Beethoven’s unfinished symphony finished by AI

Musicians, historians and scientists join forces to ‘create something that Beethoven himself might have written’

Beethoven statue in Germany
(Image credit: Getty Images)

One of history’s most famous composers will deliver a new work from beyond the grave next week - with a little help from a team of modern-day composers, musicologists and computer scientists.

Beethoven began what would have been his tenth symphony in the final years of his life. But poor health prevented him from completing more than a few musical sketches before his death at the age of 56, in 1827.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.