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Automatic Christmas Music

Posted by michael on from the rated-m-for-muzak dept.

crispinalt writes "Just in time for the holiday season, Brian Whitman, the creator of Eigenradio, has had his computers compose the 'statistically optimal' Christmas music in A Singular Christmas, a freely downloadable MP3 album. A bank of computers listened to as much Christmas music as they could handle, and then learned their own true meaning of holiday cheer. Enjoy!"

4 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Well... you can hear something. by Quebec · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I listened to it and well...

    it's a bit creepy, although it could reflect how I sometimes feel in the middle of the Christmas rush.

  2. Re:I'm waiting for missing track #17 - Silent nigh by a_timid_mouse · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Only if the 2:34 is an exact subset, or sample, of the complete 4:33 work, right? Otherwise, it could be a completely different composition of rests of different lengths than the 4:33 work. :-)

  3. I've studied music! by scottblascocomposer · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Actually, its fantastically difficult (if not impossible) to write good or interesting music without using dissonant chords! Dissonances are necessary to make a harmonic progression interesting, whether they are dissonances between harmonies, or within them.

    Um, let's see, what else? Ah, the tritone (augmented 4th/diminished 5th) was the Devil's tone, and it was in fact essentially verboten for some time, but has certainly been in wide use both in and out of the church for the last 300 years at least. Oh, and Mozart wrote a string quartet which was dubbed "Dissonances" that very successfully makes dissonant harmonies a fundamental part of it's materials.

    I'm a pretty competent musician, a composer no less, and I couldn't imagine keeping a musical line interesting without the use of dissonance at some level--it really is not feasible. Its like trying to discern depth without light and shadows... contrastless mush.

    --
    To reign is to serve.
  4. Re:NO MORE CHRISTMAS MUSIC! by Anonymous+Cowtard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And, according to the Wikipedia entry on the Christmas special, it was actually sorta commerialized in nature to begin with:

    "However, the special has not been seen in its original, uncut form since its original telecast in 1965. The opening and closing credits contain references to Coca-Cola, the show's original sponsor (the main titles have Linus and Snoopy crashing into a Coca-Cola sign, while the final end credit mentions "Merry Christmas from your local Coca-Cola bottler"). Years later, the FCC imposed sanctions preventing sponsor references in the context of a story (especially children's programming), which is why these elements (as well as several seconds of other footage) have not been seen lately on television, even on home video."

    I've never heard that before, so I'm not guaranteeing that someone hasn't imparted their own imagined occurence to Wikipedia.