With its algorithmic power, an AI pieced together what Beethoven couldn’t finish.

To be fair, Beethoven was in very poor condition to complete what would be his 10th Symphony. So after 1827 when he passed away, we were sadly left with just musical fragments like a jigsaw puzzle with most pieces missing.

But in 2019 there was a second attempt at bridging those musical gaps with the help of AI. Much like predictive text in your emails, a team of music scientists, composers, and programmers were left with the task of turning AI into predicting Beethoven’s next musical notes for this unfinished piece.

Here’s what this sonic adventure turned into.

Piecing together a masterpiece from scattered notes

There wasn’t much to go by to finish this symphony.

While Beethoven had started working on it, declining health prevented him from making significant progress, leaving only scattered musical sketches around.

The team had to face fragments like this to come up with a whole symphony.

Picture having only a few notes and being tasked with crafting an entire symphony that faithfully captures the essence of Beethoven’s musical genius.

Now that’s pressure!

A collaborative music odyssey

The sonic journey involved a diverse team, including Austrian composer Walter Werzowa, computational music expert Mark Gotham, musicologist and pianist Robert Levin, and Dr. Matthias Röder from the Karajan Institute.

Since they had so little to go on with, the AI (led by Rutgers University’s Playform AI) had to learn Beethoven’s entire body of work to see his creative process.

The AI needed to replicate Beethoven’s complete creative process, which involved beginning with a brief musical phrase or motif and expanding it into a full symphony, much like the four-note variation found in Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. It also had to understand the structure of musical forms, harmonization, bridging sections, composing codas, and orchestrating, all in Beethoven’s style.

It was a major undertaking to bring the composer’s vision to life.

Why didn’t they do this before?

Basically, because there wasn’t enough material to go on.

Beethoven’s sketches were pretty scarce.

There was however an attempt back in 1988 by musicologist Barry Cooper who was able to complete the first 250 bars from these sketches, but it wasn’t enough for an entire symphony.

Is this the original or the reconstructed part?

The first test came in November of 2019 when the AI-generated scores were performed alongside Beethoven’s original sketches.

Experts and the audience struggled to distinguish between the two which showed promising results for the final version. They first performed as a piano version, then a string quartet, and in both instances, no one in the audience could spot the difference.

The news didn’t provide any information about how the audience reacted to the final version in 2021. However, considering the positive precedent, we could assume it was well-received.

Composing with constraints

The man was deaf by the time he was scribbling his last sketches. That physical constraint paired with his emotional turmoil would undoubtedly influence his writing style.

Given his hearing difficulties, Beethoven’s choice of notes, the volume of passages (would he use “ppp”?), and his tempo selection, among other musical elements, would have likely varied had he been in better physical condition.

And that’s very hard to incorporate into an AI program.

The AI was never drunk, angry, or lovesick while composing like Beethoven often did.

But this project wasn’t just run by an AI. It was the collaborative efforts of historians, musicians, and scientists that would add depth and context to the musical piece a sole AI wouldn’t be able to.

And that’s how the future will look like AI working alongside human creativity. And from this harmonious union, amazing things will happen just as in Beethoven’s 10th Symphony.

In line with Beethoven’s spirit (and not just AI computing), Christine Siegert, the head of archives at Beethoven House in the composer’s hometown of Bonn, would likely argue that Beethoven would’ve approved this given his innovative spirit.

But let’s leave it to you to judge Beethoven’s X.

So is this Beethoven or not?