Slashdot Mirror
Chess Games Translated To Music
An anonymous reader writes "Blogger Jonathan W. Stokes used algebra to map famous chess games onto a piano, and then outputted the results as MP3s. The tunes created are surprisingly listenable."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
I suspect most of my games would wind up sounding like the piano part to "Louie Louie".
Why is slashdot linked to twitter? Oh wait.....
I like the idea and everything, but it seems disingenuous to "set blues chords in the left hand to justify the constant tonal shifts from B to b flat in this chess game. The chords modulate from C Major to F Major and finally end in B Flat Major." Not really impressive IMO if the algorithmic compositions can't stand on their own.
I wonder if there is a song out there that could be mapped to a chess game. This would be much more difficult (if not impossible) to find one AND have the moves be legal / in the correct order.
It'd make for a heck of a flash movie though.
Victor Borge and Bobby Fischer will perform "In the Hall of the Mountain King's Gambit Accepted."
I've thought of this basic idea years ago, but never got anything working. I think a better algorithm can be made by using the "tension" of a game defined by whether something has an "only move" sacrifice or whether it is a simple positional game. Other factors include how threatening or placid a move is.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
make it stop!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I've heard lots of jazz that was far, far worse.
That would have been funnier if you had adjusted it even slightly to the topic, such as 'Rock out with your rook out!' However I suspect for you it would 'Rock out with your pawn out!' Poor AC.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
I did a chess game-to-music algorithm for a university class back in 1993. The algorithm itself was written into an AREXX script for Amiga. AREXX was a neat scripting language for the Amiga; many software packages included an AREXX port, which exposed an API to the language, so that AREXX programs could control the software. So I had the script read chess notation from my word processor, parse it, calculate the music, and write the notation to my notation software, where I could print it, play it, change instrumentation, etc. I actually used this type of workflow for several different algorithms. The early ones focused on the moves themselves, and later involved concepts like captures and threats. It was fun, and I got an A in the class, but I don't remember producing anything sublime.
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
Seems to me the first thing you'd want is a control game. Convert a game played by two amateurs to music. Or two computers making random legal moves. Do they sound any less listenable?
Or have you just rediscovered basic music theory that random notes in the same key end up sounding like music?
It's pretty clear from listening that it's not following any time pattern; it's got no beat.
These, particularly the second sample (The Opera Game) sound like something Richard D James would do. A certain random, almost generative quality.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Or is it the program that interpreted the chess game into music? That is, would a bunch of random numbers being fed into the program produce just as good of a sound? Sometimes I wonder about these things.
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
This exercise is a waste. We could do a similar exercise with sectors of the lawn your dog chose to piss in and the results would be just as random and useless.
Sometimes I wonder how this stuff makes it onto the main page.
What's being done is starting with a chess game, throwing out most of the information (the positions of non-moving pieces, which piece is moving, and one of the two dimensions of movement), converting (deterministically) what little is left into a sequence of notes, deciding (creatively/non-deterministically) what rhythm to put them in, and deciding (creatively/non-deterministically) how to harmonize them. It's only a mapping between maybe 10% of the game and maybe 20% of the music.
It's a mildly interesting way to "seed" the creative process, but it's neither an impressive intellectual accomplishment (from a musical or mathematical perspective) nor a testament to hidden order in the universe. Most people seem to be misinterpreting it as one (or paradoxically both) of those.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
"This content has been blocked in accordance with (my company) Webfilter Policies.
URL: jonathanwstokes.com/2011/02/14/chess-music/
Category: Pornography"
Hmmm....
And with your comment, can I add that he's just been pawned?
The important question is how does the sofa get round that bend in the stairs?
The idea of using fairly random or non-musical elements in composing music is definitely not a new idea: John Cage famously created a piece using the I Ching as the source of randomness. The thing is, how it sounds depends largely on how you set the parameters you randomize. For instance, if you allow pitch to change because somebody played Qd2, but have all the notes at the same volume, the most noticeable effect will be the relatively constant volume.
And yes, I am a music geek who's even composed a few things this way that came out not half-bad.
I am officially gone from
You could probably easily adapt this script that plays random-ish music to get the input from this type of mapping to chess moves, as well. :) (plays directly to /dev/dsp)
http://kmkeen.com/awk-music/
However I suspect for you it would 'Rock out with your pawn out!' Poor AC.
Yeah. Always gets the check, never gets to mate.
"Outputted" - seriously? More coffee for the poster methinks. Or a spell check enabled browser.
I don't get it. How exactly is this disrespect? Everybody seems all fired up, but why?
Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
What they need to do next is to map a companies financial reports to music. That might make some money if the government doesn't buy it out.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
Number of players: 0
Computer chooses: Toccata and Fugue in D minor (white)
Computer chooses: Louie Louie (black)
Start game.
The only winning move is Jam Session.
Next thing you know some lawyer will be running around getting people to reveal what they aren't telling him by playing an elaborate game of mental chess.
Any comments made by the owner of this signature should be disregarded as irrelevant, uninformed, and idiotic.
Back in 2009, I did something very similar with one of the 1997 Kasparov vs. Deep Blue games.
One difference is that I used a chess engine, and made the search tree audible, so you can hear the chess computer "thinking". Here's my original blog article: http://www.krazydad.com/blog/2009/05/musical-chess/ and here's video from the concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42G6P0b72Gk
I've heard a lot of music which was a product of "human creativity", and not even a little bit pleasing.
i was already working on 'audiobrain' for pChess - mapping move scores to pitch, but jon stokes system for mapping square values to note and octave makes too much sense - using Bflat for B, and Bnatural for the H column is just genius, and provides the missing link - i sense a new feature coming to pChess.. :-}
pChess (open source chess application for OS X)
I've been listening to these so long, I don't even hear the music anymore. All I see is pawn, knight, redhead.
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble...
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
I highly doubt you would find anything that worked. Here's just a few things that would narrow down the list quite dramatically: First, there would have to be an even number of notes in the song, which wouldn't be that hard to find, but it eliminates about half of all songs. Second, the entire song would have to be played without any sharps/flats (black keys) except B flat/A sharp (though that could probably be obtained from many songs by transposing). Third, there could be exactly one "rest" (no note played) and it would have to appear at the very end of the song. Fourth, the song would have to consist entirely of 16th, 8th, quarter, and half notes. Fifth, the song would have to be entirely in a single octave, with the exception that notes in the next highest octave would be permitted if preceded by an identical note in the lower octave.
And these don't even incorporate the rules of chess... every two notes would have to correspond to a valid chess move.
SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.