Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #66 - Call for Submissions

That is very impressive.

In fairness, I prompted it with three leading sentences to get it to address three specific issues. It provided a one paragraph comment for each of them.

If we have bots performing and AIs commenting - what's left for us mere mortals...

Sam

I think the answer has something to do with consciousness Sam, but I’m not clever enough to formulate precisely why. I do not view Turing and Godel as harbingers of intellectual doom, and prefer the optimistic stance of people like Knuth, Penrose and to some extent Hofstadter. A dear friend, with a deeper intellect than mine, alas now gone, used to like my music and I used to improvise for him on many occasions. One day we had a conversation which sticks in my mind. It went something like this on his part.

“Pretty soon brains will be able to communicate instantly and completely, with musical meaning transmissible in the moment. So why should I bother with Ted Jones when I can perceive and hear exactly as Horowitz or Cziffra ?”

Then, after staring at the ceiling for some minutes.

“Hang on though, how do I know that your internal pleasure playing in private as a total nonentity isn’t more fun than the experience of a celebrated artist playing for thousands ?”

Hedonistic to be sure but nonetheless cause for optimism.

I was staring at the Gym Studio ceiling for a good 10 minutes at the start of a yoga S & R class. The engineering excellence of the steel framework did not impress me nor did it still my mind. A seagull had shat on the glass which let the light in, a touch of genius from above, no doubt./
But when I finished the course, I politely suggested it be renamed Yoga S & M . . . .

There is something special in the act of creation. I remember some of my earlier improvisations, they were not as fluent as they are now. But the absolute thrill of having a new musical insight reveal itself to you in real time, that is hard to surpass. The artist distances themselves somewhat from the art while playing known repertoire for an audience, it isn't pure hedonistic pleasure, as you put it, although I think establishing something to the point where everything just fits perfectly is also immensely satisfying.

But the absolute thrill of having a new musical insight reveal itself to you in real time, that is hard to surpass.

Indeed. I am inclined to feel much closer to a happy pig than to a wretched Socrates in music generally, hence the term “hedonistic”, but perhaps the distinction, like the axiom of choice, matters less than we tend to think. As Henry Sauguet said in defence of his music, there is such a thing as serious happiness after all.

This blog post by my favorite visual artist, James Gurney, might be of interest since we are talking about AIs and bots that can simulate creativity:
Robots with Flowers

He talks about an AI that can create visual art from language prompts, called Dall•E 2. He thinks it is so good that it may put a lot of illustrators and graphic artists out of business.

Sam

They are very pretty, Sam. Who or what is doing the creating I wonder ? We've probably all had a go at this sort of thing, with varying degrees of satisfaction.

Algorithmic art

Computer fugues

My efforts are light years away from artificial intelligence as used by Gurney and David Cope. The first is just a simple recursive algorithm (NOT fractals, which I am heartily sick of) and the second is a few dozen lines of Basic.

I suppose the results pleased me for a while, but the effects are trivial compared to the sensations when I improvise at the instrument out of my own consciousness so I stopped the experiments.

Back in the world of human performers - about 5 days left to get your submissions to the recital in:

Recital #66 is scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2022 and is now open for submissions!

The submission deadline is Saturday, May 14, 2022 at 21:00 Eastern (US) time.

There are currently 24 submitted pieces.

1. Calavera - Forever Rachel (Uematsu, Nobuo)
2. MarieJ - Luminous (Ludovico Einaudi)
3. Sam S - Idyll (Eugene Bozza)
4. QuentinP - WTK1 Fugue 1 C major (Bach)
5. briangmoore - Chanson (Nancy Faber)
6. pianist685 (Constantin) - She's a lady (Richard Sanderson)
7. stevedoz - Danzas argentinas Op. 2, no 2, Danza de la moza donosa (Alberto Ginastera)
8. AndresVel - Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, KV 545 (W. A. Mozart)
9. PianogrlNW (Ellen) - Sonata in E Major K 380 (Scarlatti)
10. Peyton - Etude #2 (Philip Glass)
11. Rickster - "Heart of Georgia Boogie" (Ricky Henson (AKA Rickster))
12. Ted Jones - The Fourth Ace (Ted Jones)
13. peterws - Summertime Ended (Gershwin, savagely adapted by me. Sorry guys. . . .)
14. facdo - Elegie Op.3 No.1 (Rachmaninoff)
15. Serge88 - Ballade pour Adeline (Paul de Senneville)
16. QuasiUnaFantasia - Fantasie in G major (Bruckner, A.)
17. Ido - Waltz Op.70 No.3 (Chopin)
18. lilypad - Nightfall (N. Faber)
19. thepianoplayer416 - Sonatina in G (Anh. 5): Moderato - Romanze (L. van Beethoven)
20. Snejana - The Ones Out of Place (Snejana Shegheva)
21. sandalholme - Les Folies Francaises ou les Dominos from Ordre No13 (F Couperin)
22. Flygbladet - Monkey Island 1 theme music (Michael Land)
23. Kepijapa - Partita No.6 In E Minor, BWV 830 - 1. Allemande y Corrente (J.S. Bach)
24. Jerzyk19 - Immortal (Evanecence)

Sam

Two days left! Please note the different deadline for this recital. Do not be late - I can't help you if you are late...

Recital #66 is scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2022 and is now open for submissions!

The submission deadline is Saturday, May 14, 2022 at 21:00 Eastern (US) time.

There are currently 27 submitted pieces.

1. Calavera - Forever Rachel (Uematsu, Nobuo)
2. MarieJ - Luminous (Ludovico Einaudi)
3. Sam S - Idyll (Eugene Bozza)
4. QuentinP - WTK1 Fugue 1 C major (Bach)
5. briangmoore - Chanson (Nancy Faber)
6. pianist685 (Constantin) - She's a lady (Richard Sanderson)
7. stevedoz - Danzas argentinas Op. 2, no 2, Danza de la moza donosa (Alberto Ginastera)
8. AndresVel - Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, KV 545 (W. A. Mozart)
9. PianogrlNW (Ellen) - Sonata in E Major K 380 (Scarlatti)
10. Peyton - Etude #2 (Philip Glass)
11. Rickster - "Heart of Georgia Boogie" (Ricky Henson (AKA Rickster))
12. Ted Jones - The Fourth Ace (Ted Jones)
13. peterws - Summertime Ended (Gershwin, savagely adapted by me. Sorry guys. . . .)
14. facdo - Elegie Op.3 No.1 (Rachmaninoff)
15. Serge88 - Ballade pour Adeline (Paul de Senneville)
16. QuasiUnaFantasia - Fantasie in G major (Bruckner, A.)
17. Ido - Waltz Op.70 No.3 (Chopin)
18. lilypad - Nightfall (N. Faber)
19. thepianoplayer416 - Sonatina in G (Anh. 5): Moderato - Romanze (L. van Beethoven)
20. Snejana - The Ones Out of Place (Snejana Shegheva)
21. sandalholme - Les Folies Francaises ou les Dominos from Ordre No13 (F Couperin)
22. Flygbladet - Monkey Island 1 theme music (Michael Land)
23. Kepijapa - Partita No.6 In E Minor, BWV 830 - 1. Allemande y Corrente (J.S. Bach)
24. Jerzyk19 - Immortal (Evanecence)
25. zsolpyW - Tell him ()
26. KevinM - Sonatina in D Opus 36 No 6 part 1 (Clementi)
27. Marklings - Waltz Op. 64 n.2 in C sharp minor (Chopin)

Sam

I was planning to submit "Natural Light" (Einaudi) this time, but unfortunately I was away from my piano in the last couple of weeks. The piece is ready to do a decent record but I just can't do it... I'm not happy with this but I promise I will do a record in time for the next recital.
Meanwhile I'm looking forward to listen all the pieces.

Oh. I see that another attempt on 1st part of parthetique. This will be so intresting since I struggled with it for month and sent it to the recital #64. Love it.

Oh I've struggled with it as well. I find it hard to keep focus throughout the entire piece. It's tempting to splice together a recording.

Sorry we won't be treated to 'Natural Light' this time around - but I can understand your decision after that break from your piano.

If you overlook the bucketloads of flats and sharps, at first glance the pieces in Einaudi's latest solo album are simple. Then you launch in to try to extract the magic. And realise after months of work that you may never quite capture it ...

Less than 1 hour left - any last minute submissions?

Sam

I did, lol. I really should keep track of the deadline next time. See you guys at the Recital Discussion Thread!

A few more minutes left. The adrenaline is really pumping for those who waited till the last minute to submit their piece. Can't wait to hear what the pieces sound like...