A design of genetic encoding for breeding short musical pieces

This paper describes a design of genetic encoding of short score of music for Interactive Evolutionary Computation. A genome includes three types of chromosomes, rhythm, pitch and velocity. Each chromosome is a two dimensional array of sixteen beats by 23 parts. Each element for rhythm is interpreted as indicating play, rest and continuation. Elements of pitches and velocity chromosomes are used as parameters for a recursive algorithm designed to guarantee resemblance between a parent and its children. To keep an acceptable harmony, pitches of solo parts are generated a variation of the basic melody produced through the algorithm. Elements for pitches for the parts of drums and percussion are interpreted to indicates timbre but not pitch. Combining with some optional control set up by the user, it is possible to generate a rich variety of acceptable phrases and to provide a powerful guide for breeding.