One of my favorite classes in college was a micro-controller course where we had to build an alarm-clock radio. For extra credit, I wrote a very simple “music” module to allow students to write songs to use as alarms (instead of a boring tone or siren.) At the time I wondered if there was a way to play real midis or multiple frequencies at once to make more advanced songs. Sadly, I was a busy student and didn’t have time to look into it.
Now, far too late for class, I’ve come across a project using wavetable synthesis which would have been an excellent jump point for me to implement a more advanced music module. I’ll have to play around with this concept and see if I can’t slip a new module to my old professor.