Interactive Music Composition with Evolutionary Computation

This article presents an interactive music composition system which utilizes the black-box optimization model of evolutionary computation. The core CFE framework—Composition, Feedback, and Evolution—is presented and described. The music composition system produces short, manageable pieces of music by interacting with users. The essential features of the system include the capability of creating customized pieces of music based on the user preference and the facilities specifically designed for generating a large amount of music. In addition to the system structure and implementation, we also introduce the auxiliary functionalities of the system. Finally, several pieces of music composed by the described system are demonstrated as showcases. This work shows that it is feasible and promising for computers to automatically compose customized or personalized music.