From the bleeps of 1950s mainframes to Daft Punk and Hot Chip, computers have been part of music-making for over half a century. But can a computer actually compose a tune on its own?
One person exploring the issue is Eduardo Miranda, Professor in Computer Music at Plymouth, who says the answer is yes – up to a point.
“Yes, computers can compose interesting music automatically. But in order to compose, they have to be programmed with rules and procedures, which are mostly derived from compositional methods that are well known to musicians – harmony progression, melody construction, rhythmic structuring, and so on.
Computers are excellent at following rules. Thus, computers are good at composing good imitations of existing music. However, computers are not very creative to invent their own music.
