Jérôme Nika

ImproteK: Introducing Scenarios into Human-Computer Music Improvisation

This article focuses on the introduction of control, authoring, and composition in human-computer music improvisation through the description of a guided music generation model and a reactive architecture, both implemented in the software ImproteK. This interactive music system is used with expert improvisers in work sessions and performances of idiomatic and pulsed music and more broadly in situations of structured or composed improvisation. The article deals with the integration of temporal specifications in the music generation process by means of a fixed or dynamic “scenario” and addresses the issue of the dialectic between reactivity and planning in interactive music improvisation. It covers the different levels involved in machine improvisation: the integration of anticipation relative to a predefined structure in a guided generation process at a symbolic level, an architecture combining this anticipation with reactivity using mixed static/dynamic scheduling techniques, and an audio rendering module performing live re-injection of captured material in synchrony with a non-metronomic beat. Finally, it sketches a framework to compose improvisation sessions at the scenario level, extending the initial musical scope of the system. All of these points are illustrated by videos of performances or work sessions with musicians.

Computer-aided Composition of Musical Processes

We present the formal model and implementation of a computer-aided composition system allowing for the ‘composition of musical processes’. Rather than generating static data, this framework considers musical objects as dynamic structures likely to be updated and modified at any time. After formalizing a number of basic concepts, this paper describes the architecture of a framework comprising a scheduler, programming tools and graphical interfaces. The operation of this architecture, allowing to perform both regular and dynamic-processes composition, is explained through concrete musical examples.

Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Making Music Together

Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf are three great musical ladies, born in 1915. Could we make them singing together? This was the goal of a performance made for a music festival in L’Aquila (Italy) in 2015. This raises musical questions: what kind of sound could link Billie Holiday to Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf to Piaf? What kind of musical structure? With the help of the software ImproteK, the three ladies eventually sang together Autumn Leaves and The Man I love. ImproteK allowsmony of the used material (called “memories”) to the harmonic progression of the reference song (called “scenario”). The machine can also include into its “memory” what is currently played during the performance. This process raises fascinating questions about musical notation and style: the chosen common notation will define how the improvisation will follow the reference scenario, where the chosen memories inds and character interacting with this structure. The result can be arresting, surrealistic, kitsch; it is often fun.