Improving Composer Control of the FuxCP Solver through Cost Aggregation and Dynamic Sliders

Details

Supervisors

Van Roy, Peter

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil en informatique, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enThis thesis extends the FuxCP, a constraint-based counterpoint solver that allows composers to control how musical costs evolve positionally throughout a piece, by introducing a dynamic cost model and a cost group system. Building on the existing solver architecture, it generalizes dynamic sliders to all cost types through a unified grouping mechanism, enabling control over harmonic, melodic and motion behaviours. Three minimization methods: MinMax-Weighted, Weighted-Sum and Lexicographic order are compared on the quality of the solutions they produce. This comparison highlights that cost value calibration is critical: poorly chosen values can lead to blocking effects. No single method dominates across all configurations, the most appropriate choice depends on the composer’s musical intention and the desired trade-off between global balance and individual cost control. The dynamic slider generalization is further demonstrated through positional harmonic cost profiles, confirming that the proposed system gives composers expressive control over the entire cost space. Finally, the search process and its inherent limitations are examined, as these constitute a critical foundation for future developments of the FuxCP solver.