Music/sound house Bang took on this project for Accenture Strategy, the business, operations and technology consultancy. The mission required that Bang hire and produce a French composer, who would write a symphony based upon a digitally generated musical outline culled and “interpreted” from key business data provided by Accenture’s computer systems. The sensory visual/sonic experience has been dubbed “Symphonologie–The Music of Business.”
Initially, data from over 600 articles about business were given to Hannah Davis, a New York City programmer and artist whose TransProse artificial intelligence program would analyze emotionally charged words from the nearly 250,000 words of text and convert them into musical melodies. Thus, a series of musical motifs aligning with the emerging business patterns was generated.
Bang brought on board French composer Mathieu Lamboley to create symphonic themes, initially providing the simplest of piano demos based upon the musical “data,” thereby demonstrating what the themes would sound like. From that point the symphony in three distinct movements was composed. Bang then contracted a 50-piece orchestra to perform the piece and brought on local production support for the sessions. Live recordings were made at Studios Davout and also at the Louvre in Paris, with filming taking place in both locations before a private audience of several hundred attendees.
Incredible detail was involved in the pre-planning – and Bang partners Brian Jones and Brad Stratton flew to Paris to oversee the music rehearsals and performance sessions.
The project was a hit and now Bang is researching the next phase of its Symphonologie “world tour.” Accenture has garnered strong business headlines for its unusual artistic “metaphor” and demonstration of the power of creative data analysis.
