Tech Closeup: Music Professor

[reynouts]

Very cool, David Cope is a man with great ideas!

But the thing that this software can't cope for are the changes of a componist. Bach composed different music/style when he was 15vs25vs35. This music can only be in this scope, not predict what Bach would make if he turned 60. That would be an interesting addition, evolution.

[danielemanuelb]

Why make fake "Mozart" works when there are so many beautiful unplayed works by his contemporaries? There is so much great music that just doesn't get played because it doesn't bear the "Mozart Brand Name".

[WhiteDragon103]

I'm all for computers working alongside humans in the same status as musicians. You people just have to get off your high horse.

[ferdo621]

why the rage? After all music is mathematics, computer are experts at that...then no wonders they would produce good music. "But computers have no souls and creativity and we do". Do we really? Computers run our lives so why can't they HELP us to create music? Cope is not saying that his programm is going to eliminate composers at all. He says that his software is a tool for him. Either way I don't mind computers creating music and I am musician myself too.

[toxictype]

is there some sourcecode available for free somewhere?

[CBIRResearcher]

I would have preferred to have listened to the examples in a blind test. Everything I've heard from Cope sofware's sounded cute but never impressive. His "Mozart" sounds like a parody of Mozart. But I can't tell if I am being prejudiced.

[musicalidea]

@CBIRResearcher I agree completely. The examples of "Mozart" provided in this video lack, in my opinion, the cadence patterns and sustained notes of typical Mozart piano works...it gets the sequence styles, accented passing tones and secondary dominants well, but misses a lot of other idiosyncrasies.

[lollolllolllll]

No wonder classical music is so damn boring, by and large.

[jin12345678]

the compositions sound exactly like what they are. amalgams of styles that amount to not very much.

[charmingemily]

what about mix and match?

demi-mozart and demi-shostakovich

[Mahlercougar]

I have a FONT Designer program that lets you combine 2 different handwriting fonts (say like ARIEL and TIMES ROMAN) and design a Completely NEW font. And you can control the percentages too like 50/50 or 25/75.

But as a composer and being completely interested in DAVID COPES stuff I wondered if styles can be combined as well! Say like Debussy/Wagner -40/60

or Berg/Greig/Strauss 33.33/33.33/33/33

It makes for interesting possibilities if its possible!

[charmingemily]

yea maybe we could email david cope to ask if he doesn that :)

it cost about 150 US dollars to customize a piece (accordihng to his website) and i'm still considering abt getting one

i'd certainly pay for a combine piece

[khattamshud]

how depressing

[Mahlercougar]

When I was first introduced to David Copes First CD around 1988/1989 I was indeed kind of frustrated in thinking that. Is this IT for the composer?It depressed me into thinking that all the Hard work and effort I do to compose, symphonies,Operas, piano pieces would be long gone.But after Listening to David and reading lots of articles about him David himself said that this EMI program was *not* created to replace the composer but to be used as a tool for the composer as well as music enthusiasts

[Mahlercougar]

(contd) BUT... Imagine if you Heard *EVERY* single Mozart symphony of EVERYthing your fav composer wrote and there was nothing left. How cool would it be to, Check out a Completely *NEW* symphony or NEW work by your (long dead.for ex) composer and have an endless well of pieces to keep a person so happy? I kind of like that Idea.

Also David said that this program could be used in the case of a composers untimely death or unfinished work.

[Mahlercougar]

In one of his EMI CDs he used an unfinished work by Prokofiev(Ibelieve)who died before completing it.Prokofiev only wrote 44 measures before he died.DCope took the 44 measures and compared them to the other 3 Piano concertos that he wrote and basically "Finished"the unfinished piece.

While I believe that a composer could do something unexpected that the program couldn't predict or analyze like,Slamming your forearm in the middle of ur piece and writing that in;the program offers a great solution

[IsaacIsaiahMusic]

-That and some fine cyber-whores!

[IsaacIsaiahMusic]

Electronic forms of life are emerging and will soon dominate all aspects of life on Earth. We ourselves will become partly electronic. It is the next stage in our evolution. But as soon as computers are able to design themselves, they will become faster and ever smarter. Complexity will automatically bring forth chaotic programs and thus 'non-linear thought', thereby facilitating creative thought. This may seem a long way off, but remember: COMPUTERS DON'T NEED REST!

[fmk86]

It's amazing that David Cope do this with the music by learning machines...