[JPL] A computer composing and playing jazz

[Eric Jackson]

Dr. Jazz wrote:

Years ago someone from M.I.T. told me they were working on something 
similar. They said they could enter Duke Ellington's music into the 
computer. Then, if they played a phrase, the computer played back lines 
that were Ellington-like based on the data that was entered. I'm not 
sure if their program improvised or not but it did respond to improvisation.

Eric Jackson
Mon - Thurs 8 pm - mid.
89.7 FM WGBH Boston
www.wgbh.org/jazz


> 
>        November 23rd, 2008
> 
> 
>  A computer composing and playing jazz
>  <http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1100>
> 
> Posted by Roland Piquepaille @ 9:21 am
> 
> 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 
> <http://www.ntnu.no/gemini/2008-english/24-25.htm> 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.' Read more...
> 
> You can see above Øyvind Brandtsegg giving a public demonstration of his 
> 'computer instrument' in February 2008. (Credit: Department of Music at 
> NTNU 
> <http://www.ntnu.no/portal/page/portal/ntnuno/tre-spalter?selectedItemId=26434&rootItemId=25703&sectionId=5308&_piref36_794797_36_794780_794780.artSectionId=5308&_piref36_794797_36_794780_794780.articleId=88920&_piref36_794799_36_794780_794780.sectionId=5308>) 
> Brandtsegg who is a graduate of the Jazz at NTNU program 
> <http://www.ntnu.no/research/research_excellence/jazz>, worked with 
> scientists at the Department of Computer and Information Science 
> <http://www.ntnu.no/idi/english> for the software architecture and with 
> the acoustics group at the Department of Electronics and 
> Telecommunications <http://www.iet.ntnu.no/en> for the development of 
> the particle synthesizer.
> 
> This project has been described by Gemini, a quarterly magazine about 
> research news from NTNU and SINTEF. Here is a link to Gemini 
> <http://www.ntnu.no/gemini/2008-english/>. And here is a short excerpt 
> from the article mentioned above. "'It's easy to change a bit of music 
> into something that can't be recognized. It's the opposite that is the 
> challenge: to create variations in which the musical theme remains 
> clear,' says Brandtsegg. Brandtsegg has created a new link between 
> composition and improvisation with his new instrument. In a way, he's 
> rediscovered the energy of a piece in a new and much better form. What 
> he's doing is something that jazz musicians have always done --- they 
> have a composition as the foundation, and then they go up on the podium 
> and play variations on the basic theme."
> 
> Of course, Brandtsegg's computer instrument is not capable of miracles. 
> "There are limits to what even Louis Armstrong can coax out of a 
> trumpet. 'This instrument allows me to expand the musical palette with 
> new tonal variations and timbres. It is also the first time that the 
> actual composition process can be controlled in real time,' Brandtsegg 
> says."
> 
> The jazz graduate student has also developed ImproSculpt, an open source 
> software that make it possible to sample surroundings during a 
> presentation and to control the process using a body sensor. Here is a 
> link to the SourceForge.net <http://sourceforge.net/> page about 
> ImproSculpt <http://sourceforge.net/projects/improsculpt/>. You can 
> download the software and 'play' with it if you wish.
> 
> /Sources: Tore Oksholen, Gemini, Research News from Norwegian University 
> of Science and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF, November 21, 2008; and 
> various websites/
> 
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1100#
>