Writing Music in Python

[Ror]

Yep, you read that thread title right.

Abjad is a Python API for formalize score control and music notation.

Abjad helps composers build up complex pieces of music notation in an iterative and incremental way. Use Abjad to create a symbolic representation of all the notes, rests, staves, tuplets, beams and slurs in any score. Because Abjad extends the Python programming language, you can use Abjad to make systematic changes to your music as you work. And because Abjad wraps the powerful LilyPond music notation package, you can use Abjad to control the typographic details of the symbols on the page.

Just stumbled across this, and thought it had some pretty cool implications such as using a function to generate a cell of music:

3. Ligeti: Désordre — Abjad 2.12 documentation

Not sure how many of you know anything about programming, but thought I'd share anyhow...

I haven't tried anything with it yet, but it seems pretty interesting.

 

[Osorio]

Wonder how close this would be to Pure Data. I still need to wrap my head around that one... This sounds more streamlined though.

Might try it and see if those 3 years of programming classes in college served for anything other than waste my time immensely. Thanks for sharing!

 

[yingmin]

Abjad strikes me as a very strange name for a system of musical notation. I wonder how many of the people who use it know what it means.

 

[phugoid]

That's pretty cool. I thought it would be weird to see music being manipulated in Python, but what's much weirder is the way they're doing it. They're sort of manipulating the visual elements of sheet music, something more like geometry than sound.

Maybe the true depths of my ignorance are at last revealed: is this how some people in the classical world are making music? Someone born deaf could do this - it's just rearranging the squiggles and dots on the sheet.

P.S.: Not a criticism, just trying to understand.

 

[Osorio]

Bach (the big JS one) was one guy that was said to be very visual about his work. According to "legend" and rumors which are much up for debate because there are practically no way to debunk or confirm them, he was very mathematical about his compositions and there was a great sense of methodical science behind most of his writing (specially considering just HOW MUCH he wrote).
Also worth mentioning, however obvious (or not) it may be, is that there is a lot of math and geometry to music itself, besides the visual representation. So blurring the two is not really something that should come as weird as it may.

Maybe the true depths of my ignorance are at last revealed: is this how some people in the classical world are making music? Someone born deaf could do this - it's just rearranging the squiggles and dots on the sheet.

Even though I'm not a part of the "true" classical world now, I tried to be when I was younger, and most of my disdain for it came from the sheer fact that people are pretty much taught to simply know what music is and how it is supposed to sound. My first contact with music-learning had very little actual music. We used to do solfege. Like, A LOT. Sing some choir. Then off to the papers.
People don't generally play a note while composing or arranging. This "noodling" thing is somewhat pretty new (Chopin did it, as far as I know, but he was more of an exception than a norm).

If I could go back in time and slap myself across the face and say "you are going to need this knowledge"...

 

[fatfinger]

Have you ever heard of abc notation?

It seems like abc notation would be a good format to parse with any language not just python. (for you programmers out there).