Automated Arrangements of Multi-Part Music for Sets of Monophonic Instruments

TL;DR

This paper presents an algorithm and open-source software for automating the arrangement of monophonic music for different instrument sets, simplifying a traditionally complex process.

Contribution

The authors developed a novel algorithm that automates music arrangements for monophonic instruments and released open-source software for practical experimentation.

Findings

Algorithm guarantees an arrangement when feasible

Software processes MusicXML files for easy use

Potential for extending to polyphonic instruments

Abstract

Arranging music for a different set of instruments that it was originally written for is traditionally a tedious and time-consuming process, performed by experts with intricate knowledge of the specific instruments and involving significant experimentation. In this paper we study the problem of automating music arrangements for music pieces written for monophonic instruments or voices. We designed and implemented an algorithm that can always produce a music arrangement when feasible by transposing the music piece to a different scale, permuting the assigned parts to instruments/voices, and transposing individual parts by one or more octaves. We also published open source software written in Python that processes MusicXML files and allows musicians to experiment with music arrangements. It is our hope that our software can serve as a platform for future extensions that will include music reductions and inclusion of polyphonic instruments.