Johann Sebastian Bach was born 154 years ago on Thursday – a date marked by Google with a special, artificial-intelligence-powered Doodle enabling users to make their own music inspired by the composer’s.
Born on 21 March, 1685 per the Julian calendar (which was later changed to the Gregorian calendar) in Eisenach, Germany, Bach is remembered as one of the most influential composer of the Baroque era – and of all time – thanks to works such as the “Brandenburg Concertos”, “The Well-Tempered Clavier” and “The Art of Fugue”.
Google’s Bach-themed Doodle, which the tech giant describes has its first AI-powered Doodle, centres on the concept of four-part harmony, a hallmark of Bach’s compositions – though the concept predates Bach and is not exclusive to his work.
The idea behind a four-part harmony, as presented by the Doodle, is that each chord is formed by four different notes each representing a specific tone – in this instance, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
When combined, those four tones create a much deeper, more sophisticated melody, as demonstrated in the Doodle’s introduction, which lays out the basic principles of the harmony.
Users are then prompted to start picking notes of their choosing, assembling them as they please, at the cadence that fits their whims.
Then, users can press a “harmonise” button, which adds notes in all four tones to their basic composition.
Per the Doodle, 306 Bach compositions were analysed to teach a machine to recognise patterns in Bach’s music and get it to create harmonies using each user’s individual creations.
More specifically, the model, named Coconet, was created using Bach’s four-part chorales, which feature the same four-voice structure.
Once the “harmonise” button is clicked, a new, complete melody is generated, taking even the most random basic composition to impressive heights.
The melodies can then be downloaded, shared, or further edited if the users wish to keep improving their own work.
