Algorithmic composition dates to around 1026, when Guido d'Arezzo used vowels in the text of a choral piece to determine the pitches in the melody. Then in the 1400's Guillaume Dufay also used algorithmic techniques.
In the structure of medieval education under the name of the Seven Liberal Arts, mathematical knowledge was used within architecture and music and this complex interaction is what made the Gothic cathedral perceivable.
Gothic architecture has a middle part, which is between right and left, it is three times, you have three entry doors, you have three galleries, and you have two towers, So it is symmetrical and based on numbers and proportions and relationships.
In Florence, we know of the commission for a musical composition for the Consecration of the Dome in Florence. This composition used the architectural proportions of the golden section of the building. It was Guillaume Dufay who composed a motet with the proportions of the golden section of the building and its title Nuper Rosarum Flores. Both the dome and the motet were comprised of a set of proportions or mathematical ratios of 6 to 4 and 2 to 3.
Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect, overcame problems of space and lack of foundation. He used his knowledge of ancient Roman buildings like the Basilica of Constantine, combined with his knowledge of engineering and created a double dome. The upper sections were made of brick, which was lighter than stone and was the primary building material of the day, and he used a pointed arched dome, which was more efficient than a rounded arch dome.
Mozart's dice music is an example in more recent time of the algorithmic stochastic technique; a random process which controls some aspect of the selection of melodic material, and the repeated invocation of the algorithm will yield different results.
Your assignment will be to identify the Golden Section in a period after the construction of Brunelleschi's dome and Dufay's motet.
Also identify a recent collaboration of music and architecture in the United States which involved Frank Lloyd Wright.
The MIDI is Nuper Rosarum Flores, by Guillaume Dufay.
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