GooG DooD

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach

Today we celebrate world renowned German composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach with our first ever AI-powered Doodle! Made in partnership with the Google Magentaand Google PAIR teams, the Doodle is an interactive experience encouraging players to compose a two measure melody of their choice. With the press of a button, the Doodle then uses machine learning to harmonize the custom melody into Bach’s signature music style (or a Bach 80's rock style hybrid if you happen to find a very special easter egg in the Doodle...:)).

The first step in developing the Doodle? Creating a machine learning model to power it. Machine learning is the process of teaching a computer to come up with its own answers by showing it a lot of examples, instead of giving it a set of rules to follow as is done in traditional computer programming. The model used in today's Doodle was developed by Magenta Team AI Resident Anna Huang, who developed Coconet: a versatile model that can be used in a wide range of musical tasks—such as harmonizing melodies or composing from scratch (check out more of these technical details in today’s Magenta blog post).

Specifically, Coconet was trained on 306 of Bach’s chorale harmonizations. His chorales always have four voices, each carrying their own melodic line, while creating a rich harmonic progression when played together. This concise structure made them good training data for a machine learning model.

Next came our partners at PAIR who used TensorFlow.js to allow machine learning to happen entirely within the web browser (versus it running utilizing tons of servers, as machine learning traditionally does). For cases where someone’s computer or device might not be fast enough to run the Doodle using TensorFlow.js, the Doodle is also served with Google’s new Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), a way of quickly handling machine learning tasks in data centers— yet another Doodle first!

These components, combined with art and engineering from the Doodle team, helped create what you see today.

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Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the small German town of Eisenach on this day in 1685 (under the old Julian calendar). He grew up in a large musical family: his father played multiple instruments and also worked as director of the town’s musicians. His eldest brother, also a musician, raised young Bach from the age of 10 after his father’s passing. Primarily known as an exceptional organist during his lifetime, Bach also understood how to build and repair the complex inner mechanisms of pipe organs (which are depicted in today’s interactive Doodle).

Composing music at a prolific pace (sometimes at the rate of one cantata per week!), Bach was a humble man who attributed his success to divine inspiration and a strict work ethic. He lived to see only a handful of his works published, but more than 1,000 that survived in manuscript form are now published and performed all over the world.

Bach’s reputation soared following the 19th century “Bach revival,” as the music world gained new appreciation for his innovative use of four-part harmony, modulations of key, and mastery of counterpoint and fugue. Perhaps the best measure of his legacy is his impact on other artists, ranging from classical to contemporary over the centuries.

Musicians weren’t the only ones affected by Bach’s music, however. After the Voyager 2 deep space probe launched, scientist and author Lewis Thomas suggested that the human race broadcast his music to the outermost reaches of the solar system. “I would vote for Bach, all of Bach,” he wrote. “We would be bragging, of course.”

Here’s to Bach!

Explore the life and legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach by visiting Google Arts & Culture.

-#BachDoodle Team-

Doodle Team

Engineering Lead | Jacob Howcroft

Art Lead | Pedro Vergani

UX Design | Leon Hong

Producer | Colin Duffy

Engineering Support | Ben McMahan, José Montes, Brian Murray, Rebecca Thomas, Jordan Thompson

Marketing & Partnerships Lead | Perla Campos

Business Affairs Lead | Madeline Belliveau

Sound | Silas Hite

Writing support | Elena Skopetos

Doodle Team Leads | Jessica Yu, Brian Kaas, Ryan Germick

Volunteer Engineering Support | Raven Black, Luca Chiarandini, Stephanie Tung

Art Support | Mattias Breitholtz

Google AI Teams

Program Manager | Lauren Hannah-Murphy

ML Research | Anna Huang, Curtis Hawthorne, Adam Roberts

TensorFlow.js Engineering | James Wexler, Ann Yuan, Daniel Smilkov, Nikhil Thorat

ML Serving Engineering | Haiming Bao, Christer Leusner, Alejandro Lince, Vinu Rajashekhar, Steven Ross, Sean Sechrist, Christina Sorokin

TPU Engineering | Todd Wang

Product Manager | Chris Han

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-#BachDoodle Team-

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Tunisia National Day 2019

Today’s Doodle celebrates National Day in Tunisia, a country whose culture—from ancient amphitheaters to medieval mosques and Mediterranean-influenced cuisine—reflects its dynamic history.

The northernmost country in Africa, Tunisia became a French Protectorate in 1883. In the 1890s, several French-educated Tunisian nationalists began pushing for reforms, and in 1907 launched the newspaper Le Tunisien in support of their cause. The year 1920 saw the establishment of the Destour Party, which represented the first attempt at mass political organization.

Tunisia gained its independence on March 20, 1956, choosing Habib Bourguiba, an early leader of the liberation movement, as its first prime minister. In past years, Tunisians have gathered for parades and folk music performances on Habib Bourguiba Avenue during National Day, while politicians have historically laid wreaths in tribute. The Tunisian flag, with its iconic crescent moon and five-point star—as shown in today's Doodle—will fly high in both the capital and small towns alike, as families and friends join together in celebration.

Happy National Day, Tunisia!

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Netherlands Elections 2019

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Gamila El Alaily’s 112th Birthday

Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Egyptian poet and essayist Gamila El Alaily. Born in Mansoura, Dakahlia on this day in 1907, El Alaily was one of the leading women of Egypt’s modern art renaissance. A passionate writer, she became the sole female member of the Apollo Society, an influential group of poets, writers, and artists who came to represent the first wave of modernism in Arab literature.

Encouraged by the work of pioneering poet May Ziadah, El Alaily moved to Cairo and began contributing poetry to the Egyptian literary journal Apollo, which was launched in 1932 by Dr. Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi. The publication was named after the Greek god of poetry, as well as truth, prophecy, healing, light, and the sun—a fitting symbol of the society’s universal vision as well as El Alaily’s Apollonian verse. After consistently contributing to the highly regarded journal, she published The Echo of my Dreams, the first of her three diwans, or volumes of poetry, in 1936. Drawing inspiration from nature, her poetry addressed the themes of love and longing as well as contemplation.

In addition to volumes of verse, El Alaily went on to write a regular column for over a quarter century in her monthly newsletter, addressing ethics, values, and ideals, including her views on the role of women in society. In this respect, as well as her prolific poetic output, she broke new ground for women in the Arab world, inspiring generations of writers to come.

Happy 112th Birthday, Gamila El Alaily!

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Nowruz 2019

At the precise moment the sun crosses the equator, signalling the spring equinox, millions of families all around the world will come together and welcome Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

The 13-day season of festivities that begins on the first day of Farvardin—the first month of the Iranian Hijri calendar—is an ancient celebration that symbolizes nature’s cycle of rebirth and rejuvenation.

Preparations for Nowruz often begin weeks in advance with a thorough house-cleaning, and many children are gifted new clothing or money from older relatives. On the Wednesday before Nowruz you can find people jumping over public bonfires to cleanse for the new year, as well as children going door to door banging on pots with spoons to ask for candy. Families also put together their haftseen table, a household altar holding items symbolizing the spirit of the season. According to tradition, seven items beginning with the number S are arranged on the table, each with its own significance:

—Seeb (apple), for beauty

—Seer (garlic), for health

—Serkeh (vinegar), for patience

—Sonbol (hyacinth), for spring

—Samanu (sweet pudding), for fertility

—Sabzeh (sprouts), for rebirth

—Serkeh (coins), for prosperity

Some families also include sumac for the sunrise and senjed (Lotus fruit), for love. Additional items, such as a mirror for reflection, and a goldfish in a bowl to represent life are often included as well as sweets and fruits. On the 13th day of Nowruz the haftseen is taken down and families enjoy a meal of sabzi polo mahi (seasoned rice with fish) before casting the sabzeh (sprouts) into fresh flowing water to symbolize letting go of all baggage and misfortune from the previous year.

Eide Shoma Mobarak! (Happy Nowruz!)