Computer Applications to Music Theory: A Retrospective

Since 1972, I have been active in many areas of computer applications to music theory. Presented here is a summary of this work, which falls in two categories: music analysis and computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Along with a description of each project are observations about the development process and about background education and research. The paper concludes with generalizations about computer use in music. I hope that this article will help fill a need for more information on computers in music theory (Alphonce 1980). As all of the software described herein has been tested by me and by others, not only the process but also the results should be of interest. Aside from the programs and results, the process of designing, testing, and evaluating computer software concerns all who work in computer music, whether in analysis, instruction, or composition. My education was predominantly in music theory, with a background in computer programming. In the summer of 1964, at Dartmouth College, a number of music students attempted to compose with the help of computers. Learning BASIC from a manual, I wrote a program to generate popular melodies. Like most music majors in the sixties, I had not encountered a computer during my undergraduate education. However, I had been exposed to statistics, mathematics, and mathematical logic. Graduate work, for a masters degree in music theory, included some study of quantitative music analysis, with all calculations done by hand. The doctorate in music theory, at Indiana University, included a course in computer applications to music theory, with SNOBOL4 as the programming language. Following the coursework, I began a computer-related dissertation, advised by Gary Wittlich. This brief history describes all the education I had before embarking on research in computer applications to music theory. Recall, though, that this background probably was not so different from other music majors in 1972, when computer science courses were not nearly as popular as they are now.