Divine Rationality: Computational Transcription Of Chants And Parametric Structuring For Compositions For Voices And Instruments

Our ongoing research into computational ethnomusicol-
ogy, undertaken first in the project Computational Ethno-
musicology and continuing in the projects Tunes and Tales
and Sounding Philosophy, has allowed for a better under-
standing of the roles of scales, melodic contour and tuning
in Jewish, Islamic and Christian chant traditions. While
this research has also given way to new modes of notating
chant cultures via computational means, it has also had a
profound effect on the creation of what Dániel Péter Biró
has termed historicized composition, a way of creating
compositions that respond to, in this case, the historical de-
velopment of chant traditions. To this end, the methodolo-
gies used for computational transcription of these chant
traditions have been incorporated in compositional
sketches and in innovative notational frameworks for new
vocal music compositions. The following paper explores
the methodology of this research, its technical properties
and resulting compositional output, presenting examples
from vocal and instrumental compositions completed be-
tween 2014 and 2022. Finally, we propose future work in
these interdisciplinary research areas.