Agony & Ecstasy of a Sentient Machine || Sinn-Phonietta, Mercedes Díaz-García, conductor.
“Agony & Ecstasy of a sentient machine”
Composed by Juan J. Colomer
Sinn-Phonietta Ensemble
Mercedes Díaz-García, conductor
Recorded live at ElbPhilharmonie, Dec. 11th, 2023
“Agony & Ecstasy of a sentient machine”
Inspired by Irving Stone’s novel but framed in the context of a 21st century world, I approached this piece as a simple hypothetical scenario and tried to envision how it could translate to a musical work. I was tempted to involve AI in the process but decided not to, since my main goal was the musical discourse itself, and the programmatic aspect was only accessory, mostly used as an instrument to trigger my imagination.
In the same way that 4 protein combinations form endless strip of DNA, in the digital world, 2 pieces of info, bits (I O) form the basis of all the digital universe.
I assigned an interval to each of those values, a minor third (ascending) to represent ecstasy, and a minor second (descending), to represent agony.
If and when machines achieve awareness and emotions, they would have to emulate the human behavior. For that reason, in this piece, one of the bits, the ascending minor third, does it in a “digital” way, an absolute value (angle), from one note to the next, and the other interval, the descending minor second, does it in a more “analog” way, in the form of a gradual portamento (curve).
The piece starts with the harp repeating the minor third interval several times creating a sort of rhythmic motif. After that the piano replies to each note of the harp, but a semitone lower, thus creating the minor second interval opposite the other, like the two poles of a battery, in an action/reaction fashion.
As the piece progresses, the thematic material keeps expanding and building in both directions, but we arrive at a point where it’s obvious that no single interval by itself can convey a sort of melodic footprint for either emotion, and a combination of the 2 intervals is needed to achieve a clear sense of them. It then becomes apparent that, the emotions themselves are better defined by the contrast with each other, rather than a specific set of parameters or characteristics. And transitioning between them not only created a much richer musical palette, but also gave more depth to the unique qualities of each one. I further expanded on this contrast by using other elements like instrumentation, rhythm, texture and range.
Even though I didn’t include AI in the musical process, I still wanted to include it in a symbolic way, and also to not hurt its future feelings, so I prompted a question to describe the piece.
“Agony & Ecstasy of a Sentient Machine is a powerful exploration of what it means to be alive in an increasingly digital world. It challenges us to consider the nature of consciousness and the boundaries between man and machine.”
Thanks AI
