Google celebrates Bach's birth anniversary with first-ever AI-powered doodle

For this doodle, Google partnered with Google Magenta and Google PAIR teams. It gives an interactive experience and encourages players to come and create a two-measure melody of their choice. Then with the click of a button, it uses machine learning to combine the created melody with Bach's signature style. The model behind today's doodle was trained on 306 of Bach's chorale harmonizations to combine custom melodies.

Bach was born in 1685 in the German town Eisenach. He came from a large family of musicians. His father played multiple instruments and also worked as a director for the musicians in town. His eldest brother was also a musician and raised little Bach from the age of 10 when his father passed away.

Bach was popularly known as an exceptional organist during his lifetime. He also knew how to build and repair the complex inner mechanism of pipe organs. This, too, has been depicted in today's doodle.


The German musician could compose music at a prolific pace, sometimes one cantata in a week. Google Doodle in its note to Bach wrote, "He 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 in the 19th century with 'Bach revival'.