ABSTRACT
In general, an expert system is a set of computer programs and hardware interfaces to external devices (or even sensors to input data from the external world) intended to solve several problems within the class of problems its knowledge base implies (Sovalmico, 1987). Recent studies regarding methods of Artificial Intelligence in musical applications have focused attention to a sort of “elastic” and multi-dimensional knowledgerepresentation which allows the system to arrange the solution of a specific step with
reference to all aspects of the entire context. This is the case for studies concerning the harmonization of four-part chorales (Ebcioglu, 1985; Ebcioglu, 1988) and the generation of contrapuntal scores (Schottsteadt, 1984). Such systems are requested to observe the input and the output of every single step from multiple viewpoints: vertical intervals, horizontal intervals, overall relevance to the context, rhythmic pattern, linguistic and stylistic appropriateness. The influence of each viewpoint on decision-making must be weighted, depending on the context.
