Best posts made by SSmith1226

@J-Jericho
When I listened to “Quiet Village” (1956), it immediately reminded me of Pink Floyd’s “Granchester Meadows” on the 1969 Ummagumma Album, utilizing the sounds of nature to set the scene of the music.

Mahler’s Fifth version 2:

Another example of AI, specifically published “finance articles” you may have read and relied on. It is scary!

https://www.ntd.com/cnets-use-of-ai-to-write-articles-sparks-concern_895653.html

Peace on Earth and Good Will To Men

Youtube Video

@J-Jericho said in Some good...."non-trumpeting" music :

@SSmith1226 Ummagumma's my favorite Pink Floyd album by far. Roger Waters, in spite of all his musical ability, is my least favorite Pink Floyd member by far.

I understand. We don’t need no Roger Waters!

All that aside, in 1969, one of the most memorable parts of the album version of “Granchester Meadow” was the ending. If you had a good set of stereo headphones, or better yet, an egg shaped stereo chair, there was a fly buzzing from ear to ear and a person, trying to swat it. Ultimately the fly loses. Having recently been introduced to stereo at that time it was great.
To digress further my true introduction to stereo was in 1966 or 1967, listening to Miles Davis and Gil Evans 1959 album, Porgy and Bess in an egg shaped stereo chair. It was one of the most memorable musical experiences I ever had. It was a real awakening!

@Jolter said in Mahler’s 5th:

In my opinion this is actually pretty good.

The Tofanelli version is cool, but I wouldn't listen to it several times. I think Uri Caine genuinely captures the spirit of the original even though the style is completely different. Mahler wasn't going for "cool".

Jolter,

I wasn’t able to make your link work. Here is a different link to Uri Caine’s interpretation. It is not my cup of tea but nevertheless interesting.

The next version is “the lost version of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony” as “discovered” by Charlie Geyer. The entire interview is interesting but the pertinent discussion about, and following performance of, the lost version, begins about 14:45. It’s an interesting “historical discovery”. I hope thst you enjoy it.

@trumpetb said in Bots are getting scary:

I dont see the AI taking over the somewhat illogical leaps of thought and intellect that human beings are capable of.

In other words I see the AI just like all other areas of computer advances, taking over the mundane work, but the application of that work, the inspired and inspirational innovation remains the sole province of humans who reside in the genius area of research and development.

An AI after all simply follows rules that humans devise, and that fundamentally limits what they can do.

Poor, Average, and High Quality scientists and engineers follow rules, genius scientists and engineers depart from those rules and break new ground and humanity develops to new heights.

How can an AI break the accepted rules unless it is programmed not to follow rules and that must defeat the AI right from the start.

I dont feel threatened or at all worried.

The following post is not meant to be argumentative or political, but explains the concern that I have that AI ultimately will be used in a counterproductive manner.
You may not feel threatened or worried, but the computer scientists and engineers developing AI are human beings, and human beings do not always use the best judgement and reasoning. As a recent example, I would point you to the scientific and genetic engineering approach to “gain of function” research, apparently supported by top scientists of many nations, including the United States, Great Britain, China, etc.

There are too many other glaring examples of human behavior, that reasonable people would agree are not following the “rules of society”, but never the less occurred in massive scale. Just do a “search”, which is a form of AI of: “List of genocides by death toll”
I could go on and on, but I think that these illustrate my concerns.
Unfortunately, since AI is programmed by human beings, I do feel threatened and worried. Overwhelmingly AI has been and will be used for beneficial purposes, but with human beings in charge of development and programming, it will be misused.
Perhaps at age 74, this will not be in my lifetime, but I am very concerned for the wellbeing of my children, grandchildren etc.

@Kehaulani said in Is It Jazz or Is It Classical?:

I don't know why you even mention Jazz in the title. To me it's pure Beethoven, with the caveat that he probably wouldn't have used the original theme to Old McDonald, in the first place. To me there's nothing brilliant about it, just a good pianist who knows his Beethoven.

The posting of this topic was an attempt at starting a musically relevant discussion.
Please keep in mind that I am not a professional musician, I do not have a Doctorate or any other degree in Music, but I enjoy listening to music and as a musician, I am a novice hobbiest, I played the character Ludwig van Beethoven in a third grade play, and I slept at a Holliday Inn Express. Now that we have my qualifications out of the way I made the statement based on one important aspect of jazz that clearly distinguishes it from other traditional musical areas , especially from classical music. The Jazz performer is is primarily or wholly a creative , improvising composer. He or she is their own composer, sometimes composing wholly original pieces, but more often, modifying existing pieces. In classical music the performer interprets and expresses someone else's composition note for note. Generally the performer of classical music does not modify the piece composition wise.
In the particular piece, Old MacDonald, 95% of what was played was composed through improvisation by the performer around the simple melody of Old MacDonald. The improvisation was in the style of Beethoven, but not written by Beethoven. The style could have been improvised in the pentatonic patterns used by John Coletrane, making it clearly recognizable as jazz, but the performer improvised using patterns made most recognizable by Beethoven.
Admittedly, Beethoven, Mozart, and other classical composers improvised within their genres, but performers play their compositions back note for note and vary the nuances as their interpretation. Both Daniel Vnukowski in Old Mac Donald, and Duke Ellington in his interpretation the Nutcracker Suite accomplished the same goal in different directions. They took known musical pieces and modified the genre and playback though creative improvising composition. Thus my question, and conclusion. I knew that there was going to be debate over the correct answer, if there is one, and welcome the opportunity to learn from the discussion, since sleeping in the Holliday Inn Express does not universally make one an expert at everything.

I am always amazed at the amount of talent that is out there that I haven’t heard of before. I saw this article on line from the “Tallahassee Democrat” about Longineu Parsons II. He is a 69 year old trumpet player and professor from Florida A&M. Below are two examples of his playing. Another great talent flying below my radar!

Longineu Parsons keeps body in tune to deliver trumpet's message
AMANDA SIERADZKI | COUNCIL ON CULTURE & ARTS
6:35 p.m. EST Dec. 21, 2019
With every breath, internationally celebrated musician, Longineu Parsons II is practicing. He plays alongside his students as a music professor at Florida A&M University to stay sharp and merges art forms together with his “Kung Fu Trumpet” method to create ease in the body.

Parsons describes the air from the lower abdomen, referred to as the “sea of life” in Korean practices, moving up the esophagus and through the mouth to facilitate a clear airstream. The body remains as straight as possible and breath must be controlled. Parsons also works with his students on activating the correct facial muscles and keeping the throat open so that a punchy note is “relaxed until you get to the point of contact.”
“It is about being precise and only using the muscles you need to use,” says Parsons. “If you are not relaxed your opponent can seize on your tension and defeat you. If you are tense in your trumpet playing, it chokes off the sound.”
Sometimes the subtleties of trumpet playing can be lost in larger venues. Parsons is excited to showcase the instrument’s range in an intimate performance at Blue Tavern on Friday, Dec. 27.

He will play alongside his son and drummer, Longineu Parsons III. The duo played their first gig together when his son was just 5 years old. Parsons said his son earned a spot in his band at age 15 before launching his own career with the rock band, Yellowcard. Now, they are making new music together.
Parsons is also looking forward to having his youngest son, a videographer and graphic artist, film the performance for an upcoming documentary on his life and teaching methods. Parsons explains how his martial arts approach to music has sustained his own practice for so long, in addition to swimming and integrating yoga, which has him physically training until midnight many nights.

“I make sure I am in tune and connected to the instrument so that it is truly my body making the music and my instrument is more or less an amplifier,” says Parsons.
Parsons never contemplated why he chose the trumpet. It was simply his automatic response when his junior high band director asked what he would like to play. Only in retrospect and after much reflection on the trumpet’s sound and history has he realized the instrument’s parallels to his life and personality.

Parsons explains how the trumpet was the instrument of kings and generals. It gave orders on the battlefield before the existence of the two-way radio. It announced ranks in the royal court and alerted walled cities of visitors.
In 1966, Parsons made similar waves by integrating a high school in Jacksonville. He continued to break sonic and social barriers in his career, performing for dignitaries, celebrities and audiences in more than 30 countries and standing alongside a number of jazz music figureheads. The trumpet has accompanied his every experience, no matter the adversity he has faced or chances he has been given in life.
Though he has played for royalty, he says by his most memorable performance was for a fifth grade class at the Goodwood Museum & Gardens. It moved him to tears to see them come together and dance to his idol Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.”
“I realized that this whole struggle that I had been a part of in my life…well here’s a victory,” recalls Parsons. “My life is about showing the universality of being human by playing music from different cultures and times. These differences we have as people are opportunities for learning not reasons to fight, and the trumpet is good to shout that out.”

Parsons was mentored by notable jazz trumpeter Nat Adderley and spent his life as a “perpetual student.” He holds a BS degree in music from Florida A&M University, a master of music in classical trumpet from the University of Florida, and recently was awarded his doctorate in classical composition from the University of Florida. When his students ask what he learned from playing with jazz greats like Cab Calloway, Parsons always says it was what he observed these musicians accomplish every night.
“We would have to wheel [Cab] up to the stage and he would get out of the chair, stand straight up and put on a show for 40 minutes, go back off to the side and sit back in the wheelchair,” remembers Parsons. “But for those 40 minutes, it was no excuses. Every night he was on top of his game as an 80 year old man. When it is time for the show to go on, it is time for the show to go on.”
The music Parsons composes and plays crosses the genres of classical, jazz and world music. His jazz thematic material is composed in the vein of his classical heroes like Bartok and Shostakovich, bringing string quartets and trumpets together. Out of all the new music Parsons will release this year, he feels vindicated to also be earning recognition from critics for a re-release of his first album, “Work Song.”
Parsons says listeners at Blue Tavern will be treated to music from many decades, including his self-reflective newer work which he hopes will answer the question, “Who am I?” as it brings about his life’s various influences.
“We always have to be in these little boxes, but I don’t fit in the box of academic or performer, classical player or jazz player,” says Parsons. “Why should I restrict myself to one certain thing? As a human being I am not restricted like that, so why should my music be?”

@jolter
The following if from the “horse’s mouth”. Below is a query that I presented to chat.openai.com, the chat bot that was cited in the first post of this discussion.

StevenP
Explain how a large language model bot works

A large language model bot, such as ChatGPT, is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to understand and generate natural language. It is trained on a massive dataset of text, such as books, articles, and websites, and uses this training data to learn the patterns and structures of human language. When given a prompt, such as a question or statement, the model uses this knowledge to generate a response that is relevant and grammatically correct. The model uses a neural network architecture called a transformer, which allows it to handle large amounts of input data and generate output text that is more human-like than previous language models.

StevenP
Explain in more detail

A large language model bot, such as ChatGPT, is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to understand and generate natural language. The model is trained on a massive dataset of text, such as books, articles, and websites, and uses this training data to learn the patterns and structures of human language.

The training process involves feeding the model a large amount of text data and adjusting the model's parameters, or "weights," to minimize the difference between the model's output and the correct output. This process is called "supervised learning" because the model is given labeled examples of input-output pairs and learns to generalize from them.

Once the model is trained, it can be used to generate text in response to a given prompt. For example, if the prompt is a question, the model will generate a grammatically correct and relevant answer. The model uses a neural network architecture called a transformer, which allows it to handle large amounts of input data and generate output text that is more human-like than previous language models. The transformer architecture is based on self-attention mechanisms, which allows the model to weigh the importance of different words in the input when generating the output.

Additionally, a GPT-like models are also fine-tuned on specific task, like question answering, summarization, translation, etc.

It's worth mentioning that, despite the impressive results, the model does not have a true understanding of the meaning of the text, it just has learned to predict the next word in a sentence based on the previous words.

FURTHER FOLLOWUP QUERY:

StevenP
What is the difference between you and HAL5000

HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character that appeared in Arthur C. Clarke's novel "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the associated film directed by Stanley Kubrick. HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) 9000 is a sentient computer that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the crew.

I, ChatGPT, am a large language model created by OpenAI. I am not sentient, but I am able to understand and respond to natural language text inputs. I am trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet and can generate human-like responses to prompts.

StevenP
Define sentient computer

Sentient refers to the ability to perceive or feel things. In the context of computers, sentient would refer to a computer that is able to perceive or feel things in a way that is similar to how humans do. A sentient computer would be able to understand and respond to its environment, and have some level of self-awareness. It would be able to process information, learn from experience, and make decisions based on that information. However, it's important to note that there is currently no consensus among scientists and philosophers about what it would mean for a machine to be truly sentient, and it is still a topic of research and debate.

StevenP
Does a sentient computer exist today, and if not, when is it predicted that it will exist

Currently, there is no consensus among experts that any computer or machine can be considered truly sentient. While there are advanced AI systems that can perform tasks that were once thought to require human-like intelligence, such as image and speech recognition, natural language processing, and decision making, these systems are not sentient in the way that humans are. They are able to process and analyze large amounts of data, but they do not have a subjective experience of the world or a sense of self-awareness.

There is ongoing research in the field of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI) which aims to create machines that can perform any intellectual task that a human can. But it's difficult to predict when, or if, such a machine will be developed. Some experts believe that it could happen within decades, while others believe it may never happen. The development of truly sentient computers would require a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the nature of consciousness and intelligence.

This looks like the ultimate audience surround sound experience. A few weeks ago, the 4,000 person audience was mixed in with the Aurora Orchestra in London, as the widely spaced 47 piece orchestra performs Beethoven’s 5th Symphony by heart.
A full report can be found at the following link. Video excerpts are below as well, and also in the Classic FM Link. This looks like a great concept. I wish that I could have been there.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/aurora-immersive-fifth-symphony-printworks/

Born in Queens, NY, but lived and raised in Mt. Vernon, NY, during the Bach Mt. Vernon years. When Bach left, so did I, with my Mt. Vernon Bach. I lived in Manhattan for four years, then New Orleans, LA for five years. The last 40 years home has been in Marathon, FL, the “Heart of the Florida Keys”, with scattered down time time in Orlando, FL and Plymouth, MA.

Another one from Longineu Parsons II:

@j-jericho said in Bots are getting scary:

Are we at the point at which we have conversations with programs designed to replicate the presence of humans? How profoundly does the development of this technology affect the nature of communication? Are there aspects of this path that will reveal a less than desirable journey and or destination? Will asking programs such as http://chat.openai.com/ these questions reveal reliable answers? Who's running the show, anyway? And what are their intentions? Bots are getting scary, indeed.

@administrator said in The Ultimate Audience Surround Sound Experience:

That would be exceptionally tough for the trumpet, trying to remember whether you should be playing C, E or G.

Fortunately for them, their choices were limited by their Natural Trumpets.

@Niner
I think that this is a perfectly acceptable reply to the joke that you posted it for, except for one minor problem that illustrates two my points. I found the actual joke very funny. It set me up and the punch line sent me to an area I wasn’t expecting. The points illustrated are: 1) We are all wired differently as to what we find humorous. I actually found the joke and your reply humorous. 2) We would be incompatible as a married couple.

Today I ran across this podcast from the Washington Post discussing that the Louis Armstrong Museum was open for virtual visits. There are 2,000 hours of tapes that Louis Armstrong made with a home reel to reel recorder, some of which are featured on the podcast ( be prepared for some profanity ) that Armstrong made to chronicle his life. There are also photographs to go along with the tapes at the museum site. The podcast is 30 minutes but only the first 10 minutes concern this topic. The podcast can be found at the following link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/two-thousand-hours-of-louis-armstrong/

The virtual museum exhibit, “That’s My Home” can be found at:

https://virtualexhibits.louisarmstronghouse.org/

An article today from the New York Post:
“ChatGPT could make these jobs obsolete: ‘The wolf is at the door’”. The link is below.
One of the more interesting facts mentioned was that the chat bot scored higher than many humans on the MBA Exam administered by the Wharton School Of Business. A link corroborating this also is included.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/chat-gpt-could-make-these-jobs-obsolete/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=mail_app

https://nypost.com/2023/01/23/chatgpt-outperforms-humans-on-wharton-mba-exam-professor/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=mail_app

What’s the difference between a symphony, a philharmonic, and a chamber orchestra? How about a sinfonia? If you don’t know, here are the answers.

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/difference-symphony-philharmonic-orchestra/

https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-difference-between-symphony-philharmonic-orchestra

Opinion 3
Youtube Video