Human Brother, the work of composer Ferran Cruixent, commissioned by the OBC orchestra, will open the season of L'Auditori.
The composer and the researcher of the BSC Artur García Sáez have investigated the current capabilities of AI to conceive symphonic music and contribute to the creative process
The MareNostrum supercomputer plays an important role in Human Brother, a musical piece for soprano and orchestra of the Barcelona composer Ferran Cruixent that the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC) will premiere on September 27, 28 and 29 thus opening the season of L'Auditori. Cruixent, who in his latest works explores the role of technology in creation, has investigated this time in the relationship of Artificial Intelligence with music. Artur García Sáez, doctor of physics and researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), has been his ally and guide in this adventure.
Cruixent and García Sáez have provided MareNostrum with audios of the author's numerous symphonic compositions, so that the supercomputer will use them as a reference and create his own proposals. For this, they used a Machine Learning algorithm that analyzes the data of the audio wave of musical fragments to generate new sounds. Once the supercomputer supplied his suggestions, the composer decided what could be used and how to transform it into something valid for his orchestra composition.
Human Brother is a work that explores, both through the process of creation and in the poem interpreted by the soprano, the relationship between the human species and artificial intelligence and, therefore, machines. During the creation process, the author and the researcher have become aware of the speed in which these relationships evolve.
Artur Garcia: “The techniques we have used require a great calculation capacity, and they were unthinkable just 3 years ago. It's hard to imagine what will happen in the near future with automatic music generation.”
Ferran Cruixent: "The way in which people interact with technology is evolving incredibly in recent years. It is disturbing because it seems that our brain cannot digest so many changes at once, but at the same time it is fascinating because it allows us to play and imagine new worlds like never before. "
More information and video in the piece of news in La Vanguardia
Ferran Cruixent website: https://ferrancruixent.com/
This is how the melody composed by MareNostrum sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKLMCS8Y50