Is This What You Want? (Composition / Recording) 2022 (~ 6 minutes) is a single-take reading of scores generated by an artificial intelligence. Said intelligence was given the prompts: Piano Score, Saxophone Score, and Vibraphone Score (ran twice for each prompt), the resulting scores can be found in this single's cover. Three minutes were allotted to each score, with two scores per person.

I believe that computers have been given too much of a helping hand in replacing musicians as of recent. By using an image generator-rather than a specifically curated notation deep learning model-I aimed to catch the computer in a translation error.

If this piece was to be performed again, the original AI photos wouldn’t be necessary. I think the authenticity of this project lies in the first impression of said AI generated photos rather than a practiced performance. Technique may be theorized before the initial performance of the photos, but can not be revised upon the first trial. For each performance, new photos should be generated and a set amount of time allotted to each photo (three minutes in this case, but could be more or less). I suggest setting prospective rules / methods for how to interpret the photos, but again, this should be no more than at first glance before the performance.

Recorded March 7, 2022

Piano / Voice - Tobias Hess

Vibraphone - Mikalah Jenifer

Saxophone - Jonah Knapp-Wilson