Beethoven X: The AI Project: Complete (Bonn Orchestra)
The Complete 10th Symphony, According to AI
When Ludwig van Beethoven passed away in 1827, he left behind a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been his Tenth Symphony. Despite his deteriorating health, Beethoven managed to sketch out a few musical ideas, but the symphony remained unfinished. For nearly two centuries, musicologists and composers have speculated about how this symphony might have sounded. Now, thanks to the advancements in artificial intelligence, Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony has been brought to life.
In 2019, a team of music historians, musicologists, composers, and computer scientists embarked on an ambitious project to complete Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony using AI. Led by Dr. Matthias Röder from the Karajan Institute and Dr. Ahmed Elgammal from Rutgers University, the team trained an AI to understand Beethoven’s entire body of work and his creative process12.
The AI analyzed Beethoven’s compositions, learning to mimic his style and develop musical structures from short phrases and motifs. This process involved not only replicating Beethoven’s musical language but also ensuring that the AI’s contributions were indistinguishable from the composer’s original sketches12.
After two years of meticulous work, the AI-generated completion of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony premiered in Bonn, Germany, in October 2021. The result was a symphony that seamlessly blended Beethoven’s genius with modern technology, offering a glimpse into what might have been had Beethoven completed the work himself12.
This project not only showcases the potential of AI in the arts but also opens up new possibilities for the future of music composition. By bridging the gap between human creativity and machine learning, the completion of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony stands as a testament to the enduring power of innovation and collaboration12.
