Generative Composition with Nodal
Jon McCormack, Peter Allen McIlwain, Aidan Arthur Lane, Alan Dorin · 2008
www.csse.monash.edu.au/⇠jonmc Abstract. This paper describes a new generative software system for music composition. A number of state-based, musical agents traverse a user-created graph. The graph consists of nodes (representing events), connected by edges, with the time between events determined by the physical length of the connecting edge. As the agents encounter nodes they generate musical data. Di↵erent node types control the selection of output edges, providing sequential, parallel or random output from a given node. The system deftly balances composer control with the facilitation of complex, emergent compositional structures, di cult to achieve using conventional notation software. 1