Styles

All music can be defined by a certain style. Although this style might be subject to objectivity, it is good to figure out a few predefined rules that make up a general idea of a style.

It is possible for the user to create, adapt and expand the existing styles by setting some very simple variables in the main/config/styles.json file. To keep this documentation compact and informational, I refer to this file for more details on the specific values for a certain style. See below for a list of possible styles.

Styles Object

In the configuration file, it is possible to describe a certain style. This can be done by either setting it as a string (see below), or by setting it as an object. The same tree structure can be used in both the configuration and the style files, but for the latter, it must be contained within the styles-object and must have the style name as key. It has the following fields:

• scale: Either a string, describing one of the types listed below, or a sequence of 12 boolean values, representing the pitches on a chromatic tone scale.
• root: Any note (without its octave number) that has a certain chance of being the last note in a given part. The scale will take this value as the representation of the first boolean value in the corresponding sequence. It basically allows you to say C major (scale = diatonic.major, root=C)
• chance: A value between 0 and 1 that corresponds to a certain chance that any given part will change its last note to the root note. Usually, this value is rather large.
  Note: When the last note is tied in any way, it will not be changed.
• fifths: This represents the key signature of the piece. When 0, no special signature is used. If this value is strictly positive, the first n values (n is the value to which fifths is set) of the below-mentioned sharp list are used (as sharps) for the signature. When strictly negative, we take a look at the first abs(n) values (abs(n) is the absolute value of the fifths value) of the flat list.
  • sharp list: F, C, G, D, A, E, B
  • flat list: B, E, A, D, G, C, F
• bpm: The amount of beats per minute of the score. This determines the tempo for the defined beat-type.
  Note: Since BPM is not a standard way to denote a piece of music, the final tempo of a piece can change from application to application.
• time: The time signature of the score. Contains two fields:
  • beats: The amount of beats per measure.
  • type: The beat-type of the score.
• chord-progression: A string, containing the chord progression per measure, separated by a - sign.
• from: This helper field allows a user to simply identify with which style to merge. It is in fact possible to keep on linking styles to one another, since circular dependencies can and will be checked upon execution.

None of the above fields are required. If they are not set, the value of the default style is used.

Style Types

As said above, there is a possibility to set a certain scale to a string, which can be one of:

• monotonic: All notes are the root, but the octave may differ (modern music).
• chromatic or dodecatonic: All 12 notes/pitches of a certain octave are used.
• diatonic.major: The general major scale.
• diatonic.minor: The general minor scale.
• whole-tone or hexatonic: There are only steps of 2 pitches in between all notes that are played.
• heptatonic.melodic: The melodic minor scale.
• heptatonic.harmonic: The harmonic minor scale, commonly used from the 17th century to the 20th century.
• heptatonic.aeolian: Natural minor scale.
• heptatonic.locrian: 1st permutation of the Aeolian mode.
• heptatonic.ionian: Natural major scale.
• heptatonic.dorian: 3th permutation of the Aeolian mode.
• heptatonic.phrygian: 4th permutation of the Aeolian mode.
• heptatonic.lydian: 5th permutation of the Aeolian mode.
• heptatonic.mixolydian: 6th permutation of the Aeolian mode.
• octatonic, diminished or korsakov: 8-note symmetric scale, usually used in jazz music.

Possible Styles

Here, all possible strings for the style-value in the config file(s) are listed. It's important to note that these strings correspond to the exact key names of the styles-object, described above.

• default: A chromatic tone scale, with its root being the C; and both chance and fifths are 0.
• white-keys: Only use the white keys of a piano.
• black-keys: Only use the black keys of a piano, which is common practice in Oriental music.
• <X>-major: Any major key, where <X> can be one of the following: C, F, B, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#
• <X>-minor: Any minor key, where <X> can be one of the following: A, D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, E, B, F#, C#, G#, D#, A#