Simple MIDI harmonizer in C major

One way to analyze MIDI note information is to use the modulo operator to determine a note’s pitch class (C, C#, D, etc., regardless of what octave it occurs in).

Post-tonal theorists use the numbers 0 to 11 to refer to the chromatic scale of pitch classes C to B; because MIDI uses multiples of 12 as the basis for the note C (…36, 48, 60, 72,…), it’s a simple matter to obtain a note’s pitch class using the % object with a modulus argument of 12.

This patch uses that information to look up an appropriate chord to accompany any note of the C major scale. The coll object contains a set of three-note chords to be played in instantaneous response to those notes. The chords come out of the coll object as a list, and are separated into three individual int messages by the iter object.

Of course, this is unchanging one-to-one pitch-to-chord relationship is not a very sophisticated method of harmonization. Can you think of one that better suits your own harmonic tastes?