Opus+

Opus+ is free computer software which offers composers a new way of creating serious musical compositions. Opus+ is a java program that uses an Algorithm called Constrained Random Generation (CRG) to Create musical passages, and the content of the compositions produced can be controlled by the programmer setting constraints on the action of the software. There are three basic ways of using Opus+ The first is to generate complete compositions and use them exactly `as is`. This use falls under the category of `Found Music`. The second is to generate music and then either edit the generated composition by hand, or incorporate parts of the generated composition into other musical contexts. This uses Opus+ to `confound compositional habits` by creating novel musical material from which to work. The third, and most flexible, is as a object-oriented java library which gives open access to the underlying object model used by Opus+. This allows java programmers to augment the normal operation of Opus+ by writing their own source code to control exactly how Opus+ generates its output. This means that students and researchers can use Opus+ to quickly implement literally any conceivable musical generation algorithm.