & ideas Michael, always appreciated...



Michael Gogins wrote:
> 
> There is no "be all and end all" environment for composing with computers.
> 
> 
> Send bugs reports to this list.
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe
> csound"
> 
> 


-----
*******************
www.phasetransitions.net
hermetic music * python * csound * possibly mindless ranting
various werk in perpetual delusions of progress....

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