BEETHOVEN X THE AI PROJECT
| Title | BEETHOVEN X THE AI PROJECT |
| Brand | TELEKOM |
| Product/Service | TELEKOM |
| Category |
A05. Music / Sound Design |
|
Entrant
|
DDB GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
|
|
Idea Creation
|
DDB GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
|
Credits
| Dennis May |
DDB Group Germany |
CCO |
| Diana Sukopp |
DDB Group Germany |
CCO |
| Florian Grimm |
DDB Group Germany |
MD Creative |
| Karsten Ruddigkeit |
DDB Group Germany |
ECD |
| Dennis Krumbe |
DDB Group Germany |
CD Copy |
| Mark Räke |
DDB Group Germany |
CD Art |
| Anna Rösch |
DDB Group Germany |
Senior Copy Writer |
| Saskia krug |
DDB group Germany |
Senior Art Director |
| Simon Hansen |
DDB Group Germany |
Executive Director Client Service |
| Katrin Spiegel |
DDB Group Germany |
Executive Director Client Service |
| Meike van Meegen |
DDB Group Germany |
Agency Producer |
| Natalie Kröger |
DDB Group Germany |
Account Director |
| Luca Seichter |
DDB Group Germany |
Account Director |
| Edward Jasion |
DDB Group Germany |
AM & CE |
| Ahmed Elgammal |
Rutgers University |
AI Expert |
| Matthias Röder |
The Mindshift |
Musicologist |
| Mark Gotham |
Cornell University |
Music Theorist |
| Walter Werzowa |
Musikvergnuegen |
Composer |
| Giacomo Lodi |
Hastings Audio Network |
Audio Post Production |
| David Hortmann |
Optix Post Production |
Editor |
| Philipp Grösser |
Optix Post Production |
Editor |
| Romuald Golenia |
Optix Post Production |
Producer |
| Florian Engels |
Optix Post Production |
Motion Design |
| Chris Iskandar |
Optix Post Production |
Motion Design |
| Can Ibar |
Optix Post Production |
VFX |
| Michael Gottschalk |
Optix Post Production |
VFX |
| Patrick Günther |
Optix Post Production |
VFX |
| Michael Schuld |
Telekom (Telekom Deutschland GmbH) |
Business Unit Lead TV & Entertainment |
| Stephan Althoff |
Telekom (Deutsche Telekom AG) |
Lead Corporate Sponsoring |
Describe the creative idea
When Beethoven died, he left behind 40 sketches for a final 10th symphony. 200 years later, Telekom challenged the unthinkable: Can artificial intelligence, enhanced by human emotion, complete Beethoven's legacy and create a whole symphony?
At the time, AI couldn’t continue a piece of music for more than a few seconds. Now, it had to create an entire symphony from a few sketches and recreate a mastermind.
A team of world-renowned AI experts, music historians, musicologists and composers had to craft a fundamentally new generation of AI. One that studied Beethoven’s music and his influences, but that also learned to compose on its own. During two years of programming and reprogramming, the AI composed hundreds of phrases every night. The experts selected the most powerful phrases and gave them back to the AI to elaborate upon – crafting both music and AI in the process.
Describe the execution
The first step to get the computational process going was to decipher and interpret Beethoven’s sketches. What did he have in mind for his 10th symphony? The experts created a vision of the work – and accordingly, an AI that could translate this vision into music.
Having studied Beethoven and the composers who had influenced him, the AI started to compose. At a speed and quantity, like no human had done before! The experts compared the AI’s compositions with what Beethoven had in mind for his last symphony. They selected the phrases that Beethoven would most likely have chosen himself. Then, they let the AI continue those phrases, refining the composition day by day.
After three years and two million notes, Beethoven’s 10th symphony was finally completed. Though the intense collaboration between artificial intelligence and human emotion.
BEETHOVEN X was introduced to the public via a Livestream press conference in 2019, including a live performance of one of the AI’s earlier compositions. Two years later, when the 10th symphony had been completed, a free audio teaser was released on Spotify. An online film advertised the free Livestream event all over social media and targeted different audiences.
On the 9th of October 2021, the premiere of Beethoven’s 10th symphony could finally take place. In the Telekom Forum Bonn, 900 guests experienced how the composer’s last sketches had been crafted into live music – performed by star organist Cameron Carpenter and the famous Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. Another 2500 guests attended a second concert at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, while thousands of viewers followed the events on Telekom's own TV channel and via a free Livestream on the website.