Strasheela by Leonid Vladimirsky1
Strasheela is a highly expressive constraint-based music composition system.2 The Strasheela user declaratively states a music theory and the computer generates music which complies with this theory. A theory is formulated as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) by a set of rules (constraints) applied to a music representation in which some aspects are expressed by variables (unknowns). Music constraint programming is style-independent and is well-suited for highly complex theories (e.g. a fully-fledged theory of harmony). User-interface is the programming language Oz. The results can be output into various formats including MIDI, Csound, and Lilypond.
Strasheela is developed at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research (ICCMR) at the University of Plymouth.
For the lates changes check the Trac Timeline
Strasheela 0.9.10 released (Changes) (28 March 2009)
Strasheela 0.9.9 released (Changes) (9 March 2009)
Strasheela Monograph (pdf)
Strasheela is developed at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Computer Music Research at the University of Plymouth, and funded by the Le StruM project.
1. Illustration by Leonid Vladimirsky from: Alexandr M. Volkov (1939, revised in 1959). The Wizard of the Emerald City, Soviet Russia Publishers.
2. Strasheela is also the name of an amicable and stubby scarecrow in the children's novel The Wizard of the Emerald City by Alexandr M. Volkov, in which the Russian author retells The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The latter inspired the name for the programming language Oz, which forms the foundation for the Strasheela composition system.
The scarecrow's brain consists only in bran, pins and needles. Nevertheless, he is a brilliant logician and loves to multiply four figure numbers at night. Little is yet known about his interest in music, but Strasheela is reported to sometimes dance and sing with joy.