Improvisation Engine

Here's an idea for a performance art piece, a way for the
sight-reading pianist/composer to generate some novel musical
ideas, a tool for practicing sight-reading...

Get a piano and a computer with real-time audio transcription
software (or a MIDI keyboard and software like Sibelius).
Sit down and play something. After n bars of playing, the
transcribed result is displayed on a monitor on the music
desk, and you attempt to play that. The process is continuous.
Transcription/human error will pile up and result in novel
musical material, as well as great reading exercise.

N could be adjusted to get Beethoven-like themes or song-like
sections. The MIDI transcriber would introduce novelty more
slowly than the audio one. The fact that there's repetition
with (hopefully) subtle variation makes it good practice for
reading.

The idea was inspired by a Fleck/Meyer improv where one
performer copies the other after n bars. Probably stuff like
this has been done. I think Larry Polansky had something
similar on one of the JI Network tapes. Usually I think with
such approaches the computer has been programmed to add in
novelty on purpose.

-Carl