David Cope
Professor of Music University of California, Santa Cruz howell@cats.ucsc.edu
David Cope was born in San Francisco, California on May 17, 1941. Following early study on piano (including an extensive performance career) and violoncello, he completed degrees in composition at Arizona State University and the University of Southern California studying with George Perle, Halsey Stevens, Ingolf Dahl and Grant Fletcher. His over seventy published compositions have received thousands of performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, including those by the Vermont, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Cabrillo Festival, and Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestras, as well as numerous university orchestras and wind ensembles. Twenty-one of Cope's works appear on recordings including Variations (piano and wind orchestra; Cornell University), Re-Birth (concert band), Concert (piano and orchestra, Mary Jane Cope, soloist) and Threshold and Visions (orchestra). Complete albums of his music appear on Folkways (2), Opus One and Discant Records and include a wide diversity of works from large ensembles to soloists with electronic and computer-generated tape.
Steven Mamula writes about Cope's work in a definitive article in the American Record Guide (May, 1982):
"David Cope is unquestionably one of this generation's most ambitious, prolific and multifarious composers. His music in a large measure is marked by tension, achieved through sharply dissonant, sustained tonal clusters, sporadic and impulsive phrasing, and wide skips in the linear movement. His textures are transparent, though not always sparse, and rhythms seem to fall at extremes: either subtle and almost not pulsating, or fiercely aggressive with frequent juxtapositions of both. David Cope's Concert For Piano and Orchestra (1980) exemplifies much of this essence. The work contains several passages that are a multilayering of single note drones played in succession by individual instruments. A crescendo builds as each instrument enters, creating an anxiety that approaches the teeth-grinding level. Much as in serial music, repose is achieved here not by succeeding dissonance with consonance, but rather by succeeding dissonance with lesser degrees of dissonance. The piano serves a minimal but judicious role, delivering angular, single line statements marked with huge leaps, and brief, repeated arpeggiations in the upper register that together produce a striking antithesis to the orchestral fabric. During the work's latter half, a furious, single note figure erupts at the piano's bottom end, which churns in syncopation soon imitated by numerous percussion instruments, followed by powerful crescendos in brass lines.
"For the past three years Cope has also been involved with creating a massive work (two hours) for single performer. The composer became interested in finding a place that he loved and that fascinated him, exploring its history, lore, religions, etc., and then creating a piece from that intimacy. Canyon de Chelley in Arizona has been such a place for him. He began by studying all published material on the Canyon's archaeological roots and art history (Anasazi art, petroglyphs primarily), as well as learning as much of the Navajo language as possible, then went to live for a time in the Canyon, exploring it thoroughly and continuously sketching musical ideas from the mountain of research. Also, during this time he built many instruments (not as a craftsman but as a composer, i.e., instruments not beautiful or masterful, since some contained only one note). Some were made with materials such as prayer stones and sheepbone mallets, though very few artifacts were removed and all with permission. Cope declares '...slowly but surely a piece is emerging, one so personal and intensely real that 'performance' hardly describes the results.' The title of his cosmically ambitious work is THE WAY."
Cope has received numerous awards including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, fifteen ASCAP standard Panel Awards, Composers' Forum (New York City) recital award, Houston Composers Symposium Award and numerous university grants. He has been guest composer/lecturer at over thirty universities. His New Directions in Music now appears in its sixth edition with positive reviews so numerous they have become prohibitive to reprint. New Music Composition, containing over 300 original musical examples composed specifically for the book, and New Music Notation, continue to be used as standard reference tools. His book Computers and Musical Style describes the computer program EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence) which he created in 1982. The program functions by inheriting a composer's style and then composing new music in that style. For more information on how EMI creates new compositions see: Computers and Musical Style, (A-R Editions, 1991), "Recombinant Music: Using the Computer to Explore Musical Style" (Computer, July, 1991), or "Computer Modeling of Musical Intelligence" (Computer Music Journal, Summer, 1992).
EMI's music is available on a Centaur Records CD (CRC 2184) called "Bach by Design" This CD includes 5 EMI-Bach inventions, an EMI-Bach fugue and chorale, an EMI-Mozart Sonata and overture, an EMI-Chopin Mazurka, an EMI-Brahms Intermezzo, an EMI-Joplin Rag, an EMI-Bart_k "mikrokosmos", an EMI-Prokofiev sonata and an EMI work in the style of its creator, David Cope. All works are performed by the program via a Yamaha Disklavier.
EMI works for larger ensembles include Horizons for orchestra in the style of David Cope, and Mozart, an opera with libretto consisting of letters by W. A. Mozart, a symphony and piano concerto, all in the style of Mozart. A video called Bach Lives...at David Cope's House describes many of the methods EMI uses to replicate new examples of music and includes live performances of works for fortepiano, flute, organ, and choir. For further information on EMI contact David Cope at howell@cats.ucsc.edu.
A SELECTED EMI BIBLIOGRAPHY
* Cope, David. "Experiments in Music Intelligence." In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, San Francisco: Computer Music Association, 1987.
* ------ Computers and Musical Style. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1991.
* ------ "An Expert System for Computer-Assisted Music Composition." Computer Music Journal 11,4 (Winter, 1987): 30-46.
* ------ "Music and LISP." AI Expert 3,3 (March, 1988): 26-34.
* ------ "Recombinant Music." COMPUTER. (July, 1991).
* ------ "Computer Simulations of Musical Style." Computers in Music Research, The Queens University of Belfast, 7-10 (April 1991): 15-17.
* ------ "On the Algorithmic Representation of Musical Style." In Musical Intelligence, M. Balaban, K. Ebcioglu, and O. Laske, eds. Menlo Park, Calif.: AAAI Press, 1992.
* ------ "Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI): Non-Linear Linguistic-Based Composition." Interface 18,1-2 (1989): 117-139.
* ------ New Directions in Music. 6th ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm C. Brown, Co., 1991.
* ------ "Pattern Matching as an Engine for the Computer Simulation of Musical Style." In Proceedings of the 1990 International Computer Music Conference. San Francisco: Computer Music Association, 1990.
* ------ "A Computer Model of Music Composition." In Machine Models of Music, Stephan Schwanauer and David Levitt, eds. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1992.
* ------ Experiments in Musical Intelligence. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1996.
* ------ "Computer Modeling of Musical Intelligence in EMI." Computer Music Journal 16,2 (Summer, 1992): 69-83.
Listing of works/writings by David Cope
OPERAS * Cradle Falling (1985) * Mozart (1992)
WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA * Contrasts (1966) * Music for Brass and Strings (1967) * Streams (1973) * Concerto (1976) * Threshold and Visions (1977) * Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1980) * Afterlife (1982) * Dedications (1994) * Horizons (1994)
WORKS FOR WIND ENSEMBLE * Variations (1965) * Re-Birth (1975)
WORKS FOR BRASS CHOIR * Requiem for Bosque Redondo (1974)
WORKS FOR STRING ORCHESTRA * Tragic Overture (1960)
WORKS FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE * Five Pieces (1965) * Towers (1968) * The Deadliest Angel Revision (1970) * Dragoon (1972) * Margins (1972) * Koosharem (1973) * Vortex (1976) * Vectors (1976) * The Way (1981) * Corridors of Light (1983)
WORKS FOR STRING QUARTET * String Quartet 1 (1960) * String Quartet 2 (1963) * In Memoriam (1991)
WORKS FOR FLUTE * Cycles (1969) * Triplum (1973)
WORKS FOR OBOE * Indices (1973)
WORKS FOR CLARINET * Three Pieces (1965)
WORKS FOR SAXOPHONE * Probe 3 (1971) * Clone (1975) * Concerto (1976)
WORKS FOR BASSOON * Three Pieces (1966)
WORKS FOR HORN * Sonata (1964)
WORKS FOR TRUMPET * Bright Angel (1972) * Extensions (1973) * FMS (1975)
WORKS FOR TROMBONE * Three Pieces (1966) * B.T.R.B. (1971)
WORKS FOR TUBA * Spirals (1972)
WORKS FOR HARP * Ceremonies (1979)
WORKS FOR PERCUSSION * Obelisk (1970) * Ashes (1972 - voice and percussion)
WORKS FOR VIOLIN * Angel's Camp II (1972) * Paradigm (1974)
WORKS FOR VIOLONCELLO * Sonata (1964) * Arena (1974) * Rituals (1976)
WORKS FOR CONTRABASS * Alternatives (1969) * Cycles (flute and bass - 1969) * Cedar Breaks (1972)
WORKS FOR CHOIR * A Christmas for Dismas (1967) * Tyger, Tyger (1985)
SONG LITERATURE * Three Songs for Soprano and Piano (1960) * Three Songs (1962) * Five Songs for Tenor/Harpsichord (1963) * Five Songs (1965) * Ashes (1972 - voice and percussion) * Vectors (1976) * Songs from the Navajo (1995)
WORKS FOR PIANO * Soundpiece (1959) * Three 2-Part Inventions (1960) * Piano Sonata 1 (1960) * Piano Sonata 2 (1960) * Piano Sonata 3 (1962) * Variations (piano and wind orchestra - 1965) * Piano Sonata 4 (1967) * Iceberg Meadow (1968) * Parallax (1974) * Glassworks (1978) * Concert (1980) * The Well-Tempered Disklavier (1991)
WORKS FOR ORGAN * Or (1976)
FILM SCORES * Out (1981)
INCIDENTAL MUSIC * Richard II (1986)
ELECTRONIC MUSIC * The Birds (1968) * Teec Nos Pos (1975) * K (1972) * Weeds (1972)
EMI COMPOSITIONS * Albinoni Adagio (1987) * Bach Chorale (1987) * Bach Fugue (1987) * 15 Bach Inventions (1987-96) * Bach/Barber Adagio (1987) * Bart÷k Kosmos (1988) * Beethoven Sonata (1994) * Bielawa Gone For It (1996) * Brahms Intermezzo (1988) * C.P.E. Bach Sonata (1988) * Chopin Mazurka 1 (1988) * Chopin Mazurka 2 (1996) * Cope Vacuum Genesis (1988) * Cope Horizons (1995) * Debussy Preludes (1988) * Dedications (1994) * Four Songs (Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss: 1996) * Gershwin Prelude (1988) * Joplin Rag 1 (1988) * Joplin Rag 2 (1996) * Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1995) * Mozart Opera (1992) * Mozart in Bali (1988) * Mozart Sonata (1987) * Mozart String Quartet (1993) * Mozart Symphony (1995) * Palestrina Kyrie (1987) * Prokofiev Sonata (1987) * Rachmaninoff Suite (1994) * Schumann Childhood Scene (1994) * Stravinsky Sacre (1987)
BOOKS * Notes in Discontinuum (1970) * New Music Notation (1976) * New Music Composition (1976) * New Directions In Music (199) * Computers and Musical Style (1991) * Experiments in Musical Intelligence (1996)
ARTICLES * "Chronicles of a Cause" (1969) * "An Interview with Pierre Boulez" (1969) * "The Post Avant Garde" (1972) * "An Interview with Halsey Stevens" (1973) * "A View of Electronic Music" (1975) * "Approach to Electronic Composition" (1975) * "New Music Notation" (1976) * "Electronically Processed Sound" (1976) * "Modulations" (1977) * "Electronic Music" (1977) * "The Total Piano" (1979) * "An Interview with John Cage" (1980) * "The Last Rights" (1981) * "Biography of George Crumb" (1986) * "Experiments in Musical Intelligence" (1987) * "Computer-Assisted Composition" (1987) * "Music and LISP" (1988) * "Music: the Universal Language." (1988) * "Non-linear Linguistic Composition" (1989) * "Pattern Matching as an Engine for the Computer Simulation of Musical Style." (1990) * "Computer Simulations of Musical Style" (1991) * "Recombinant Music" (1991) * "Algorithmic Representation of Musical Style." (1992) * "A Computer Model of Composition." (1992) * "An Approach to Musical Intelligence." (1992) * "Virtual Music" (1994)
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Cradle Falling
1985, soprano solo and chamber orchestra (1,1,1,1 hn, trb, 2 perc, 2 pf, harp, 1,1,2,1), Composer, 60'
"The good news was the score by Cope and the performance of it by Ms. Burrs and the instrumentalists drawn from the UR student body and community. It was most moving. "Cradle Falling" unquestionably is a modern masterpiece."
Francis Church, Richmond News Leader, December 1, 1989
"Her haunting incantation of "White Snow Falling" was a supreme dramatic moment, punctuated by the captivating beat of drums. With the gong and trombone accompanying the circle of flashing lights, one definitely felt this was a close encounter...this performance had to be the artistic zenith for UR's instrumentalists."
John McKay, Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 1, 1989 _________________________________________________________________
Mozart
1992, an opera in 5 acts based on letters by W. A. Mozart, tenor solo and chamber orchestra (2,2,2,2,2 hn, 2 tpt, 4,4,2,2) also in arrangement for voice/piano or fortepiano, 1', Composer (EMI) _________________________________________________________________
Dedications
1994, 2,2,3,2 2,1,3 hp,pf,perc. str., Composer, 20' _________________________________________________________________
Horizons
1994, 2,2,2,2 2,1,2 hp,pf,2perc. str., Composer, 12' _________________________________________________________________
Re-Birth
1975, concert band, Seesaw Music, 16', recorded on Cornell 17
"...most interesting was David Cope's Re-Birth. This work consists of carefully shaped contrasts in rhythm, in timbre, between chordal and lyrical textures, between tonality and atonality to excellent effect.
Larry Lohmann, Cornell Daily Sun, March 10, 1975 _________________________________________________________________
Corridors of Light
1983, original instruments on tape, Composer, 17' _________________________________________________________________
The Way
1981, original instruments, Composer, 17', recorded on Opus One #82
"Cope performed solo on a miniature orchestra of found and self-made instruments that included wine glasses, gongs, pipes, human voice, harmonica and much more. After cajoling his wine glasses into harmony with the room's atmosphere, Cope proceeded to delicately invoke a wilderness of haunting sound imagery from his ethereal clan of timbres. Both songs floated along subconscious tributaries, dispelling expectations around every bend and developing cryptic patterns from the dream realm."
Philip Collins, Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 6, 1983
"The music of David Cope has continuously satisfied my taste buds and this massive monument is no exception. The Way is a setting of small ensembles for a single performer, representing personal ideals, with poetic texts for 'art' songs. The work is highly structured with exact notation, though one might feel the presence of an improvised manner."
Jack M. Shusterman, Composers Recording Society Newsletter, Fall/Winter, 1983-4
"David Cope's books about new music are as concise, complete, and readable as any I know. He has the wonderful gift of making comprehensible the wide variety of trends that characterize music in the late 20th century. As a composer, Cope follows this tradition by loading his pieces with more instruments, techniques, and ideas than one generally hears in one composer's entire output. Surprisingly, it all holds together somehow; perhaps some of the unity can be ascribed to the personal involvement of Cope and family in the execution. In The Way, a work inspired by a canyon on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, Cope sings and plays panpipes, glass harmonica, piano-harp, tamtams, gongs, organ, and chimes plus more, 52 in all (a music box, I assume, plays itself). The sound of all this suggests electronics and tape superimposition, but neither is present: all the music is produced simultaneously by the composer/performer."
Fanfare, Sect.-Oct., 1983
"Adventurous ears will discover brilliant overtures from unfamiliar realms in this recently released album of David Cope's work. The Way is a religious work that merges Cope's compositional practices. The soundscape is wholly unconventional, drawing upon a vast gamut of acoustical timbres: bowed, blown, struck and spoken. With music that journeys into a cosmos of uncharted sonic terrains, Cope delves into the veiled power and lore of the Navajo's 'tseghi' canyon in Arizona. The strong devotional quality of the work transcends mere ritual and imparts a highly personal mysticism."
Philip Collins, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jan. 6, 1984 _________________________________________________________________
Vectors
1976, baritone, electronics and ensemble (3 perc, fl, trb), Composer, 20'
"The score required that the two halves of the audience, having sung themselves hoarse in competitive choruses, be abruptly overrun by little league sports kids and flag brandishing boy-scout troupes and that the Performing Arts Theatre be volcanically filled with billowing clouds of acrid brown smoke as a coda. As we all staggered, coughing and weeping and laughing into the sudden calm of the redwood night outside, I knew we had enjoyed an experience that was absolute rock-bottom Santa Cruz, inimitable and unrepeatable."
Reyner Banham, Arts at Santa Cruz, Fall, 1981 _________________________________________________________________
Vortex
1976, fl, trb, pf, and 3 perc., Composer, 16', recorded on Folkways FTS 33869
"Vortex is tightly knit, revolving quickly and confidently around a tiny core of intervallic ideas. Cope is as imaginative with rhythmic surface as he is with large scale proportion; his patterns both arrest and propel, and his contrapuntal textures bristle with activity. An immensely satisfying work on first hearing, Vortex establishes Cope as a healthy compositional force in our midst."
Nancy Maltz, The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 24, 1977
"The exploratory urge is present and it produces winning musical instances."
Peter Riley, Musics (London), May, 1977 _________________________________________________________________
Koosharem: A Ceremony of Innocence
1973, cl, cb, perc and pf, Seesaw Music, 12'
"This 12 minute work is substantial and professional, if not sensational."
Tom Johnson, Village voice, May, 1973
"There were highs, of course, among them David Cope's Koosharem: A Ceremony of Innocence, which captured a mysterious mood through whispered and croaked words in the style of George Crumb's 'Echoes of Time and the River."
Donald Henahan, New York Times, May 10, 1973
"David Cope's Koosharem: A Ceremony of Innocence is an ensemble work al la George Crumb, but much more interesting, as music, than a lot of Crumb's works. Whatever the specific ritual of the title, it is certainly ceremonial in the abstract." _________________________________________________________________
Margins
1972, tpt, vc, perc, 2 pf, Carl Fischer, 12', recorded on Orion ORS 75169
"...fascinating passage in which a lyrical duet for trumpet and 'cello was accompanied by jagged cacophony from the piano and percussion..."
Allen Hughes, New York Times, May 7, 1972
"Pointillistic and shadowy detail applied to a mini-orchestra of trumpet, cello, percussion, and two pianos. The concentration of the material and the flitting aspects of the timbre play are intensely articulated."
Arthur Cohn, A Guide to Recorded Music, p.428
"The score is very clearly marked, a helpful aid, as this composition is very complex. The style is quite percussive, yet there seems to be a general flow to the work. Very sensitive and delicate musical fragments appear."
Robert Levy, The Brass World, vol. 8, No. 2 _________________________________________________________________
Dragoon
1972, mixed ensemble and projections, Schirmer Books, 14' _________________________________________________________________
The Deadliest Angel Revision
1970, fl, vc, 2 pf, actor, projections, Seesaw Music, 21'
"David Cope's multimedia piece, The Deadliest Angel Revision.....is notable for its use of light and shadow, contrast and shock."
Wilma Salisbury, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 8, 1971
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Towers
1968, mixed ensemble, Media, 15'
"The music was subtle and effete, the total shape of the piece being a simple crescendo and diminuendo but filled with the most provocatively delightful sounds...marvelous to hear...the organ and its repertoire will indeed be revitalized by these rich creative forces of vitality and imagination."
Leonard Raver, Music, Dec., 1971
"The performing of TOWERS proved the impressive invention and extraordinary artistic taste of the MW2 musicians."
Ewa Kofin, Slowa Polskie (Poland), Jan. 3, 1971 _________________________________________________________________
5 Pieces
1965, flute, bassoon and violin, Seesaw Music, 7' _________________________________________________________________
Ceremonies
1979, solo harp, Composer, 11' _________________________________________________________________
Obelisk
1970, percussion ensemble, Media Press, 15' _________________________________________________________________
Ashes
1972, soprano and percussion, Media Press, 8'
"Something strong and unique is going on in Cope's music... Ashes is basically an avant- garde vocalise which Catherine Rowe projected especially well..."
Tom Johnson, Village Voice, Feb. 14, 1974 _________________________________________________________________
Tyger, Tyger
1975, SSAA, Composer, 9' _________________________________________________________________
Songs from the Navajo
1995, sopr, cl, va, vc, hp, perc. pf, 13', Composer _________________________________________________________________
Concert piano and orchestra
1980, piano and orchestra (1,1,1,1,cb 2,1,2 hp, org, perc, str), Composer, 29' (recorded on Opus One #82)
"The musicianship of Cope is well projected in the overall orchestration and solo work. Though Cope's music is generally of the avant garde school, it is the quality kind, such as the never ending gift of Foss and Dallapiccola and also Rochberg. The music is dramatic."
Jack Shusterman, Composers Recording Society News, Fall-Winter, 1983-4
"Concert is gestural rather than melodic per se and achieves striking effects through a deft deployment of contemporary orchestration techniques. The course of motion follows a relentlessly defiant logic that intrigues and bewilders, unfolding with a momentum so intense that at times you may feel compelled to dial 911. Cope carries the force of the score with a precision that is both lyrical and riveting."
Philip Collins, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jan. 6, 1984
"Concert is a piano concerto, occasionally lyrical, it is mostly expectant, suspenseful. Certainly it is nearly encyclopedic in its collection of the very latest compositional and instrumental techniques, but it is also musically cohesive. Each movement leads to the next, and despite the diversity of numerous individual moments, the result sounds purposeful and unified."
Fanfare, Sept.-Oct., 1983 _________________________________________________________________
The Well-Tempered Disklavier
1991, 48 preludes and fugues for keyboard, disklavier (MIDI) with 0-4 live performers, 4 hrs, Composer _________________________________________________________________
Richard II
1986, original instruments, Composer, 2' 20", incidental music for the production by Shakespeare Santa Cruz
"..in Shakespeare/Santa Cruz's current production of "Richard II," music offers a vivid and indelible force to the dramatic whole, a voice not easily ignored."
Philip Collins, Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 22, 1986
"...powerful drums, gongs and chimes are applied at strategic moments to punctuate the darker turns of plot."
Jamie S. Cackler, Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 1, 1986 _________________________________________________________________
The Birds
1968, live electronics, Media Press, 7' _________________________________________________________________
Teec Nos Pos
1975, electronic tape, Composer, 9', recorded on Folkways 33869
"Teec Nos Pos is a striking, quasi montage of live and electronically altered sounds."
Paul Turok, Music Journal, March, 1977 _________________________________________________________________
K
1972, tape and projections, Composer, 19', recorded on Discant 1297 "We were very impressed with this record. I personally found K especially convincing and enjoyable."
Oskar Danton, Soundsrare, Toronto, 6/9/71
"With this recording and with K in particular, Mr. Cope proves that 'musique concrete' remains a viable process in sound composition."
Galen Wilson, Composer Magazine, Fall 1971
"K seemed an imaginative and seriously intended work."
Robert Finn, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feb. 24, 1973
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Weeds
1972, tape and dancers, Composer, 18', recorded on Discant 1297
"This is an extraordinary record in which one's enjoyment and involvement increases with familiarity. It is all a great mystical and dramatic experience, as well as a musical one. People who equate spiritual associations with music will be turned on by Weeds."
Tom Everett, Cadence, The American Review of Music, March, 1976
"What an extraordinary recording! Weeds may stand as is. The simple idea is masterfully realized and the result is charming, a sort of chorale prelude."
Galen Wilson, Composer Magazine, Fall 1971
"An affirmation of the universe, a rejection of naysaying."
Donal Henahan, The New York Times, Dec. 24, 1970 - Review of Yes, from which Weeds was derived. _________________________________________________________________
Concerto
1976, tenor sax and orchestra (2,2,2,2 4,3,3 str, 2 perc), Composer, 12'
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COMPUTERS AND MUSICAL STYLE.
Reviewers comments on Computers and Musical Style by David Cope: "Cope's book presents a computer program with great potential for the careful study and precise analysis of musical styles. It should, therefore, be of real interest to both music theorists and music historians." - Leonard B. Meyer, Professor Emeritus, The University of Pennsylvania author of Style and Music
"Cope's new book is a fascinating account of his work in automatic composition. Drawing on his knowledge of computer science and linguistics as well as of music theory, he has created a computer program capable of simulating diverse musical styles. The potential is great not only for composition but for musicological style analysis." - Fred Lerdahl, Professor of Music Columbia University coauthor of A Generative Theory of Tonal Music
"This book has value across many areas of musical interest. It is a serious attempt to address the issues in finding the fundamental building blocks of musical style. Because Cope's theories have been put to the test and implemented in a computer program one is able to evaluate the success of his methods, a circumstance that makes this a practical contribution to our understanding of music." - Michael Casey, Notes, March 1993
"News of David Cope's pioneering work in the simulation of historical repertoires has been circulated in such fields as electronic composition and artificial intelligence for several years. This publication, a detailed explanation of the thought processes that shape the software that generates the simulations, not only makes the subject accessible to musicologists and music theorists but also brings practitioners of these diverse disciplines into a common forum." Eleanor Selfridge-Field Journal of the American Musicological Society Volume XLV, No. 3, 1992
"Strawn . . . wrote " 'The interdisciplinary challenges to the reader underline the advantage of the cross-fertilization between technology and the arts. Each learns from the other; both are hereby enriched. I hope that David Cope's book will be a springboard for deep and fruitful discussions in both areas.' The four reviewers agree with Strawn's statements and have enjoyably confirmed his hope. ..we recommend the book to all and suggest that, because of its scope, it would provide a fine basis for a seminar or group study." Richard Brush, Michael Hauser, Glenn Spencer and Jim Standish The Computer Music Journal Volume 17, No. 1, Spring 1993
"Composers, theorists, musicologists, and programmers should all find David Cope's book, Computers and Musical Style, to be an excellent resource for information and inspiration . . . If the success of a book is measured by its ability to stimulate creative activity, then this book is a triumph." Timothy Kloth Computers in Music Research, Volume 4, Fall 1992.
"The results, on the whole, seem very encouraging, although it is abundantly clear that there is still much research to be carried out before such computer models of musical style can achieve the hoped-for objectives. What does emerge from this discourse is that statistical methods of analysis can unmask aspects of musical style that are often not identified by more traditional procedures and thus of considerable general interest quite apart from any generative applications." Peter Manning Music and Letters, Volume 74, No. 1, February 1993
COMPUTERS AND MUSICAL STYLE
by David Cope
Computer Music and Digital Audio Series, Vol. 6
Author: David Cope Title: Computers and Musical Style Publisher: A-R Editions, Inc. Series: Computer Music and Digital Audio Series, vol. 6 Date of Publication: October 1991 ISBN: 0-89579-256-7 Price: $45.95 Hardcover Pages:xvii + 246 pp.
Description:
On the basis of his research in artificial intelligence, composer David Cope demonstrates that computers can compose good music. Cope furnishes a step-by-step guide for analyzing and replicating musical style using his computer program, EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence). His computer compositions in the style of Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and others sound new and yet alarmingly familiar. He then shows how today's composers can use EMI.
CONTENTS: * A Brief Background of Automated Music Composition * Musical Style Representations * LISP Programming * Style Replication * Musical Examples * Computer-Assisted Composition
Comment:
"Cope's work may be the first to bring to the broader community of scholars a host of issues that have been hotly discussed by biotechnology and artificial intelligence researchers in recent years . . . It is an original and important undertaking that deserves the attention of all who share this interest."
Eleanor Selfridge-Field Journal of the American Musicological Society
BACH LIVES!... AT DAVID COPE'S HOUSE
25 minutes, color video
"4 stars" "Extremely interesting...and well-made. The audio quality, critical in such a production, is excellent." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries.
Awarded the Red Ribbon at the American Film and Video Festival "An excellent production overall - exceptional audio quality...a good addition to a music department...very disturbing in its future implication....outstanding in its organization of ideas and points...spellbinding 'scripting', editing is excellent, compelling interviews...clearly an outstanding documentary." - American Film and Video Festival Jury
"Interesting and easily grasped by anyone with a smattering of computer knowledge, this video would serve well as an introduction to artificial music or an example of creative artificial intelligence." - Library Journal
"A refreshing exploration of musical style that is sure to interest emerging composers and performers. The lively juxtapositions of original masterworks with related EMI compositions, of scientific explanations and emotional reactions, and of human and synthesized performances make this film a welcome adjunct to introductory music history and literature surveys, as well as courses in Twentieth Century and computer music." - Linda Burman-Hall, Professor of Music, University of California, Santa Cruz Artistic Director, Santa Cruz Baroque Festival
"This informative documentary on the work of composer/computer programmer David Cope is an excellent introduction to the computer's ability to mimic known musical styles, and raises issues relevant to any course in which musical style and musical authenticity are examined, in addition to courses on artificial intelligence." - Dr. Fred Cohen Professor of Music, University of Richmond Artistic Director/Conductor, CURRENTS (The Professional New Music Ensemble at the University of Richmond)
Bach Lives!...At David Cope's House concerns composer Cope's venture into artificial intelligence and his great success at getting a computer to write original music that sounds amazingly like Mozart, Bach, Joplin, etc., a feat that has yet to be equalled by any other computer system. The video explicates the technology of the software Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI) in a non-technical manner and takes a critical look at Cope's breakthrough through the eyes of musicians, concertgoers, computer scientists, and educators. They look at EMI's potential as a compositional aid, as a freestanding composer, and as an aid for studying the structure of music. EMI's potential for misuse is also examined.
The documentary shows the computer's works in concert (with human performers), including "EMItations" of pieces by Mozart, Palestrina, and Bach (Chorale and Inventions). EMItations of Gershwin, Joplin, and Cope himself are also featured.
Bach Lives! is a rare opportunity to both see and hear EMI's unique music in performance. Ideal for those interested in music and/or computers. Well-suited to classes in music history, literature, or theory, and to computer courses dealing with artificial intelligence or music applications.
Available in VHS or U-Matic (3/4") video NTSC.
Produced and Directed by Bob Giges. For more information contact otom@cats.ucsc.edu .