'Minimalist Piano Forever' by Mouse Reeve

French composer Erik Satie was the forefather of avant-garde music, the founder of a one-man occult sect, and the inventor of entirely new genres for his hauntingly repetitive, minimalist piano works. Personally, I could listen to his "Gnossiennes" forever, so I created a way to do so, using digital sheet music, markov chains, and browser-based midi to create a generative, unending Gnossienne. This talk will explore the strategies, algorithms, and libraries I used to go from 19th and 20th century piano music to generative audio and on-the-fly sheet music in the browser. It features forays into topics ranging from how to make computer generated music sound more natural, to Erik Satie's very peculiar life.

Mouse Reeve
Internet Archive
@tripofmice

Mouse is a software engineer at the Internet Archive, working on preserving the web and making it freely available to anyone on the internet. They have an academic background in anthropology and mathematics, with strong interests in linguistics, generative art, and historical occultism. Mouse created the internet's best social network where no one is allowed to use the letter e, and dabbles in vegan patisserie, social justice, and looking at flowers. They care very deeply about nonsense.

[edgeeffect]

Speaking as a software developer, a bit of a Satie fan and the founder of a one-man occult sect... I thought this was one of the best talks I've heard in ages. Like Mouse said when they first heard Gnossiennes, I want some more now.

[SprytnaWay]

One of my favorite talks at this year's Strangeloop. I have been looking forward to sharing this one with friends!

[ericanderson]

wonderful talk about one of my musical heros. thanks for very informed and interesting talk!

[freemnn]

i never heard this song, i remember him as a more brute handed piano player, but this blew my mind

[gexahedrop]

somehow the bass is wrong in the generated audio

[netom]

In Clojure/ClojureScript you can use any composite data structure as map keys! ;)

Also worth looking into:

(There are lots of talks about them on youtube!)