The Unreal Book. Algorithmic Composition for Jazz Lead Sheets

This paper presents the Unreal Book project which aims at exploring algorithmic generation of jazz lead sheets. Lead sheets are the standard notation format in jazz composition and are collected in many publications, the most relevant being the Real Book. Lead sheet format provides simple constraints (melody and chords) that allow for the application of algorithmic composition techniques based on the formalization of various jazz concepts. A computer-aided solution for the generation of a Real Book-like collection of lead sheets is presented, that takes also into account notation, including visual features that are considered defining of the Real Book. Seven examples of composition applications are shown, ranging from the implementation of jazz-inspired techniques to corpus-driven procedures.