Semiotics and memetics in algorithmic music composition

In this article, we investigate the circumstances under which the sound structures, which are products of algorithmic composition, are considered as ‘music’. The methods of analysis and evaluation of the music pieces that have derived from mathematical procedures are still under development. Is their ‘beauty’ hidden in the final outcome of the algorithm or in its conceptual background? What is more important: the creator’s approach or the listener’s perception? The answers we attempt to provide are revealed from the tools of semiotics and memetics. We study whether a sound structure, derivative of an algorithm, can act as a signifier of an aesthetic signified, forming a seme. Moreover, we examine whether that seme can be spread as a meme (a unit of cultural phenomena).