Decisions and deviations: foregrounding bodies in algorithmic composition

Abstract

Rigid adherence to algorithms, from serial to AI, has often been criticised as ‘fetishsistic’, ‘mechanical’, and ‘inhuman’ by composers, scholars, and currently, the media. Upon observing a common sentiment in my own music, in my thesis, rather than rejecting the algorithm, I continued to embrace an autonomous approach to examine the issue more closely. I identified three kinds of tensions in the process.
The first tension is between the material and the work, where I note that my raw material (what I term the ‘maquette’), though parametrically comprehensive, required additional intervention to become the final piece of work. This reveals a lack of musical intentionality in the maquette itself, which I had to resolve by situating the material in different musical contexts. Additionally, by further automating the process, I experienced a difficulty in accounting for specific instrumental idioms in the algorithm, indicating a further tension between automaticism and idiomaticism. At this point, my role as the composer was reduced to only fixing practical incompatibilities in the material, such as adjusting pitch register to match the instrument’s range. However, I found that these decisions, despite appearing mundane, function as the composer’s remaining agency for intuition, serving crucially as the bridge between the abstracted maquette and the bodily experience of performing it. I argue that these practical decisions—functioning not within but around the algorithm—are where the ‘magic’ happens in an autonomous process, making the difference between the maquette and the work. Consequently, in my music, I attempt to foreground these decisions as narrow opportunities for creativity using three approaches: open forms, text-based transformations, and the physicality of the instrument.
From the outset, the overarching argument that I make in this thesis is, paradoxically, against overarching arguments. I argue that adherence in algorithms is akin to the application of any general theory in composition. When the theory is used squarely in the practice, be it counterpoint or dodecaphony, the music loses its uniqueness, and the pieces that result are typically those that are decried the most by composers (including myself). I propose that what is most significant—and definitionally where any newness is most likely to be found—is in the particular, which to me, are the decisions that occur before and after the generative stage. In my last set of pieces, while the algorithm has remained the same, their originality rests not in what can be generalised about them, but precisely in what cannot. It is these intuitive decisions, difficult to explain without demonstrating in the practice, that I believe their uniqueness is defined.

Metadata

Supervisors:	Iddon, Martin and Bailes, Freya
Keywords:	Algorithmic Composition, Contemporary Music, Embodiment, Practice Research
Awarding institution:	University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Music (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Mr. Kenrick Ka Ki Ho
Date Deposited:	17 Jul 2025 09:21
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2025 09:21
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:35715

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Decisions and deviations: foregrounding bodies in algorithmic composition

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