I want to stress up front that this is an experiment in making music. I’m fascinated by deep learning in all its magical incantations, but I’m using it as just one of many tools in my musical toolbox. At present, I’m using deep learning techniques to generate artificial chorales based on Bach using the coconet AI model. But then I’m using my conventional algorithmic musical techniques to turn those chorales into musical expressions.
Today’s addition uses the generated chorale number 44. I search through the chorale for interesting sections to stretch out, in some cases making those sections four to six times longer than the original generated chorale. I then put them through other modifications to arpeggiate in different ways, using a random mask to turn notes on and off. I let the algorithm seek out parts of the chorale that are harmonically using a measure of the percentage of notes that are not in the root key of F major. That’s pretty arbitrary, but it’s very fast, and finds interesting parts to concentrate on in the chorale.
