ABSTRACT
Composers have long-used clearly defined rules, procedures, and guiding principles in their compositional processes. Wind chimes, music boxes, and musical dice games are all algorithmic approaches that predate the use of computers, and, yet, today, computer-based algorithms facilitate composition in an efficient and ubiquitous way. This chapter explores algorithmic approaches to composing Western tonal music, electroacoustic music, algorithms used in video games, and other use cases that have valuable implications for the pedagogy of electronic music. The overview includes some analysis of compositions that use algorithms and, relatedly, the composition of algorithms.
