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A Computer Composing and Playing Jazz
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has some unusual teaching programs. One PhD student, Øyvind Brandtsegg, is a graduate of the jazz program and this article describes how has developed a computer program and a musical instrument for improvisation. The PhD student is 36 years old and is at the same time a composer, a musician and computer programmer. His 'computer instrument' can take any recorded sound as input and split it into a number of very short sound particles that can last for between 1 and 10 milliseconds. 'These fragments may be infinitely reshuffled, making it possible to vary the music with no change in the fundamental theme.'" Brandtsegg improvisational software is called ImproSculpt; his site contains several selections from his musical output, including "some pieces made with the predecessor of ImproSculpt," called FollowMe.
It may sound random, but one of the things that allegedly makes jazz interesting is the reaction to other players. If another player does something interesting, then you react to it and mirror it in your own way. It's sort of "orchestral swarm theory". I can't say this is true of all players, however.
Table-ized A.I.
Have a human jazz band playing and let a computer or a human do the solos. The jury should not be able to distinguish between them.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
If music is composed purely mechanically, i.e. via an algorithm, it seems like it would not enjoy copyright protection.
This might limit its adoption by the music industry, except as a way to generate ideas. Of course, if a musician uses this as a tool then adds his own creative flair, you have a copyrightable work.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Oh, we've got some great computer-generated music. Check out Brian Eno's ambient recordings (or the background music in Spore, designed by Eno). But its application, so far, is very limited.
Property is theft.
Raymond Scott was an electronic music genius, but he was criticized for shunning the improvisational aspects of Jazz. The world of electronic synthesis has improved dramatically due to Scott's work, but it turns out that the improvisational aspect is the hardest part to simulate.
I wrote my masters thesis on AI that attempts to improvise (Sorry, I'd post a link, but my server would shut down immediately if both of you that cared were to download it at once. Email at lkeagleATgmail if interested). I used a framework called Starcat written by my adviser to attempt to model the thought process of a jazz improviser. It just outputs MIDI, but it performed surprisingly well with just basic musical knowledge. I wish I didn't have to work for a living, or I'd still be working on it.
Al Biles at the University of Rochester has also made some really impressive inroads using genetic algorithms. People interested in computer improvisation should find it very interesting. Google is your friend.
Free jazz has been said to be Charles Mingus' invention, but he once said "If only those free jazz cats could play the same tunes twice... " To cut a long story short, while I'm an avid jazz fan, free jazz is really an abomination in the eye of the Lord. I can listen to anything from bebop to classic jazz to the tinkering Steely Dan did with the genre, but at the end of the day if the cats can't play the same tune twice I'm out of there.
Then again, I'm an Oscar Peterson fan. That about says it all. I don't want "infinite variations", I want a certain groove and swing to my music, however dissonant and angry it may be. So I reserve the right to take Fred Wesley's work over a particle synthesizer any day of the week.
One of the beautiful things about music, be it Miles Davis and John Coltrane working with the Miles Davis Quintet, The Notwist's electronic work, Tom Waits' most loony tunes or Mozart's most frivolous concertos, is that it's the product of a human mind expressing its particular brand of madness.
You take the mind/soul out of the equation and you'll see me turn my ticket in by the door as I leave the venue.
I thought "improvise jazz" was taken off the AI wall years ago. See Kurzweil's cartoon or read about it.