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Integrating Constraints and Concurrent Objects in Musical Applications: A Calculus and its Visual Language

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Abstract

We propose PiCO, a calculus integrating concurrent objects and constraints, as a base for music composition tools. In contrast with calculi such as NiehrenMueller:Free, milner.parrow.ea:calculus-mobile or TyCO vasconcelos:typed-concurrent, both constraints and objects are primitive notions in PiCO. In PiCO a base object model is extended with constraints by orthogonally adding the notion of constraint system found in the ρ-calculus OzCalculus. Concurrent processes make use of a constraint store to synchronize communications either via the ask and tell operations of the constraint model or the standard message-passing mechanism of the object model. A message delegation mechanism built into the calculus allows encoding of general forms of inheritance. This paper includes encodings in PiCO of the concepts of class and sub-class. These allow us to represent complex partially defined objects such as musical structures in a compact way. We illustrate the transparent interaction of constraints and objects by a musical example involving harmonic and temporal relations. The relationship between Cordial, a visual language for music composition applications, and its underlying model PiCO is described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, cl 18 118-250, via Pance, Cali, Colombia

    Camilo Rueda, Gloria Alvarez, Luis O. Quesada, Gabriel Tamura & Frank Valencia

  2. Department of Computer Science, Universidad del Valle, ciudad universitaria Meléndez, Cali, Colombia

    Juan Francisco Díaz

  3. IRCAM, 1 pl Igor Stravinski, 75004, Paris, France

    Gerard Assayag

Authors
  1. Camilo Rueda
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  2. Gloria Alvarez
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  3. Luis O. Quesada
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  4. Gabriel Tamura
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  5. Frank Valencia
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  6. Juan Francisco Díaz
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  7. Gerard Assayag
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Rueda, C., Alvarez, G., Quesada, L.O. et al. Integrating Constraints and Concurrent Objects in Musical Applications: A Calculus and its Visual Language. Constraints 6, 21–52 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009849309451

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009849309451