ABOUT

To demonstrate the technology in their smartphones, Huawei set themselves the challenge of finishing one of the most famous incomplete works in musical history

Schubert's Symphony No.8 was started in 1822, but for reasons that have never been understood, Schubert never completed the work.

The first two movements are complete – and this two-movement piece is one of the composer's most famous works – but there are only fragments of the final two movements.

Chinese technology company Huawei decided to try and use AI to complete the work – with the help of composer Lucas Cantor.

Huawei used the AI in its Huawei Mate 20 Pro smartphone to create the new melodies.

Engineers fed music, in the form of data, into the phone's dual Neural Processing Unit – so the AI had information about the timbre, pitch and meter that Schubert liked to use in his melodies.

The AI then created melodies from that information, and composer Lucas Cantor chose his favourites. He then orchestrated those melodies and turned them into the final two movements to complete Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony.

The new completion was performed on 4 February, in London at Cadogan Hall, in an even presented by Myleene Klass.