Automated music composition aims at applying computer algorithms to create music. It enables musical novices with limited knowledge to create new music and helps professional musicians to enhance their creative process. More importantly,
it fosters collaboration between musicians and non-musicians, leading to diverse applications like music for videos, games, and therapy.
Research Goal
Our research goal is to develop an algorithm called FlexChord for style-specific generation of chords to support a melody.
FlexChord generates chords according to the chord progression of a user-specified reference music that conveys the desired style. It uses direct optimization that does not require training. Therefore, it is very flexible and efficient.
For comparison:
Comparison with DNNs
original: original human-composed chords
VTHarm: DNN based on transformer
DAT-VAE: DNN based on variational autoencoder
Melody: Colors of the Wind (pop)
melody
original
VTHarm
dissonant chord
DAT-VAE
dissonant chord
FlexChord
Melody: Black Orpheus (pop)
melody
original
VTHarm
dissonant chord
DAT-VAE
dissonant chord
FlexChord
Custom Styles
FlexChord generates chord progressions according to specific reference styles.
Jazz Style
Melody: Israel (jazz)
melody
original
jazz-style chord, heightened tension
FlexChord
jazz-style chord, heightened tension
Various Styles
Melody: Colors of the Wind
melody
pop
jazz
jazz-style chord, heightened tension
Greek
Greek-style chord, slightly unresolved tension
Spooky Style Melody: In the Hall of the Mountain King
Reference: Psycho
melody
original
FlexChord
Emotion Styles
Melody: Ode to Joy
Joyous
Sad
Researchers
>>
Ms. Stephanie Y. H. Lew, Ph.D. student, Dept. of Computer Science, Natioanl University of Singapore
>>
A/Prof. Leow Wee Kheng, Dept. of Computer Science, Natioanl University of Singapore
>>
A/Prof. Kat R. Agres, Centre of Music and Health, National University of Singapore
S. Y. H. Lew, W. K. Leow, K. R. Agres. Style-Specific Harmonization by Multi-Objective Optimization without Training, International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art, 7(2): 58-73, 2025.
S. Y. H. Lew, W. K. Leow, K. Agres. Style-Specific Harmonization by Multi-Objective Optimization without Training, In Proc. Int. Conf. on New Music Concepts, March 2025.
dissonant chord
jazz-style chord, heightened tension
Greek-style chord, slightly unresolved tension
