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Did anyone else see the listen to the brilliant documentary by Tarik O’Regan for BBC Radio 3 about the collision of AI and composers?(https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002k3th) I listened last weekend, and….its been on my mind so I thought I’d share some of my musings with my dear subscribers. I’m in the middle of writing an instrumental commission and I have wondered…..if I fed this and other Emily Hall music into AI and asked it to continue you the piece for me, would it be obvious where I stopped and AI carried on? I’m not about to do that, for reasons I’ll go into later (aside from the fact I haven’t a clue how I’d actually do that), but it bothers me to wonder …. would listeners necessarily know? It’s a mind blowing concept. Something that comes up in the documentary is democratising the creation of music. That is a good point. Privilege has led to me to acquire the skills to be able to imagine how different instruments sound together, and to build pieces from nothing and to strive to achieve specific sensations for listeners… Now, with AI, so many more people can do that - instantly. Where does that leave us composers? Will our skills be needed as editors of AI instead? Or will we become artisans - will we stamp our scores with ‘hand made’ ‘filtered through a flawed human brain’ and ‘there is self doubt inside this piece’? Deep down, I honestly don’t think AI can do what I do. Songs written by AI - listening to them, you can tell instantly they lack soul and they are a composite - not a pure idea. Abstract orchestral music - perhaps a little harder to tell if AI has been involved (as Tarik’s documentary proved). Perhaps it’s an opportunity for a new bar for us composers - if it sounds like something AI could have possibly come up with - well, its not good enough. I absolutely love the randomness of when a good idea strikes me or when a melody for a lyric arrives and comes out of my mouth in song and I know its a good one. As fascinated as I was with Tarik’s documentary, and as much as I understand it could be a creative key for many, I personally have no plans to collaborate with AI - and I’ll be sticking to sitting in the drafty corner of my house at my out of tune piano, pencils and manuscript paper in hand and embracing my flaws. In other news - I have given my website a make over - hopefully its much easier to find the scores you want now. www.emilyhall.co.uk Eternity (SSA) is available on Faber website now and much easier if you are after a multi licence deal. https://www.fabermusic.com/shop/eternity-d57432 My playlists are on hold while I figure out where I’m at with Spotify(!) It’s not easy being an artist in 2025 is it!?! Thank you as always for listening to my news and thoughts. I really appreciate your support. Emily
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