What Are You Listening To?

[brianvds]

I forget if I posted this before, but I think it's beautiful.......Iceland.... One of the dancers showed up in my latest painting. Is this classical? Contemporary classical? Seems like an oxymoron. Neoclassical?

Somewhere between Sigur Ros and Einaudi. Iceland seems to produce culture out of all proportion to its population size.

 

[stlukesguild]

I wonder if Rani’s work is “composed” or improvised. Improvisation was a big part of classical music in the past… and there are some brilliant more contemporary examples… including works by Keith Jarrett who was known for his work in both Jazz and Classical music.

 

[john]

I like how Jarret vocalizes during the piece. Adds emotion. Jazz is cool that way.

 

[john]

Somewhere between Sigur Ros and Einaudi. Iceland seems to produce culture out of all proportion to its population size.

and Bjork. I have much music of both. Sigur Ros in particular is a fave of mine. So sadly beautiful, like Iceland.

And now Olafur Arnalds Hania Rani is Polish

 

[stlukesguild]

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Mozart’s serenades… and I forgot how good these can be. Currently listening to K.361, the “Gran Partita”… a marvelous piece for winds.

 

[stlukesguild]

Two of the greatest jazz performers from the 50s, 60s, and beyond: Miles Davis and Lee Konitz. Konitz was influenced by Benny Goodman filtered through Bebop. He maintained a “cooler” more fluid style even after the more muscular style of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane came on the scene. Konitz recorded with Miles Davis on the classic album, “Birth of the Cool”.Among his finest recordings he recorded with Lenny Tristano, Gerry Mulligan, Warne Marsh, Gil Evans, as well as Miles Davis… all major figures in Cool Jazz, Bebop, and post-Bop.

 

[PaintBoss]

View attachment 563

There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on...

Still relevant today...

My fav is Mercy, Mercy Me. What a strong album. Strong themes. Beautifully expressed.

 

[brianvds]

View attachment 41753

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to Mozart’s serenades… and I forgot how good these can be. Currently listening to K.361, the “Gran Partita”… a marvelous piece for winds.

And have you ever had a look at the sheet music? Remarkable. On the page it looks nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse. Bassoons and basset horns, like a rusty squeezebox. Then, suddenly, high above it, an oboe...

 

[brianvds]

Now I may be resented a bit for posting this, but YouTube suggested it, so not my fault...

Herritage of a Master - AI music inspired by Vangelis (2024) [FULL ALBUM]​

For people in the arts, observing what is happening in AI is a bit like watching a train smash in slow motion while, er, sitting in the train itself. Composers who try to make a living through composition may well feel they're in deep trouble here. And even the album art is done by AI.

But before we get too panicked, read through the comments; in one of them the bloke describes how he went about it:

Actually there is no perfect prompt. All I ask from AI is "make a Vangelis style song". I sometimes add to it ("anthem", "Jon Anderson", "epic", "atmospheric", etc.) and listen to the end result. It fails most of the time, not the right style, poor, bad, monotonous, confusing. Sometimes the AI gets a good idea and starts to initiate a song. I have him complete these, but sometimes he can't follow up well or isn't creative. I throw many song fragments in the trash. It takes a lot of time, sometimes luck, and a little musical ear. Then, after many, many hours and hundreds of tries, I come up with a song and exclaim, "Oh my God, that's it!" After a bit of editing, I organize these songs into units, name them by mood, and that's how these albums are born.

In other words, there is a very great deal of human input here, and there is no question if simply telling the AI "compose a set of pieces in the style of Vangelis" and then sitting back and let one masterpiece after the other stream over you. I suspect the exact same is true of the album art: it probably required a lot of selection and iteration.

So my best guess for the near future is that AI is going to become a thing in the arts, but there will be no question of AI easily competing human creators out of business - considering the amount of work human AI operators have to put in, they are not going to do it for free.

Also, at the moment, lots of people also still feel an intuitive revulsion against the very idea of machine-created art, though I suspect that will disappear over time, as a new generation grows up with AI.

 

[Hermes2020]

I am pretty sure that many traditional artists were up in arms when the compass and the ruler were invented as aids in the drawing process. Now they are simply seen as tools we use when we create. It will be the same with AI.

 

[stlukesguild]

Haydn and Handel must surely be the two most underrated composers… eclipsed by Bach and Mozart… although not as true now as it was in the past. Both composers have had the vast body of their work given worthy recorded interpretations. A great deal of Haydn’s finest works… the symphonies and masses… were brilliantly recorded a good many years ago by Leonard Bernstein. A boxed set of some 12 discs of these recordings rank among my most prized recordings.

 

[stlukesguild]

I often like to jump about from one genre of music to another. This was a new recording for me… recommended on a jazz forum I follow… and it is quite good.

 

[Hermes2020]

When the name of Keith Jarrett came up a few days ago, I remembered that I had his recording of the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. I did listen to it a number of times when I got it and enjoyed his playing thoroughly. However, for me his interpretation, as good as it was technically, didn't live up to my Igor Levit recording, which I listen to quite regularly. Still, I am sure that his name alone encouraged many jazz fans to give Shostakovich a go, which is a good thing. I guess the same applies to the recording of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, with Roger Waters doing a brilliant job as the narrator.

 

[brianvds]

I am pretty sure that many traditional artists were up in arms when the compass and the ruler were invented as aids in the drawing process. Now they are simply seen as tools we use when we create. It will be the same with AI.

I can already imagine one use traditional artists can put AI to, and that is to generate reference images. At present the free online AI software seems to me still way too primitive - I tried some of it to generate landscape imagery, and it was hopeless at it. But this will probably change in future.

 

[Hermes2020]

I can already imagine one use traditional artists can put AI to, and that is to generate reference images. At present the free online AI software seems to me still way too primitive - I tried some of it to generate landscape imagery, and it was hopeless at it. But this will probably change in future.

Well, perhaps the constraint of imperfection is a good catalyst for creativity.

 

[brianvds]

Well, perhaps the constraint of imperfection is a good catalyst for creativity.

Maybe, but then I might as well use my own imagination. And indeed, I have thus far not really had much use for AI. Of course, no one can predict the future. The tech is still developing.

I suspect it would have been much less of an issue if lots of people did not make a living from art and music. From a purely subjective point of view, I feel myself far less threatened by AI music, for example, probably simply because I'm not a professional musician. No amount of AI art can ever prevent any of us from drawing - but I fear it will perhaps prevent at least some of us from making any kind of living from it.

For many people, e.g. YouTubers who need background music for, say, painting demos, or writers who need editorial illustrations for their articles, or self-published authors who need illustration work, AI is a godsend. But it does mean at least some of those jobs are now lost to human artists and composers.

And this is largely why people are so paranoid about it. If we all lived in a post-scarcity paradise (ironically, a thing which some people think AI will eventually give us) I doubt whether anyone would have given two hoots about AI in the arts.

 

[Rikard]

It‘s been raining for months now it seems. Currently listening to Bill Evans.

 

[brianvds]

Never thought I'd enjoy Xenakis, and so I have never actually given him a listen, until a few days ago when, at YouTube's suggestion, I watched a documentary about him. The extracts they played there intrigued me, so I tried out some of his, er, music. And to my own astonishment, I'm really enjoying the absolute torrents of noise he unleashes on the listener:

Not that I'm going to whistle it in the shower, but when I'm in the right kind of mood, it works for me.

 

[Hermes2020]

Never thought I'd enjoy Xenakis, and so I have never actually given him a listen, until a few days ago when, at YouTube's suggestion, I watched a documentary about him. The extracts they played there intrigued me, so I tried out some of his, er, music. And to my own astonishment, I'm really enjoying the absolute torrents of noise he unleashes on the listener:

Not that I'm going to whistle it in the shower, but when I'm in the right kind of mood, it works for me.

Mazel tov! You do know that this is the thin edge of the wedge? You will now start exploring more and more of his and other similar composers' music. This is one of his more melodious pieces I enjoy very much. I have some of his music, which I listen to now and then as a palate cleanser after listening to too much Debussy or Ravel.

 

[brianvds]

Mazel tov! You do know that this is the thin edge of the wedge? You will now start exploring more and more of his and other similar composers' music. This is one of his more melodious pieces I enjoy very much. I have some of his music, which I listen to now and then as a palate cleanser after listening to too much Debussy or Ravel.

If it goes on like this I'll end up enjoying Wagner. Oh, the horror.