Move over Enya there's a new kid in town

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Interesting article. I used to be obsessed with algorithmic composition. That was until it temporarily destroyed my ability to enjoy music. But that's my problem. I recovered when I realized that music only means something to me when it's humans communicating what's in their heart to other humans. Fortunately we have not figured out the algorithm for that sort of thing.

Now there is so much algorithmic music, we need an algorithm that will tell us what to listen to. Along with ads no doubt. And patents to protect "intellectual property." I'm sick of it.

Anyway, I would like to comment on one paragraph from the article.

"One obstacle was that not only was this music composed by computers, it was also played by computer synthesis, and so lacking the interpretation and expressivity of human musicians who bring each tune to life – elements not incorporated in the data the AI had trained on. "

The obstacle is not understanding the nature of music. It's a human activity that can't be reduced to an algorithm.

There's great music for the synthesizer. My favorite example is the album Disco Alliance by the Latvian group Zodiak. This was made way back in 1980 in the good old USSR. I've read it was the best selling album in the USSR for a while. If you search on Youtube you will find it. It's great synth music because it's great music which is arranged superbly for the synthesizer. It's very expressive.

I can also think of lots of music which is played by expressive humans, but does nothing for me. It's just not good music, in my book.
 
My first album of experimental music was the Minotaur. It was quite surreal. The artist was a professional whistler with perfect pitch playing a moog.



From this album

 
On second thought, I suppose creating a program which creates music is a type of human expressiveness. Some of us express ourselves in a LISP or C program. Who says we all must do music the old-fashioned way?

This reminds me. In the movie Forbidden Planet, there is a scene in which Dr. Morbius plays a brief recording of some of the Krell music. This fascinated me, because why would such an advanced species as the Krell spend time on music? How did it benefit them? Also I wondered if they used algorithmic composition.

By the way, this idea of algorithmic composition is not new. Books have been written over the centuries on this topic. Mozart created his famous musical Dice Game to entertain his aristocratic hosts.
 
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