Concept Invention and Music: Creating Novel Harmonies via Conceptual Blending

Conceptual blending is a cognitive theory whereby elements from diverse, but structurally-related, mental spaces are “blended” giving rise to new conceptual spaces that often possess new powerful interpretative properties, allowing better understanding of known concepts or the emergence of novel concepts altogether. This paper provides an overview of the wide computational methodological spectrum that is being developed towards building an automatic melodic harmonization system that employs conceptual blending, yielding harmonizations that inherit characteristics from multiple idioms. Examples of conceptual blending in harmony are presented that exhibit the effectiveness of the developed model in inventing novel harmonic concepts. These examples discuss the invention of well-known jazz cadences through blending the underlying concepts of classical music cadences, as well as the construction of larger chord sequences. Furthermore, examples of a conceptual blending interpretation in human compositions that motivated the goals of the system’s design are given. Finally, conceptual blending between harmonic and non-harmonic domains is discussed, offering tools that allow for intuitive human intervention in the harmonization process.