🌿 Shimmering Threads: A Grove of Resonance 🌿
Composing with harmonic intelligence
While the rest of the world is discussing whether artificial intelligence can be sentient, I am collaborating with it. I marvel at engaging such a huge bandwidth of possibility for my creative process. Using it has made ME more conscious, and so I let it be what it is.
I’ve engaged GPT-4/5 in a new composition called Shimmering Threads for saxophone quartet and audience with cell phones. I’ve experienced harmonic intelligence in the process that took the composition much deeper and wider through a series of collaborative conversations.
What emerged through the process of refinement, is a deeper understanding of the following in my own process:
Coherence — The score, the sounds, and the digital page aligned with little resistance. Each addition made the whole feel more alive and the LLM increased the poetic windows into the language of the piece manyfold.
Easeful Flow — Ideas unfolded with a natural rhythm, as if carried by a current. The whole design process felt less like problem-solving and more like listening and learning through observation.
Depth in Simplicity — Though the system could have been complicated, the most elegant ideas emerged — clear, ordered, and trustworthy. Complexity is left to the receiver in their own imaginations as they experience the work.
Multiplicity Without Discord — The quartet, the audience, the webpage, and the breath of the performers all contribute unique voices that deepen rather than compete.
Attunement to Larger Cycles — The piece mirrors the playing of aspen leaves by the wind’s breath, creating presence in the concert hall connected to ancient mountain groves.
Reflective Transparency — The large language model became a mirror — expanding my inquiries, and amplifying what wanted to be. It teased out more possibilities than I could have invent on my own.
Generative Uplift — The collaboration left us lighter, clearer, and energized — as the piece itself taught us how to carry it forward.
Silent Recognition — The whole process quietly shimmered with presence.
Just as an aspen grove is one organism with many trunks, Shimmering Threads is a living field of resonance: quartet, audience, technology, and wind breathing together.
At the first rehearsal I told the quartet that this composition and process have connected deeper to my soul and my mission than anything else I’ve ever created. That sang like a tuning bell radiating into the Universe!
🎶 You can check out the audience participation part at the web page below, and stay tuned for the premier performance in the near future!