A box you must open!
I’ve been a fan of Pandora for some time. For any music lover who has been watching digital music evolve over the years, this – to me – is so significant and satisfying an experience. Like many adaptive systems, songs and genres are linked by attributes attributed to both.
You select a composer, say Chopin, and enter it as a “station”. Pandora begins your new station with a song by Chopin, maybe two, but then goes on to improvise on the themes of the song. Like TiVo – there are up/down thumbs for each song to keep tailoring your station. Most composers have a range of songs and if you keep dialing in, say, mellow tunes from Chopin it will match up other music to that. If you like you can later change the station name to something like “foggy, rainy music” or whatever.
On my Chopin station this morning, insamuch as it is such a foggy morning in Del Mar, I was served the following:
Chopin Mazurka #5, Chopin Prelude for Piano #26, Clementi Sonatina for piano, Chopin Nocturne, Mendelssohn Songs without words, Montero Improvisation on Handel’s Sarabande, Bach Suite for Solo Cello #1, Thomas Newman – soundtrack to Road to Perdition, etc.
The fact that Pandora put in a totally modern piece (from a timing perspective) along with the older Chopin – and even older Bach – was what was so magical. Unlike iTunes mixes, which are laughable, these are truly like having some sort of uber-DJ.
If you are curious as to how the music is selected, it’s right there if you click through. For example, the Saint-Saëns piece selected for me had this information:
Carnival Of The Animals, Zoological Fantasy For 2 Pianos & Ensemble: VII. Aquarium
Features of this song
a tranquil mood
a bittersweet sentiment
chromatic harmony
a well-known composer
a Romantic-Era style
a large chamber ensemble
pitched percussion
tonal harmony
minor key tonality
a slow and stately tempo