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Re: [OT] Vivi, the Virtual Violinist, plays LilyPond music


From: Kieren MacMillan
Subject: Re: [OT] Vivi, the Virtual Violinist, plays LilyPond music
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:48:59 -0400

Hi David,

> This day has more-or-less arrived. Whether we like it or not, most of
> the music we hear in our daily lives, e.g., radio spots, commercials,
> tv-shows and ever-increasingly, major motion pictures are filled with
> music generated by computers, albeit mostly through samples generated
> by humans, but nevertheless, they are rendered by a computer.

I think that's somewhat different than what I was discussing: I'm talking about 
WATCHING computers (or robots) PLAY music, not listening to music that was 
played/generated/rendered [to any degree] by computers.

Case in point: my friend Roger created and programmed McBlare, a robotic 
bagpipe player (see <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/mcblare/>).
Am I intellectually fascinated by Roger's work? Absolutely.
Is it stimulating and exciting to watch McBlare play music? Absolutely.
Would I rather watch a human (e.g., my dad) play the bagpipes? Absolutely.
Will there come a day in my lifetime when I would honestly -- emotionally -- 
prefer to watch a robot play an instrument rather than a human? I don't believe 
so. [But I *do* believe there is a chance that such a day will come eventually.]

> One thing a robot, or any type of computer generated music will never
> replace is the simple gratification of actually playing

I would go one step further: I constantly -- and happily -- use 
computers/robots/programs to do certain things [almost always faster, and quite 
often "better"] than I can, in part so that I am free to spend more time and 
energy doing certain other things [which may or may not be things computers to 
do faster or "better" than I].

To wit: I use a boiling-water dispenser, in part so that I am free to spend 
more time drinking and enjoying my tea; I use email for 99% of my 
correspondence, in part so that I am free to spend more time using a pen and 
stationery to write meaningful long-hand letters to my close friends; and I 
engrave my music with Lilypond, in part so that I am free to spend more time at 
the piano with a pencil and manuscript paper rather than being forced to have a 
computer compose for me.

Other people make other choices, obviously. I just think it's unfortunate if 
you stop doing something you love simply because there's a computer or robot or 
program that does it "better" or "faster" than you do.

> ... but that's me. As evidenced by computer gaming, the notion of
> social interaction with a computer has long since been upon us.

+1

Cheers,
Kieren.


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