Generative Composition from Chess Position
I'm working on a university project that aims to produce a unique score to accompany a realtime chess game, where each component of the composition (rhythm, melody, harmony) is derived from some aspect of the current position on the board. I've already developed a program which can receive the positions from lichess (online chess platform), and I plan to keep track of each piece's position, passing these numbers into max to use as parameters for the composition. Ideally I want there to be little to no randomness in the algorithm so that identical chess games will create pieces of music that resemble each other, giving every unique game its own score.
I have already got some ideas about tracking the separate pieces using the pictslider object, using the 8 by 8 grid of a chess board as scale degrees to generate melodies, perhaps with a separate parameter (king position?) controlling the key.
The layout of the board also lends itself extremely well to rhythm programming, perhaps using the pawn structure.
Does anyone with an interest in generative composition have any tips on how I should get started with the max side of things?
As a chess player and composer I find this super interesting !
I would love to know more about it ! If you don't mind, please share your progress here !
Not 8x8, but a favorite when it comes to music from a physical grid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-llMucpM7Cw