FROM EXPERIMENTS IN MUSICAL
INTELLIGENCE TO EMILY HOWELL
The Work of David Cope
CAREER CONTEXT
The composer
… Professor at UC Santa Cruz
… Author of books on
Musical intelligence (6)
Twentieth-century music (2)
… Teacher Algorithmic composition
20th-century analytical methods
… Composer Uses several mediums
Writes works in groups, cycles
Recent works are assisted by Emily Howell
The programs… EMI (Exp Mus Int)
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EXPERIMENTS IN MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE
1990-2006
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DATA ANALYSIS PHASE
Select a repertory (one composer, one genre)
Encode several pieces
Parse them into five elements of musical grammar
… Statements
… Preparations
… Extensions
… Antecedents
… Consequents
Discover and store “signatures” (identify “earmarks”)
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SIGNATURES IN THE SPEAC GRAMMAR
Are relatively short (2-5 events)
Are shorter than themes
Are stored with approach and departure info
Are described by intervallic relationships
Are not described by key or mode
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LISTENING TO SPEAC EXAMPLES
Bach invention
Joplin rag
Mozart Violin Concerto, movement 3
Gershwin
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COMPOSING NEW WORKS
User selects a composer
User selects a genre
User selects a key and mode
User selects a meter
Emmy generates one (or many) new work(s)
User discards what he does not want
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WAYS OF EXPERIENCING EMMY
Listening to MIDI performances
Listening to live performances
Viewing the notated music
Performing the music
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/mp3page.htm
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REACTIONS TO EMI
From MIDI files
“mechanical”
Too fast
Too slow
Too soft
Too loud
Not human
From live concerts
That’s by a computer?
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Emmy-Beethoven Symphony
COMPUTER MODELS AND HIDDEN STRUCTURE
2005-2009
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COMPUTER MODELS OF MUSICAL CREATIVITY
Initiates process of signature capture from interactive user responses
Evolves its own lexicons
Models broader processes of grammatically-founded processes including
… Speech
… Poetry
… Lyrics
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HIDDEN STRUCTURE
Takes comprehensive view of 20th-century analytical concepts
Makes them available for compositional algorithms
… Post-tonal music
… Generative algorithms
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EMILY HOWELL2010—
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EMILY HOWELL
Debuted in March 2010
Represents the second incarnation of Emmy
Composes modern, original music
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/
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PIECES BY EMILY HOWELL
From Darkness, Light
Land of Stone
Shadow Worlds
http://www.centaurrecords.com/
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