Abstract

This report describes a programmatic composition environment built in Python with Abjad and LilyPond. The project grew out of a personal return to formal music study after many years centered on academic life in computer science. I have been on the faculty at Loyola University Chicago since 2001, and during my current service as department chairperson in computer science I also began pursuing postbaccalaureate study in music there. The immediate motivation for this repository was MUSC 246, a composition course taught by Dr. Dongryul Lee (Assistant Professor of Music and Composer). After struggling with WYSIWYG notation software, including Dorico, I turned to LilyPond and then to Python and Abjad as a better fit for the way I think and work. The repository now combines finished scores, reusable compositional utilities, and exploratory algorithmic studies in one reproducible workflow. Each score can be generated from source, engraved to PDF, exported to MIDI, rendered to WAV when audio tools are present, and published through automated build and release steps. The main point of the project is not only to produce scores, but also to document a practical path from composition ideas to plain-text notation, code-driven generation, and reproducible outputs.