Todd, P.M. (1992). A connectionist system for exploring melody space. In Proceedings of the 1992 International Computer Music Conference (pp. 65-68). San Francisco: International Computer Music Association.
Abstract
Connectionist (neural network) systems allow a new approach to algorithmic music composition. We present here a connectionist system which allows composers to explore regions of "melody space" nearby other melodies of the composer's choosing. The composer selects a set of melodies that will define the melody space, positions them on a 2-d plane with a mouse-based graphic interface, trains a connectionist network to produce those melodies, and listens to the new "interpolated" melodies that the network generates corresponding to intermediate points in the 2-d plane. Future enhancements include using another network to automatically rate the interpolated melodies, allowing the composer to only listen to promising new creations.