Automatic composer

In an automatic composer having:

• melody input means for providing a melody;
• chord progression input means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords;
• melody analyzer means for analyzing the melody provided by said melody input means;
• melody synthesizer means for synthesizing a melody from the chord progression provided by said chord progression input means and the result of analysis from said melody analyzer means;
• said melody analyzer means including nonharmonic tone classification means for classifying nonharmonic tones contained in the melody provided by said melody input means;
• and
• said melody synthesizer means including arpeggio generator means for producing arpeggio tones in accordance with the chord progression provided by said chord progression input means, and nonharmonic tone addition means for adding nonharmonic tones to the arpeggio tones produced by said arpeggio generator means;
• the improvement comprising:
• knowledge base means for storing musical knowledge of classifying nonharmonic tones;
• correction input means for inputting correction data;
• knowledge management means coupled to said correction input means and to said knowledge base means, for correcting the musical knowledge stored in said knowledge base means based on the input correction data;
• and
• means coupled to said knowledge management means, for enabling either of said nonharmonic tone classification means and said nonharmonic tone addition means to reference the corrected musical knowledge stored in said knowledge base means under the control of said knowledge management means so that either the classification of nonharmonic tones by said classification means or the addition of nonharmonic tones by said addition means, will be executed in accordance with the corrected musical knowledge.

In an automatic composer employing:

• chord progression providing means for providing a chord progression;
• featuring parameter generating means for generating featuring parameters of a melody;
• and
• melody synthesizer means for synthesizing a melody from said chord progression and from said featuring parameters;
• the improvement wherein said featuring parameter generating means comprises hierarchic structure extraction means for extracting a hierarchic structure from said chord progression, and featuring parameter control means for controlling said featuring parameters based on said hierarchic structure, so that said hierarchic structure will be reflected in the melody synthesized by said melody synthesizer means.

In an automatic composer having:

• chord progression providing means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords having associated time intervals;
• and
• melody generator means for generating a melody in accordance with said chord progression;
• the improvement comprising:
• key determining means responsive to said chord progression providing means for automatically and variably determining from said chord progression a key for each time interval of a chord in said chord progression to provide a key structure in music as a function of said chord progression;
• and
• said melody generator means including means for selecting at least one melody tone from a scale having a key determined by said key determining means for said each time interval of the chords in said chord progression.

An apparatus for analyzing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords, comprising:

• chord progressing providing means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords having associated time intervals;
• and
• key determining means for determining a key for each time interval of chord in said chord progression to provide a key structure in music;
• said key determining means comprising means for maintaining the key in a current time interval unchanged from a key in a preceding time interval when all members of the chord in the current time interval are included in a scale having the key of the preceding time interval, and means for successively changing a key to related keys when the chord in the current time interval contains a member outside the scale of the key in the preceding time interval wherein a changed key whose scale contains all the members of the chord in the current time interval is determined to be the key in the current time interval.

In an automatic composer employing:

• chord progression providing means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords having associated time intervals;
• and
• melody generator means for generating a melody in accordance with said chord progression;
• the improvement comprising:
• key determining means for determining a key for each time interval of chord in said chord progression to provide a key structure in music;
• and
• said melody generator means including means for selecting a melody tone or tones from a scale having a key determined by said key determining means;
• said key determining means comprising means for maintaining the key in a current time interval unchanged from a key in a preceding time interval when all members of the chord in the current time interval are included in a scale having the key of the preceding time interval, and means for successively changing a key to related keys when the chord in the current time interval contains a member outside the scale of the key in the preceding time interval wherein a changed key whose scale contains all the members of the chord in the current time interval is determined to be the key in the current time interval.

An apparatus for analyzing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords, comprising:

• chord progression providing means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords having associated time intervals;
• and
• key determining means for automatically and variably determining from said chord progression a key for each time interval of a chord in said chord progression to provide a key structure in music;
• said key determining means comprising means for maintaining the key in a current time interval unchanged from a key in a preceding time interval when all members of the chord in the current time interval are included in a scale having the key of the preceding time interval, and means for successively changing a key to related keys when the chord in the current time interval contains a member outside the scale of the key in the preceding time interval wherein a changed key whose scale contains all the members of the chord in the current time interval is determined to be the key in the current time interval.

In an automatic composer having:

• chord progression providing means for providing a chord progression formed by a succession of chords having associated time intervals;
• and
• melody generator means for generating a melody in accordance with said chord progression;
• the improvement comprising:
• key determining means for automatically and variably determining from said chord progression a key for each time interval of a chord in said chord progression to provide a key structure in music;
• and
• said melody generator means including means for selecting at least one melody tone from a scale having a key determined by said key determining means for said each time interval of the chords in said chord progression;
• said key determining means comprising means for maintaining the key in a current time interval unchanged from a key in a preceding time interval when all members of the chord in the current time interval are included in a scale having the key of the preceding time interval, and means for successively changing a key to related keys when the chord in the current time interval contains a member outside the scale of the key in the preceding time interval wherein a changed key whose scale contains all the members of the chord in the current time interval is determined to be the key in the current time interval.