Interactive Musical Models for Computer Improvisation

This project is financed by the ministère de la Recherche (Création de produits de médiation scientifique sur Internet program) and is carried out in collaboration with a musician specialized in improvisation, Bernard Lubat.

The goal of this project is to clearly explain, by using the expressive power of multimedia, the foundation of a computer approach for musical improvisation. Research is based on the basic theories of computer science and theoretical computer science (e.g. automats, formal grammars) applied to computer modeling for improvisation. An experimental software program - a part of which is made from the OMax program - lets a musician interact with a computer by playing with phrases recorded by the machine and then used as material to generate an improvisation. Two basic principles are at play:

• Learning: simulating a musical style while creating a computer clone using statistical modeling methods.
• Rewriting Motor: going beyond the human capabilities of an improviser by using the rewriting as a model of the musical notion of a "variation" (or even of ornamentation).

Concretely, the project consists of describing and illustrating the basic principles of this research in multimedia musical activities, where a part of the sound will be performed by the composer and musician Bernard Lubat, one of today's major figures of jazz and improvisation in France. Through interaction with the machine, the musician will explore certain musical phenomena that take place in the boundaries defined by the theoretical model. For example, when can a phrase
generated by the simulation system be considered to be "in the style of Bernard Lubat"? Or, what limits of the musical field can be reached by a human when he uses variations modeled as rewrites?

Partners: Caen University, Compagnie Lubat

Participants