For a long time (since the 16th century) there are rule-sets for composing counterpoint music, mostly used for teaching music composition. These rules are so clearly defined that they can be checked with a computer. So it is possible to automatically generate counterpoint music searching for valid melodies. The search problem constitutes a constraint satisfaction problem [1]. Together with my daughter (she is studying music and had the idea originally) an experiment was implemented to automatically compose a two-voice counterpoint.

The talk gives a short intro into the ABC music notation and then proposes some methods to find a valid counterpoint. The search can currently use evolutionary algorithms or a depth-first search. The output is in ABC music notation, this can be converted to MIDI or into a printed music sheet in PDF.

During the talk you can listen to some examples of generated music.

The experiment (work in progress) is available on GitHub: