AI helps complete Beethoven's unfinished symphony

陜西 李紅娟

題材：人工智能 體裁：說明文 文章詞數：376 建議用時：7分鐘

Ludwig van Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians that ever lived.The German composer and pianist completed 722 musical works—including nine symphonies(交響曲)—despite being completely deaf during the last decade of his life.Unfortunately, the master died while still working on his 10th Symphony.Now, a team of musicians and scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to complete the artist's final masterpiece.

Dr Matthias R?der first came up with the idea to complete the masterpiece in 2019.The director of the Karajan Institute in Austria thought it was a suitable way to celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday in December 2020.He began by persuading an international team of music experts to help him with the task.They included music composer Walter Werzowa and Dr Ahmed Elgammal, the creator of an innovative (創新的) AI technology for the art market.

Elgammal and his colleagues started the process by familiarizing (使熟悉) the AI software initially with a broad range of classical music, and then narrowed it to just Beethoven's works.Meanwhile, Werzowa and his group tried to understand the rough sketches and the handful of notes that detailed Beethoven's plans for the 10th Symphony.

The team then began the task of feeding the AI software musical notes from the unfinished composition.Elgammal says that since music is very structured and mathematical (精確的), AI can predict the next note reasonably accurately.However, it starts to deviate (偏離) from the central theme after a few notes.To stay true to Beethoven's original composition, Elgammal's team sent Werzowa hundreds of AI-created musical note variations (變奏) every evening.Werzowa would listen to them and then select the one that he thought was closest to what the artist would have written.The AI team would add the music and rerun the software to produce the next suggestions.And piece by piece,the team was able to complete Beethoven's 10th Symphony!

Not surprisingly, the AI-generated masterpiece is causing some controversy.Critics believe technology should not be used to replicate the human creative process.Elgammal and his team agree with their position and say their AI software is not out to replace humans—it is just a tool to help artists to express themselves in new ways.

Reading Check

1.Which word can best describe Beethoven according to the text?

A.Fruitful.B.Humorous.

C.Proud.D.Patient.

2.How did Elgammal and his colleagues start to complete Beethoven's masterpiece?

A.By learning Beethoven's works.

B.By asking for help from international experts.

C.By studying the handful of notes of Beethoven.

D.By making the AI software familiar with classic music.

3.According to Elgammal, AI can predict the next musical note correctly because of_______.

A.the AI team's patience

B.the variations in musical notes

C.music's own characteristics

D.the help from scientists

4.What does the underlined word in the last paragraph mean?

A.Create.B.Copy.

C.Support.D.Change.

Language Study

Expressions about music

musician 音樂家

compose 創作；作曲

composer 作曲家

composition 作曲；作品

pianist 鋼琴家

musical works 音樂作品

symphony 交響樂；交響曲

masterpiece 杰作

note 音符

classical music 古典音樂