Quantum Computer Music



Impressions

CTM Festival, Radialsystem, January 2024, Berlin Artos house performance, November 2024, Nicosia, Cyprus




Quantum Computer Music: listening examples

CTM Festival, January 2024
Rasgar, Saber (2022-23) - by Paulo Itaborai
ReVeR (2023) - by Paulo Itaborai and Dino Vicente
Hexagonal Chambers
Dependent Origination
  • The Variational Quantum Harmonizer
    Developing a Framework for Sonifying Variational Quantum Algorithms: Implications for Music Composition
    Paulo Vitor Itaborai, Peter Thomas, Arianna Crippa, Karl Jansen, Tim Schwägerl, Maria Aguado Yanez
    Published in Advances in Quantum Computer Music, World Scientific, editor E. R. Miranda, 2024. DOI:10.1142/14025Quantum Computer Music (Springer, 2024)
    arXiv:2409.07104

    • Comparison between Optimizers
    Cobyla optimizer SPSA optimizer NFT optimizer
    Abstract

    This chapter examines the Variational Quantum Harmonizer, a software tool and musical interface that focuses on the problem of sonification of the minimization steps of Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQA), used for simulating properties of quantum systems and optimization problems assisted by quantum hardware. Particularly, it details the sonification of Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems using VQA. A flexible design enables its future applications both as a sonification tool for auditory displays in scientific investigation, and as a hybrid quantum-digital musical instrument for artistic endeavours. In turn, sonification can help researchers understand complex systems better and can serve for the training of quantum physics and quantum computing. The VQH structure, including its software implementation, control mechanisms, and sonification mappings are detailed. Moreover, it guides the design of QUBO cost functions in VQH as a music compositional object. The discussion is extended to the implications of applying quantum-assisted simulation in quantum-computer aided composition and live-coding performances. An artistic output is showcased by the piece \textit{Hexagonal Chambers} (Thomas and Itaboraí, 2023).



    See here for VQH software


    See also: Itaborai, P. V., Schwäerl, T., Yanez, M. A., Crippa, A., Jansen, K., Miranda, E. R., and Thomas, P. (2023a). Variational quantum harmonizer: Gener- ating chord progressions and other sonification methods with the vqe algo- rithm, in 2nd International Symposium on Quantum Computing and Mu- sical Creativity (ISQCMC Berlin) (Zenodo), doi:10.5281/zenodo.10206731, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10206731



    The first quantum music book where we contributed a chapter
    The Springer publication on quantum computer music
  • A Qeyboard and listening to physical models, was fun!
    New Directions in Quantum Music: concepts for a quantum keyboard and the sound of the Ising model
    Giuseppe Clemente, Arianna Crippa, Karl Jansen, Cenk Tüysüz
    Published in "Quantum Computer Music" (Springer, 2022), Edited by Miranda, E. R
    arXiv:2204.00399

    This work is a contributed chapter of the above mentioned book
    • Figure: A complex synthesis for three sounds played simultaneously with both evolving frequencies and intensities with some smoothing applied and synthetized with sampling rate 44100 Hz.

    Abstract
    We explore ideas for generating sounds and eventually music by using quantum devices in the NISQ era using quantum circuits. In particular, we first consider a concept for a "qeyboard", i.e. a quantum keyboard, where the real-time behaviour of expectation values using a time evolving quantum circuit can be associated to sound features like intensity, frequency and tone. Then, we examine how these properties can be extracted from physical quantum systems, taking the Ising model as an example. This can be realized by measuring physical quantities of the quantum states of the system, e.g. the energies and the magnetization obtained via variational quantum simulation techniques.