Rifts (2017)

 

 

Solo piano improvisations in the Lydian mode for all 12 keys, following the circle of fifths, and a play on "riffs".

The purpose of the exercise was to see what I could do manually as an improvisation using a constraint (the Lydian Mode), then create an algorithm to do the same thing.

Musical improvisation is one of the highest forms of free will. It will show what is pure free will, simply playing anything on the piano for example. Someone who knows how to play will make some kind of coherent music. Someone who has hardly touched one may play on the black keys. The acid test is whether it has musical value. AI could be used to do the same thing and would sound like music, as it was created with a set of basic instructions.

The programming to do the same thing was completely unrewarding for me. Even though my piano skills were terrible, and my implicit knowledge of music well-developed, the music the human made was good enough for me. If a non-musician (or machine) can do it better, touche.