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5000 Works in Bach Style

For those interested in how Emmy's compositional abilities fare over large numbers of compositions, I have here placed 5000 MIDI files of computer-created Bach-style chorales for download. I have chosen the chorale type of composition for two reasons: (1) because part-writing poses particularly thorny problems for computational creativity (n.b., our use of this form in teaching university music theory classes), since all four voices must move appropriately, and must also convincingly map over a proper harmonic progression; (2) because chorales do not, in my estimation, represent a form that will suffer from the availability of enormous numbers of new iterations.

These chorales were composed with a relatively unified goal in mind, and thus final cadences, meter, and so on will not vary significantly. This should make comparisons between chorales easier. The cadences in these chorales will also not be marked with fermatas as in published chorales. Some notation sequencers will also not load key signatures, meter, or other details appropriately. Other sequencers will cut some notes short (there are no rests in these chorales) or halve or double the overall durations. These parameters, as well as others, will require user definitions.

I have placed these chorales in zipped collections of 500 each in order to minimize the number of downloading links. For those unfamiliar with Zip compression, you will find many freeware unZippers on the Internet. Download one for your operating system and un compress your files following the respective instructions that accompany the freeware.


1-500.
501-1000.
1001-1500.
1501-2000.
2001-2500.
2501-3000.
3001-3500.
3501-4000.
4001-4500.
4501-5000.