Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf making music together

Abstract

Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf are three great musical ladies, born in 1915. Could we make them singing together? This was the goal of a performance made for a music festival in L'Aquila (Italy) in 2015. This raises musical questions: what kind of sound could link Billie Holiday to Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf to Piaf? What kind of musical structure? With the help of the software ImproteK, the three ladies eventually sang together Autumn Leaves and The Man I love. ImproteK allowsmony of the used material (called "memories") to the harmonic progression of the reference song (called "scenario"). The machine can also include into its "memory" what is currently played during the performance. This process raises fascinating questions about musical notation and style: the chosen common notation will define how the improvisation will follow the reference scenario, where the chosen memories inds and character interacting with this structure. The result can be arresting, surrealistic, kitsch; it is often fun.