IMG/1 An Incidental Music Generator

Machines can compose music. Music composition (by machine) requires the solu-tion of a number of difficult problems in the fields of algorithm design, data representa-tion, human interface design, and software engineering in general. Although the auto-mated generation of major symphonic pieces, programme music, or other musical forms that require complex semantic content has yet to be achieved, the automated generation of incidental or background music (e.g. as used in video production soundtracks) is within the realm of current technology. This report describes ‘‘IMG/1’’, a system of programs designed to produce short, complete pieces of music with an explicitly specified duration and musical style. IMG/1 requires no musical expertise on the part of the user and can generate a virtually infinite number of different pieces in any giv en style. The user’s task is simply to define the duration and style parameters and then select an acceptable piece. Music generated by IMG/1 has been succesfully used as parts of several Bellcore video productions. IMG/1 − An Incidental Music Generato