WolframTones

Wolfram Research Labs has created a new site, WolframTones, that explores applying Stephen Wolfram’s mathematical theories to the creation of music.

The site is based on ideas from Wolfram’s book, A New Kind of Science.

At the core of A New Kind of Science is the idea of exploring a new abstract universe: a “computational universe” of simple programs. In A New Kind of Science, Wolfram shows how remarkably simple programs can capture the essence of the complexity and beauty of many systems in nature.

WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram’s computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition.

It’s all original music, created dynamically. And, as you might imagine, most of it sounds terrible.

But some of it sounds interesting – so check it out and let me know what you think.