Text-to-Music or "Text to Music" (TTM) is a technique used in WOTJA (wotja.com), an app for macOS, Windows, iOS & Android, and is a key aspect of Reflective Music.

TTM lets your words create melodic seeds that are then, in effect, imbued with meaning.

How it works

In WOTJA (wotja.com), you can enter any characters as input and generate a seed melody from that input. This melody can be allowed to mutate after a period and be mixed in with generative content. The Intermorphic Music Engine (IME) and its Text to Music Voice type are how it is generated.

The IME parameters available to use in Wotja are as follows (details extracted from the IME section of the Wotja User Guide):

Voice - Text to Music (TTM)

Voice - Type Patterns

Text to Music Voices are a special kind of Patterns Voice Type. They use text in any language to generate a seed melody which, even though not visible, is in a Patterns syntax. Use English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, French - whatever language takes your fancy, you will always get a melody!

• Text: This is the text in any language used to generate your TTM seed melody. In general it takes 2 characters to generate a note. In Wotja, tap on this field to go to the TTM Text Editor screen.
• Display?: The Display? toggle determines if your TTM text will display in Fullscreen mode.
• Enabled? (Notes): The Enabled? toggle determines if pattern in your Fixed Pattern voice is to generated via TTM. The number notes your text has generated for use in the tune (or tune variations) is shown next to it.
• Repeats: The total number of times the original melody or a variation of it is played. This also applies to improvised melodies (see Improvise toggle).
• Repeat Range: Sets the range above the minimum. Also applies to improvised melodies (see Improvise toggle).
• Tune Start at Index: From the notes composed, set the first note you want your tune to start playing at. Maximum value is Notes - 1
• Tune Length Override: From the notes composed, set how many notes will play. Maximum value is Notes - Tune Start at Index
• Phrase Length: Defines the minimum number of notes there are in a "phrase" (and you can see in the indicator above how many notes your text has generated - all of these notes get put into phrases to make the "tune").
• Phrase Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
• Gaps: Defines the minimum number of rests between each phrase (allows a tune to breathe). Rests are measured in terms of 16th notes.
• Gaps Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
• Interval: Defines the minimum number of rests between each play of the tune (allows a tune to breathe). Rests are measured in terms of 16th notes.
• Interval Range: Sets the range above the minimum.
• Improvise after Tune: Turn this on to let Wotja continuously generate tune variations after the FIRST complete play (and repeats) of the tune. When this is on, Wotja can "noodle" for ever (well, until you turn it off or the Sleep Timer kicks in, if set!).
• Variation: Selects how much variation is applied to the previous melody when improvising.