algorithmic music generator
infinite realtime composition for computer-controlled piano
© 1992-2020 by Karlheinz Essl
vs. 6.0 (64-bit)NEW
for macOS and Windows

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• Lexikon Sonate

released: 20 May 2020 (Freeware)

1. The Real Time Composition Library (RTC-lib) was developed during my extensive work on Lexikon-Sonate (1992 ff.), an interactive realtime composition for computer-controlled piano. Regardless the fact that it was conceived for a specific project it became more and more obvious that its functionalities are open and generic enough to be used.
2. LEXIKON-SONATE is a work-in-progress which was started in 1992. Instead of being a composition in which the structure is fixed by notation, it manifests itself as a computer program that composes the piece - or, more precisely: an excerpt of a virtually endless piano piece - in real time.

Essl, «Lexikon-Sonate. An interactive realtime composition for computer-controlled piano», in Proceedings of the «II Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music» (Canela 1995), 1995. Borgdorff, «The Debate on Research in the Arts», Sensuous Knowledge. Bergen National Academy of the Arts 2 (2006).

'The compositions generated by Lexikon-Sonate are surprisingly pleasant and interesting, mainly because of the ingenious manner in which tempo and volume vary and in particular due to a liberal use of pauses and silence. Many composition automatons suffer not from a lack of variety but from an inability to take a breather. Hats off to Herr Essl for this wonderful gift.' (kornball)VersionTracker - 11 Aug 2004:

General

• Why is there no MIDI anymore?
• Download

Listen

• Yamaha Disklavier
  Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Yamaha Disklavier
  Brisbane, NIME 2016 Conference, 12 Jul 2016
• Bösendorfer SE Grand Piano - world premier
  Großer Sendesaal des Österreichischen Rundfunks, Vienna (Austria),10 Feb 1994

Watch

• Yamaha Disklavier
  Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Yamaha Disklavier
  Brisbane, NIME 2016 Conference, 12 Jul 2016
• Steinway with vibration speaker
  Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Steinway, equipped with a transducer
  The Hague, Royal Conservatory of Music, 29 Nov 2014
• Laptop performance
  Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on his laptop
  Montreal, Concordia University, 23 Sep 2011
• Bösendorfer CEUS
  Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
  Vienna, Bösendorfer-Saal, 12 Dec 2008

More information...

• Articles

Abstract

Lexikon-Sonate is an interactive realtime composition environment for musical composition and live performances. It takes advantage of composition algorithms that has been developed by Karlheinz Essl since 1985. With this algorithmic music generator on can create fascinating and complex musical structures on the fly. Furthermore, Lexikon-Sonate is an infinite music installation that can run on a computer for years without repeating itself. Finally, Lexikon-Sonate can be used as an instrument for live performance of algorithmic piano music.
Lexikon-Sonate est un environnement interactif de composition en temps réel permettant de créer rapidement des structures musicales complexes. Il peut être utilisé comme installation sonore ou comme instrument pour performance live.
Lexikon-Sonate es un entorno de composición interactivo en tiempo real para composición musical y actuaciones en vivo. Aprovecha los algoritmos de composición que ha desarrollado Karlheinz Essl desde 1985. Con este generador de música algorítmico, puede crear estructuras musicales complejas y fascinantes sobre la marcha. Además, Lexikon-Sonate es una instalación de música infinita que puede ejecutarse en una computadora durante años sin repetirse. Finalmente, Lexikon-Sonate se puede utilizar como instrumento para la interpretación en vivo de música algorítmica de piano.

About

Lexikon-Sonate - a work-in-progress started in 1992 - is nowadays considered as a milestone in the field of algorithmic composition. Insteadof being a composition the structure of which is fixed by notation, itmanifests itself as a computer program that composes the piece - or, moreprecisely: an excerpt of a virtually endless piano piece - in real time.Lexikon-Sonate lacks two characteristics of a traditional piano piece:

there is no pre-composed text to be interpreted, and

there is no need for a pianist or an interpreter.

Instead, the instructions for playing the piano - the indication 'which key should be pressed how quickly and held down for how long' - are directly generated by a computer program and transmitted immediately to a player piano (or a software sampler) which executes them.

Navigation map of the electronic Lexikon-Roman
© 1992-98 by Libraries of the Mind

The title Lexikon-Sonate refers to the 'Lexikon-Roman', written in 1968-70 by the Austrian-Slovakian author Andreas Okopenko. This novel appears to be one of the very first literary HyperTexts, independently of Ted Nelson who introduced this term about the same time. This novel - 'a sentimental journey to a meeting of exporters in Druden' (subtitle) - consists of several hundred small chapters which were brought into alphabetical order. By reference arrows as in a lexicon the reader could make her own investigations through the multiple nested web structure of the text. Instead of presenting a sequential text with a predefined direction of reading, Okopenko provides a structure of possibilities, which challenges the reader to become a creator of her own version of this novel.

Excerpt of Karlheinz Essl's lecture The Chances of Chance
University of Nottingham, 2 Feb 2016

Originally, Lexikon-Sonate was conceived as a musical commentary to an electronic implementation of Okopenko's 'Lexikon-Roman', carried out by the interdisciplinary group 'Libraries of the Mind'. But soon afterwards it started its own life due to its manifold ramifications, becoming an outstanding example in the domain of algorithmic composition.

Lexikon-Sonate consists of a variety of music-generation modules (so-called structure generators) which are related in a very complex way as a musical HyperText. Each module generates a specific characteristic musical output as a result of the compositional strategy that has been applied. A module represents an abstract model of a specific musical behaviour. It does not contain any pre-organized musical material, but a formal description of it and the methods how it is being processed.

These modules are structural re-implementations of piano gestures obtained by analysis of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schönberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen and Cecil Taylor. They will never appear as verbal quotation (because none of this gestures has been 'sampled'), but mainly as 'allusion'. Furthermore, they are open and generic enough so that different modules playing at the same time can intermingle, creating unpredictable meta-structures.

Installation at KLANGTURM ST. POELTEN (summer 1998): Lexikon-Projekt
Computer-Stele (design: Regina Freimüller) - Yamaha Disklavier

The idea of autopoiesis - material organizing itself due to certain constraints - plays an important rule. By using a lot of different random generators which are controlling each other (which - according to serial thinking - form a scale between a completely deterministic and a completely chaotic behaviour), always new variants of the same model are generated. Variants that may differ dramatically from each other, though they are always perceptable as 'inheritances' of the given structural model. Seen in this light, Lexikon-Sonate can be perceived rather as a meta-composition which enables the unfolding of piano music than a fixed work.

Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
Bösendorfersaal, Vienna (12 Dec 2008)
© 2008 by Wladimir Fried

The underlying program was written in MaxMSP (© 1990-2015 IRCAM / Cycling '74), an interactive graphical programming environment for multimedia, music, and MIDI. Having worked with computers for many years - designing my own xLOGO-based software environment for Computer Aided Composition - I felt the challenge to write an interactive computer program which is able to compose in real time. For this purpose I took advantage of my Real Time Composition Library (RTC-lib), a collection of MAX-objects designed for musical composition which includes a variety of musical functions, compositional techniques, and algorithmic strategies.

Listen

Lexikon-Sonate (1992 ff.) performed by the composer on a Yamaha Disklavier
NIME Conference 2016, Brisbane (Australia)
Jul 12th, 2016

Lexikon-Sonate (1992 ff.) performed on a Bösendorfer SE Grand Piano - world premier
Großer Sendesaal des Österreichischen Rundfunks, Vienna (Austria)
Feb 10th, 1994

Watch

Lexikon-Sonate (1992 ff.) performed by the composer on a Yamaha Disklavier
12 Jul 2016, NIME Conference 2016 (Brisbane, Australia)

Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Steinway, equipped with a transducer
29 Nov 2014, The Hague (Royal Conservatory of Music)

Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on his laptop
23 Sep 2011, Montreal (Concordia University)

Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
12 Dec 2008, Vienna (Bösendorfer-Saal)

Articles

English

• Karlheinz Essl: Lexikon-Sonate. An Interactive Realtime Composition forComputer-Controlled Piano; in: Proceedings of the 'II BrazilianSymposium on Computer Music' (1995). - Extended reprint: Musik im virtuellen Raum. KlangArt-Kongreß 1997 (Osnabrück 2000)
• Gerhard Eckel: About theInstallation of Karlheinz Essl's Lexikon-Sonate at the BanffCentre for the Arts, Canada (1995)
• Karlheinz Essl: Composing in a Changing Society (1995)
• @nonymus: Paraphernalia on Lexikon-Sonate (1996)
• Joanna King: Profile Karlheinz Essl - radio feature (Radio Austria International, 23 Mar 1997)
• Gerhard Eckel: Technological Musical Artifacts; in: Procedures of the International Symposium on Music and Computers, Ionian University (Corfu/Greece 1998)
• Robert Rowe: Machine Musicianship, p. 306-308 (MIT Press 2001)
• Golo Föllmer: NET MUSIC: interview with Karlheinz Essl; in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. 5/2004 - CD-ROM addition (Mainz 2004)
• Daniel Jones, Andrew R. Brown, Mark d’Inverno: The Extended Composer, in: Computers and Creativity, ed. by Jon McCormack and Mark d’Inverno, p. 812. Springer: Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London 2012.
• Karlheinz Essl: The Chances of Chance, Keynote for the 7th Conference of the European Research Network Sociology of the Arts: ARTISTIC PRACTICES. University of Music and Performing Arts (Vienna 2012)
• Magdalena Halay and Karlheinz Essl, Composing with Algorithms. Skype conversation on 30th March, 2015
• Magdalena Helen Halay, The Audibility Of Algorithms In Algorithmically Aided Compositions. Bachelor Thesis, University of Edingburgh (2015)

German

• Gertrud Schmutzer: Lexikon-Sonate von Karlheinz Essl. Pressetextanläßlich der Uraufführung im ORF Kunstradio(1994)
• Karlheinz Essl: Lexikon-Sonate. Darmstadt-Lecture 1994; in: ton-gemisch. darmstadt-lectures, ed. by Lothar Knessl (Wien 1995)
• Lothar Knessl / Karlheinz Essl: Zeit-Ton: radio feature (Austrian Radio, 11 Dez 1994)
• Bernhard Günther: Irreal-Enzyklopädie - einer metaphorischen Reise - zur Lexikon-Sonate von Karlheinz Essl (1995)
• Clemens Hausmann: Kunstrezeption und ästhetischer Gegenstand.- Vierter Teil: Anwendung und Diskussion des Modells: Andreas Okopenko,'Lexikon-Roman' / Karlheinz Essl, Lexikon-Sonate (phil. Diss.,Salzburg 1995).
• Karlheinz Essl: Plädoyerfür 'Das Offene Kunstwerk' (1995).
• Karlheinz Essl: Strukturgeneratoren. Algorithmische Komposition in Echtzeit (Graz 1996).
• Reinhard Kager, Die Poesie des Augenblicks; in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 2/98 (Mainz 1998).
• Karlheinz Essl / Bernhard Günther: Realtime Composition; in: Positionen, ed. by Gisela Nauck (Berlin 1998).
• Karlheinz Essl: Lexikalische Metamorphosen. Vom Lexikon-Roman zum ELEX zur Lexikon-Sonate zum Lexikon-Orakel und zum Lexikon-Projekt (Praha 1998).
• Karlheinz Essl / Hanns Abele: Komponieren im Cyberspace - internet radio feature (Vienna, 29 Dec 1998)
• Andrea Zschunke: web@rt - Akustische Kunst im Netz - radio feature (Südwestfunk, 14 Jun 1999)
• Hanno Ehrler: www.essl.at - Der Wiener Komponist Karlheinz Essl - radio feature (Bayerischer Rundfunk, 9 Sep 1999)
• Karlheinz Essl, In's Offene - Musik ohne Netz (ÖMZ 2011)
• Kurt Danner, Komponieren im Cybersp@ce. Analytische Aspekte zur Musik im Internet anhand Karlheinz Essls 'Lexikon-Sonate' (...)
  Diplomarbeit am Institut für Musikanalytik an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien (Wien 2002)
• Guerrino Mazzola: Elemente der Musikinformatik, p. 176 f. (Birkhäuser Verlag: Basel 2006) - ISBN: 978-3-7745-8
• Florian Cramer: Patapysische Klangmaschinen; Katalog zur Ausstellung Zauberhafte Klangmaschinen (Institut für Medienarchäologie, Hainburg 2008)
• Sven Hinz: E wie Elektronik; Radiosendung, BR4 Klassik (15 Sep 2008)
• Patrick Hahn: Digitale Paradiese; Radiosendung, WDR 3 Klassik (13 Jan 2010)
• Samuel Gfeller: Algorithmische Komposition und Live-Elektronik; Bachelor's Thesis (Hochschule der Künste, Bern 2010)
• Elisa Holz: Digitale Dialektik; in: upgrade, Magazin für Wissen und Weiterbildung der Donau-Universität Krems, Ausgabe 2.11 (Süddeutscher Verlag: München 2011), p. 22-25. - ISSN: 1862-4154
• Stefan Drees: Das computergesteuerte Klavier als Medium zur Analyse kulturgeschichtlicher Kontexte? Eine Bestandsaufnahme anhand von Arbeiten Peter Ablingers, Olga Neuwirths und Karlheinz Essls; in: Symposion 'Transformation des Klaviers in Musik und Kunst nach 1940', Musikinstrumenten-Museum des Staatlichen Instituts für Musikforschung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin 2.-4 März 2012)
• Eileen Schreiber: Algorithmische Komposition im Schaffen Karlheinz Essls. Interview mit Karlheinz Essl am 14.08.2012.
• Florian Hartlieb, Kunst komponieren. Der Einfluss generativer Verfahren auf das Schaffen von Karlheinz Essl; in: positionen. Texte zur aktuellen Musik, Bd. 99: Generative Kunst, hrsg. von Gisela Nauck (Berlin 2014), p. 22-22.
• Steffen Scholl, Lexikon-Sonate - Karlheinz Essl; in: Musik – Raum – Technik. Zur Entwicklung und Anwendung der graphischen Programmierumgebung »Max« (transcript Verlag: Berlin 2014), ISBN 978-3-8376-2527-1, p. 195-201.
• Karlheinz Essl: Komponieren im Spannungsfeld von Intuition und Algorithmik. Vortrag beim Österreichischen Wissenschaftstag 2017 zum Thema Automatisierung: Wechselwirkung mit Kunst, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft (2017)

Dutch / Flemish

• Lieven Bertels: Mijn vriend de computer; in: De Morgen (Belgium, 27 June 1998)

Italian

• Amedeo Gaggiolo: Iper-Sonata per pianoforte (o.J.)

Dansk

• Morten Breinbjerg: Algoritmisk komposition - computerens eller komponistens musik?, p. 12-13; in: Cæcilia årbog 1995-97. Musikvidenskabeligt Institut, Aahus universitet.

Recordings on CD

• Rudiments (© 1995 by Karlheinz Essl): excerpt of the premiere within the radio program Kunstradio (Vienna, 10.2.1994) featuring the Bösendorfer SE Grand Piano.
• Road to Chaos (© 1996 by Soundprint): excerpt of a concert (Toronto, 10 Mar 1996) featuring the Yamaha Disklavier.

License

Lexikon-Sonate is a composition of Karlheinz Essl. It is distributed as freeware and protected by copyright. As far as the entire content of the original distribution is not changed and no money is charged, this program may be spread freely and can also be included in CD-ROMS and Internet archives.

The work provided here for download is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. You are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
• Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• No Derivative Works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.

What's new in version 5.0?

• much better sound quality as you can load your favorite VST Piano Sampler (such as Pianoteq or Addictive Keys) as the playback device
• new structure generator „Zheng”
• new user interface
• runs with macOS 10.10 and higher
• first release for Windows - thanks to Robert Falesch

Why is there no MIDI anymore?

First of all because it is not necessary any more. In earlier times, the sound quality of the built-in Quicktime piano was extremly poor. That's why previous shareware versions of Lexikon-Sonate had to have the MIDI output which allows for connecting to a MIDI synthesizer (or a Yamaha Disklavier) in order to obtain a good piano sound.

As some people have misused the MIDI feature for generating musical structures to be used for their own compositions, I decided to prevent this by disabling the MIDI facility. One should also be aware that the Creative Commons Licence under which Lexikon-Sonate is released does not allow derivative works.

With the new version 5.0 (released on June 1st, 2018), you can load your favorite VST Piano PlugIn (such as Pianoteq or Addictive Keys) as a playback device for HiFi piano sound.

However, there exists a MIDI-fied version which I exclusively use for my own performances of Lexikon-Sonate. For public installations of Lexikon-Sonate with a Yamaha Disklavier, I am willing to supply a MIDI-fied version on the basis of negotiation. In this case, email me.

Download

Lexikon-Sonate 6.0 (64-bit) for macOS 10.14 or later NEW released 20 May 2020: ZIP archive (17.3 MB)

Lexikon-Sonate 5.0 for macOS 10.10 or later released 1 Jun 2018: ZIP archive (26.9 MB)

Lexikon-Sonate 5.0 for Windows released 19 Jun 2018: ZIP archive (11.9 MB)

Lexikon-Sonate 4.0.1 for Mac OS X (10.4. or later) - for Intel and PPC processors released 5 Dec 2010: ZIP archive (10.6 MB)

Lexikon-Sonate 3.3 for Mac OS X (10.4.11 - 10.6) - for Intel and PPC processors using Quicktime Sounds as output device released 22 Dec 2009: ZIP archive (6.4 MB)

Lexicon Sentence Examples

More music software by Karlheinz Essl

REplay PLAYer (© 2000-2013) generative sound file shredder REplay PLAYer is a computer program that de-constructs a given sound file and re-composes it by using realtime composition algorithms. It can be used as a tool to generate an infinite and every-changing sonic stream from a single sound file for artistic, compositional or mere recreational purposes. It can also be regarded as a computer based instrument for live performances, as an interactive sound installation or a generator for ambient music.

fLOW (© 1998-2013) ambient soundscape generator fLOW is an audio computer program running on Apple Macintosh machines. It generates an ever-changing and never repeating soundscape in real time that fills the space with flooding sounds that resemble - metaphorically - the timbres of water, fire, earth, and air. This ambient sound scape generator adjusts itself through various parameters and controllers that are represented in real time on your screen.

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Updated: 10 Jan 2021

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Lexikon Sonate

• I think the path to install files is not correct anymore with Max 7, is it possible to update it?

  S.
• Hi, i'm a Windows user. Is there any source files for the externals so i can try a port to Windows?the abstractions will then work right away.many thanks
• awesome that you are still updating this after years! +1 for windows externals or source.
• I just released version 7.0 which is optimized for Max7, but also runs smoothly with Max6. This time, the library is distributed as a package (hi, Sergio!). You can download it from http://www.essl.at/works/rtc.html
• Thanks for offering this, Alfonso! Unfortunately, I don't have the source code of the Windows externals, but here is a link to Peter Elsea's (the author of Lobjects) who already ported them to Windows XP:

  Please let me know if it works out!
• Thanks for the info Karlheinz!Unfortunately seems that Peter Elseas's Lobjects are compiled only for 32bit Max on Windows.Are Lobjects the only custom externals used in your library?Is there any way to get in touch with Peter to ask him for sources to be compiled for Win 64bit?

  a.
• Alfonso, please send me an e-mail at khz@essl.at so that I can connect you with Peter Elsea!
• Any progress with the 64bit versions of Peters objects?
• There is a beta version on Peter's website: http://peterelsea.com/lobjects.html
• Thanks but I'm confused. I was talking about win 64 version but he released some 64 bit files for mac. As far as i know there's no need to build separate 64 bit versions for mac externals.