Jack & Jill: autonomous composing/listening system
Eliot Handelman
Jack & Jill is an AI program that composes music autonomously. "AI"
means that the computational results bear traces of human
intelligence, in this case, of musical understanding. "Autonomous"
means that the program does not access existing knowledge of music in
any way: it is free to create something new by thinking about music in
a new way. The new way is about pattern perception and
generation. Jack is the generator: Jill is the perceiver. The music
lies in the connected zone in between.
Questions and comments are welcome at muthought@gmail.com.
16/03/10: I am working on a system that figures out fingerings
for the violin, viola and cello. Currently, it works out
whether chords of 2, 3 and 4 parts are playable, and if so, how.
Eventually it will figure out how to finger whole passages in a
convenient way. It is part of the general automated orchestration
system discussed below.
The program can be downloaded from the software page. I'm in need of feedback
as to how well the system performs: if you'd like to help, drop
me a line.
I am currently working on automated
orchestration using a large sample library.
January 2010
Here are a few fairly large scale-pieces recently generated. The
experiment was to generate pieces of about 5 min. that hold together
and develop, with development being nothing more than the injection of
a few new patterns towards the end. The effect on the form is
variable: you judge. This approach will have to be deepened for
something like a transformed turnaround to happen.
These pieces are from the first generation of Jack & Jill,
representing the moment when things began cohering formally. All of
these pieces are different, though clearly work of the same
imagination.