Bringing Harmony to Computational Science Pedagogy

Inherent in a musical composition are properties that are analogous to properties and laws that exist in mathematics, physics, and psychology. It follows then that computation using musical models can provide results that are analogous to results provided by mathematical, physical, and psychological models. The audible output of a carefully constructed musical model can demonstrate properties and relationships in a way that is immediately perceptible. For this reason, the study of musical computation is a worthwhile pursuit as a pedagogical tool for computational science. Proposed in this paper is a curriculum for implementing the study of musical computation within a larger computer science or computational science program at a college or university. A benefit of such a curriculum is that it provides a way to integrate artistic endeavors into a STREAM program, while maintaining the mathematical foundations of STEM. Furthermore, the study of musical computation aligns well with the arts-related components of Human-Centered Computing. The curriculum is built on the following two hypotheses: The first hypothesis is that the cognitive, creative, and structural processes involved in both musical composition and computer programming, are similar enough that skilled computer scientists, with or without musical backgrounds, can learn to use programming languages to compose interesting, expressive, and sophisticated musical works. The second hypothesis is that the links between music, mathematics, and several branches of science are strong enough that skilled computational scientists can create musical models that are able to be designed using vocabularies of mathematics and science. While the curriculum defined in this paper focuses on musical computation, the design principles behind it may be applied to other disciplines.