Abstract:

This paper introduces EV Meta-Model, a new system for representing musical knowledge for computer-aided composition. It starts with a brief historical discussion on the fields of composition and sound synthesis. Then, the practice of musical composition is presented as a communication process from composers to listeners, where musical messages go through different representations: from the complex abstractions of composers and their compositional tools, to the performers and the perceptual representation of listeners. EV Meta-Model is proposed as a generic tool for representing any kind of time-based events that manifest themselves as coherent representations at different levels, including high-levels of musical abstractions. At the same time, it is intended to be a dynamic representation system, capable of handling each element as a "living" variable, and transmitting such dynamic character to the music that it represents. As examples of its applicability, the paper presents the Evscore Ontology, the implementation of EVcsound, a tool for the creation of detailed compositions with flexible temporal representations, and finally an example of algorithmic composition upon the EV Model.