Outlining a Protohistory of Artificial Intelligence and Music: From Antiquity to Nineteenth Century

The article reconstructs a protohistory of Artificial Intelligence in Music (AIM), arguing that automated musical composition and performance long predate digital computers. Since AI originates from the formalization of algorithms, the study traces the development of algorithmic thinking from logic and computability theory to its applications in music. From Pythagorean mathematical theories and medieval notation to canonic composition, combinatorial systems such as Kircher’s Musarithmica mirifica, musical dice games, and mechanical automata, the paper shows a continuous tradition of rule-based musical generation increasingly independent of human intervention. Modern AI music systems are therefore interpreted not as a rupture but as the technological continuation of centuries-old efforts to formalize and automate musical creativity.