Technology takes up the baton Schubert left aside
THEY say AI will soon be taking over many of our jobs — in fact, in some areas it already has as technology marches forward. But this week, for what is believed to be the first time, AI was used to finish an historic orchestral composition — with a little help from a living, breathing composer.
In one of the first events of its kind, technology giant Huawei produced what is believed to be the first piece of orchestral music finished with the help of AI
The global technology leader combined the power of AI and human expertise to compose the final two movements of Schubert’s famous Symphony No. 8, better known, of course, as his Unfinished Symphony.
The final piece was brought to life with a live performance at the iconic Cadogan Hall in London by the 66-piece English Session Orchestra, led by Irish violinist Darragh Morgan.
Huawei’s completed version of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 was created by running an Artificial Intelligence model benefiting directly from the processing power of the dual NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro smartphone — designed with AI-based tasks in mind.
Analysing the timbre, pitch and meter of the existing first and second movements of the symphony, the AI model then generated the melody for the final, missing third and fourth movements, which were then turned into an orchestral score by Emmy award-winning composer Lucas Cantor. Schubert actually wrote and completed another symphony after he began No 8 and Cantor feels he was so ahead of the curve that it was difficult to complete.
‘I think that he might have felt like he painted himself into a corner and the symphony was a little bit ahead of its time,’ he said. ‘Had he lived 20 or 30 more years, he might have finished it himself, possibly the way we did.’
‘My role was to draw out the AI’s good ideas and fill in the gaps to ensure the final output was ready to be played by a symphony orchestra. The result of this collaboration with AI proves that technology offers incredible possibilities and the significant and positive impact it can have on modern culture. Schubert was able to write these very beautiful single melodies and that was really very much his style and AI was able to emulate that.’
Arne Herklemann of Huawei said the principle of creating the music is similar to taking a photo.
‘What we did at the very start was the same as what we do with the master AI on smartphones,’ he explained. ‘If you are using the Mate Pro, for example, the Master AI can help you take better pictures by helping you understand the scenery and the environment and so on.’
Melodies and data were fed to the AI which Cantor said never stopped working. ‘It would generate ideas for me and some of them were great,’ he said. ‘And I found when I was working with the smartphone, I wanted to take them out for a pint or something and tell them, ‘you are doing a great job’. It keeps on working and keeps on generating.’
The end result was certainly moving, although the difference between Schubert’s original two movements and Cantor’s AI collaboration was clear. Schubert’s may have been modern but Cantor’s were much more filmic in their tone and feel.
‘I don’t know if there can be a definitive version of work that was not finished by its original creator, but I hope this is a good verison and an enjoyable version,’ Cantor said.
And though the AI brought the notes, it was certainly up to Cantor and the orchestra to provide the heart and emotional timbre, which is one of the only things still far out of the grasp of any non-human entities.
To hear the symphony visit Huawei Europe on Youtube.