ICMC 2015 Sept. 25 - Oct.

1, 2015 CEMI, University of North Texas

Witold Lutosawski an Algorithmic Music Composer?

Stanislaw Krupowicz
Computer Composition Studio,
Karol Lipinski Academy of Music, Wroclaw, Poland
stk@amuz.wroc.pl
many implementations of models derived from natural sciences and formal linguistics.

ABSTRACT
Many elements of Witold Lutosawskis musical language
comprise a scheme which displays the characteristics of a
formal system. If a model for such a system is precise
enough, there is a temptation to find an algorithm realizing
the composers ideas that could be used in a real musical
context. Once a proper algorithm is found, the computer
program realizing it can be written. Two elements of the
composers language have been chosen to be modelled here
as formal systems: his distinctive harmony of 12-tone chordaggregates, and his equally distinctive technique of creating
melodies by pairing intervals. A formal model has been developed for each of them. Computer programs implementing
such algorithms will be shown and applied in order to generate several excerpts from Lutosawskis music. Their usefulness and effectiveness in testing various possible outcomes of the composers compositional goals will be emphasized.

1. INTRODUCTION
In the twentieth century, composers of computerized algorithmic music have adopted many different models for shaping their compositions, including models taken from various
scientific disciplines. The oldest and the most commonly
used tools for the pre-compositional decisions are those belonging to mathematics (and it is well known that
Lutosawski studied mathematics to a relatively advanced
level, in parallel with the beginning of his studies at the
Warsaw Conservatory of Music). Geometry has been used
in polyphony for isometric transformations of melodic line
such as inversion, retrograde and inversion of retrograde,
algebra for numerical operations on notes represented by
numbers and combinatorics for rearrangement of music
structures. There are other elements of music which could
be described by an algorithm and solved by computers, including: density of texture, rhythmic patterns, tempo changes, articulation, and distribution of dynamics. Applications
of probability calculus, particularly continuous and stochastic processes, are fairly recent ones. There have also been
Copyright: 2015 S. Krupowicz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0
Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The history of music provides many examples of composition techniques in which a finite source material is
subject to the combinatorial treatment. The twentieth century brought, among others, serial techniques, which are
perfectly suitable for algorithmic transformations performed by computers. The same is true with Lutosawskis
technique of controlled aleatorism. Both of these techniques
were created before computers were introduced to music, so
it seems that some composers anticipated the appearance of
computers in music.
The algorithms used by Lutosawski are of two types: the
combinatorial kind; and those based on discrete probability
calculus. Combinatorial algorithms can be traced both in his
technique for composing certain kinds of melodic lines, and
in his way of designing the harmonic structure. Discrete
probability algorithms manifest themselves in aleatoric sections and heterophonic bundles of melodic lines. The
following chart summarizes the algorithms that could be
found in Lutosawskis music:
! Combinatorial
o Melody
o Harmony
o Complementary sets of pitches1
o Selective octave transfer as a method of linking the
consecutive 12-tone chords2
! Discrete probability calculus
o Collective ad libitum (controlled aleatorism)
o Bundle of individual melodic lines (heterophony).

2. LUTOSAWSKIS ALGORITHMS
Two examples of using combinatorial algorithms in
Lutosawskis music are presented below. The first one is
used for generating melodic lines, the second for the generating twelve-tone harmony.
2.1 Melody
Constructing melodic lines as a combination of two types of
interval-classes seems to be Lutosawskis predominant
1

M. Homma, Witold Lutosawski. Zwlfton-Harmonik Formbildung

aleatorischer Kontrapunkt. Bela Verlag, 1996, pp. 185-188.
2
S. Stucky, Lutosawski and his music. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

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ICMC 2015 Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2015 CEMI, University of North Texas

technique for creating melodies in his late pieces. He uses

pairs of interval-classes interchangeably. The flowchart of
such an algorithm is presented below (Figure 1):

It should be noted that every execution of the program

generates a different melody for the given parameters; but
each result fulfills the characteristics and constraints determined by the algorithm.
Although Lutosawski tended to use pairs of intervalclasses interchangeably, it is possible to wave aside this
constraint and to build melodies from two interval-classes
more freely, without the necessity of constant swapping
from one to another. Such a generalization of Lutosawskis
idea has also been tested here and is shown in the following
algorithm (Figure 3):

Figure 1. Interval-class pairing for melodies.

This algorithm has been implemented in OpenMusic. The

program presented below (Figure 2) generates a set of melodies based on the 2+5 pairing of interval-classes (major
seconds and minor sevenths paired with perfect fourths and
perfect fifths), the pairing that Lutosawski used, for example, in the 5th Movement of his Partita, bars 9-12.3 The
snapshot of the program shows the original melody and one
of the instances of melody constructed by the algorithm:
Figure 3. Melodic interval-class pairing with any order of
interval-classes.

The computer program realizing this algorithm makes use

of the OpenMusic cree-varliste routine, which is an example
of heuristic programming. The program finds a solution by
trial and error within imposed constraints. Again, every run
of the program creates a different instance of a melody built
exclusively of the given interval-class pair. The snapshot of
the program is given below (Figure 4):

Figure 2. Interchangeable melodic interval-class pairing in the OpenMusic program.

3

C. Bodman Rae. The Music of Lutosawski. Faber and Faber Ltd., 1994,
pp. 64-65.

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ICMC 2015 Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2015 CEMI, University of North Texas

such variations. Then it creates and counts all 2-element

variations with repetitions from the set of twelve intervals 0,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. There are 122=144 such variations. Since three component chords can be separated by
two intervals (measured from their roots), we get
1000*144=144,000 chord-aggregates. To obtain all possible
chords built this way, one has to take a Cartesian product of
set of all 3-element variations with repetitions of the set of
component chords and the set of 2-element variations with
repetitions of intervals. Not all of them are true 12-tone
chords since some of the pitches are duplicated. In the next
step, the algorithm filters them out, so that we are left only
with 12-tone chord-aggregates that do not contain any pitch
duplications. Once this was done only 212 of the 144,000
12-tone chords-aggregates remained. The flowchart of the
this algorithm is shown below (Figure 6):

Figure 4. Melodic interval-class pairing in any order, using the OpenMusic program.

2.2 Harmony
Harmony of 12-tone chords is one of the most innovative
inventions of Lutosawskis compositional technique. He
defined several types of such chords:
! Defined by number of intervals between the adjacent notes.
o elementary: 1 interval; there are only 2 such chords (interval-classes 1 or 5)
o simple : 2 intervals; there are only 15 such chords
o complex: 3 or more intervals; there are many such
chords
! Chord-aggregates: different component chords of fixed
amount of notes separated by fixed set of intervals.
o if the component chords are 4-tone chords then there are
2 separating intervals
o if the component chords are 3-tone chords then there are
3 separating intervals
o if the component chords are 6-tone chords then there is 1
separating interval
Chords-aggregates (or chord complexes) made up of 4tone chords are the most commonly used, so this type of
harmony will be discussed here. Figure 5 presents the computer program, which is able to generate all 12-tone chordaggregates, composed of the 4-tone component chords as
proposed by Charles Bodman Rae:4

Figure 5. Four-tone components of Lutosawski's chordaggregates.

The algorithm creates and counts all 3-element variations with repetitions from the set of ten component 4-tone
chords labelled a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, j, k. There are 103=1000
4

ibid., p. 54.

Figure 6. Algorithm for constructing all 12-tone chordaggregates built of three 4-tone chords.

The snapshot of the program written in OpenMusic in

order to realize this algorithm is shown below (Figure 7).

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ICMC 2015 Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2015 CEMI, University of North Texas

All 12-tone chord-aggregates are printed both in music notation and with the letter codes introduced by Bodman Rae.
Obviously, both output windows in the snapshot are too
small to show all of them, but in the real world (i.e. when
the program is executed) they can be scrolled up and down,
so all results can be examined.

Figure 7. Algorithm for chord-aggregate harmony, programmed in OpenMusic.

The program can also be used to demonstrate the sequences of 12-tone chord-aggregates embedded in various
pieces by Lutosawski. One can take as an example the
opening sequence of Lutosawskis Mi-Parti (1975-1976) as
shown below in Figure 8:

3. CONCLUSIONS
The algorithms and programs presented here show that significant elements of Lutosawskis compositional technique
can be algorithmized and therefore computerized. An additional bonus of such programs is that they make it quicker
and easier to perform analytical procedures that would otherwise be time-consuming and even somewhat tedious.
Once the suitable program has been developed, it can serve
not only to mimic particular melodic or harmonic solutions
preferred by Lutosawski, but it can also be helpful in exploring other possibilities embedded in Lutosawskis musical language.
For a composer who would like to adopt some elements
of Lutosawskis technique, the fundamental questions are:
how idiomatic is it; and, does it imply a unique style? My
own experience as a composer suggests the negative answer
to these questions. Despite using some of Lutosawskis
technical ideas in my own music, it seems to me that my
music does not evoke any stylistic associations with the
music of Lutosawski. This would mean that his compositional technique is essentially neutral with regard to the stylistic character of the resulting music, and that it could be
applied in different ways to produce different and stylistically personal results.
The algorithms presented here represent just the beginning of the computer-aided analysis of Lutosawskis musical language. Further research needs to be done and no
doubt will be done. The time has come for us to move beyond the nineteenth-century paradigms of music analysis
and to revive the more objective methods of analysis that
prevailed in earlier times. Paradoxically, computers can be
of the utmost importance for this process.

4. REFERENCES
[1] M. Homma, Witold Lutosawski. Zwlfton-Harmonik Formbildung aleatorischer Kontrapunkt. Bela Verlag, 1996.
[2] S. Stucky, Lutosawski and his music. Cambridge University
Press, 1981.
[3] C. Bodman Rae, The Music of Lutosawski. Faber and Faber
Ltd., 1994.

Figure 8. Mi-Parti, opening string harmony in Figures 1-8

(generated by the OpenMusic program).

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