Creative Music Neurotechnology with Symphony of Minds Listening

Abstract

A better understanding of the musical brain combined with technical advances in biomedical engineering and music technology is pivotal for the development of increasingly more sophisticated brain–computer music interfacing (BCMI) systems. BCMI research has been very much motivated by its potential benefits to the health and medical sectors, as well as to the entertainment industry. However, we advocate that the potential impact on musical creativity of better scientific understanding of the brain, and the development of increasingly sophisticated technology to scan its activity, should not be ignored. In this chapter, we introduce an unprecedented new approach to musical composition, which combines brain imaging technology, musical artificial intelligence and neurophilosophy. We discuss Symphony of Minds Listening, an experimental composition for orchestra in three movements, based on the fMRI scans taken from three different people, while they listened to the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.