"The ability of a machine to do or outdo something humans do is interesting once at most" - Jan Swafford writes in her review of Beethoven's X symphony, which was finished by AI in the last two years. "Artificial intelligence can mimic art, but it can’t be expressive at it because, other than the definition of the word, it doesn’t know what expressive is. It also doesn’t know what excitement is, because there’s a reason people call excitement 'pulse-pounding', and computers don’t have pulses".

When Ludwig von Beethoven died in 1827, he left some musical sketches for his 10th symphony and nothing more. In early 2019, Dr. Matthias Röder, the director of the Karajan Institute, an organization in Salzburg, Austria, that promotes music technology, was putting together a team to complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony in celebration of the composer’s 250th birthday. He hoped an AI would be able to help fill in the blanks left by Beethoven. Ahmed Elgammal in the Conversation describes how he presided over the artificial intelligence side of the project, leading a group of scientists at the creative AI startup Playform AI that taught a machine both Beethoven’s entire body of work and his creative process. And - they did it" A full recording of Beethoven’s 10th Symphony is set to be released on Oct. 9, 2021, the same day as the world premiere performance scheduled to take place in Bonn, Germany – the culmination of a two-year-plus effort.

Sound Field hosts Nahre Sol and Arthur Buckner dive into the history and mystery surrounding Beethoven's 'Für Elise', one of the most widely recognizable classical pieces in the world. It has appeared in commercials, movies, and even garbage trucks in Taiwan. So how did it get so popular, and is it overrated?

Classically trained violinist Ezinma played with Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Mac Miller, as well as with Beyoncé at her historic Coachella set, but her solo career really took off when she filmed herself playing along to Future's 'Mask Off'. The video went viral and landed Ezinma a deal with Decca Records, who recently released her debut EP, 'Classical Bae' - which puts a new spin on Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony' and Bach's 'G Major Prelude', amongst others. BBC talked to the musician.

Beethoven's morning hygiene routine involved standing half-dressed before a mirror and pouring enormous pitchers of water over his hands while singing loudly to himself. After this, the German composer would count out exactly 60 beans and grind them, and make himself a coffee. Van Magazine's writer tried a week of this routine, as well as other somewhat strange daily routines of 4 other classical composers - Edvard Grieg, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, and Antonin Dvořák.

Ludwig van Psychoven
October 27, 2020

Psychedelia in - classic music

Van magazine explores the psychedelia in classical music, through a chronological playlist featuring a select history of the relationship between classical music and psychedelic experimentation. It includes Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner, Chopin and others. Check out the classic-delia list here.

Blaccmass is an up-and-coming Atlanta producer who is going viral for blending drill beats with classic songs from artists like Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Earth, Wind & Fire and even classic musicians like Beethoven, Complex reports. Blaccmass credits the success of the mashup to an inherent element of surprise. People don’t expect Maurice White’s iconic vocals to pair so well with the haunting, gliding bass that anchors most drill beats.