The Expression of Aesthetic Principles as Syntactic Structures and Heuristic Preferences and Constraints in a Computer Program that Composes Jazz Improvisations

Popular musicsl oomposifions are not created out of thin air; they follow a set of aesthetic principles which distinguishes a l~rticular style. Although a complete set of criteria for the comlx~tion of aesthetically pleasing music has thus far defied formalism, some heuristic principles of aesthetics have been established. For example, in jazz improvisation, Coker (1964) remarks: believe that it should be a basic principle to use repetition, rather than variety but not too much. The listener is constantly making predictions; actual infinitesimal predictious as to whether the next event will be a repetition of something, or something different...if heis too successful in predicting he will be bored; if he is too unsuccessful he will give up and call the music